Packing the Rally

   Credit TV journalists for exposing the tactics of Trumpistas as they restricted access to a political rally only to supporters of Donald J. Trump.
   Some 20,000 tickets were distributed for the rally, to be held in a theater in Burlington VT that has a capacity of only 1,400. That total of free tickets was reached on Wednesday evening, 24 hours before the scheduled rally time, but the Trump organization continued to distribute tickets, according to news anchors on the MSNBC network.
 At the door Thursday evening, those who hoped to attend were specifically asked if they were Trump supporters. If they said no, they were turned away on the threat of being arrested for trespassing. Even those who said they were neutral, and only wanted to hear what the Republican candidate said, were refused entry unless they declared their support for Trump.
   Nonetheless, some anti-Trump protesters did get into the theater, presumably by claiming they were supporters, and when they raised their voices to heckle the candidate, Trump ordered them thrown out.
   "Get 'em out," he said from the podium, on camera as TV news networks carried the rally speech live Thursday evening. "Don't give him his coat," Trump added. "Confiscate his coat," he told his security staff as they ousted the protesters. "It's below zero outside, confiscate his coat," he repeated.
   The city of Burlington has a population of 40,000. Burlington is the home town of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.
   Why Trump chose Burlington as a rally site, the largest city in a strongly Democratic site, is an interesting question.
   Consider this possibility: By packing the crowd with his own supporters, drawing them from many miles away, Trump could "prove" his popularity, showing that the crowd packing the rally was overwhelming in his favor. This, in turn, could be extended to "prove" his popularity on a wider scale.
   At root, according to an ancient principle of basic logic, this is the fallacy of composition -- that what is true for one small part of something is true for the whole.
   Credit goes to journalists for exposing this fallacy.