After nearly a decade of being forced to take Trump seriously, Democrats increasingly call BS on the whole charade
Sure, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy — a would-be dictator on day one who has called for terminating the U.S. Constitution so he can hold onto power even after losing a free and fair election. But while draped in the rhetoric of populism, Trump and his MAGA movement are not actually popular; the man himself has never won more votes than the person he ran against, a majority of Americans twice rejecting him and his off-putting cult of personality. That he was ever president is more or less because a few thousand swing voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania thought it would be fun.
President Joe Biden won in 2020 largely by promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency. In 2024, Democrats are making a similar argument but more forcibly: They’re pointing, laughing and dismissing Trump and his circus as a total freak show to which we can’t return.
Probably for 2 reasons:
quote “all politicians are corrupt and criminal” so this tactic doesn’t land (look at the dem sensor from NJ)
few people know convicted felons but they do know “old and weird” people, so they can better draw personal parallels
A decent number of people also know people who got railroaded into bullshit legal problems.
It’s also a plausible way out. Someone can convince themself that Trump was not as old and weird 10 years ago, so they did not make a mistake voting for him then
I think the “weird” attribution has a way of infecting his supporters as well.
If you support a criminal, that doesn’t necessarily make you a criminal. If you support a corrupt politician, that doesn’t make you a corrupt politician.
But if you support somebody weird? Well that makes you weird. Trump’s weirdness infects you. It’s the cheese touch of politics.
For a decade now there has been a certain crowd who considers Trump’s criminality and general disregard for truth to be cool in a “gangster” way. Gangsters are leaders.
Weirdos, not so much.
Some were weirdos but they were the creative types of weirdos, not old pervert and couch fucker type of weirdos.
I feel old for remembering the cheese touch… that book was out in elementary school
Yes, that’s probably how it is - pretty sad tho.
The one that we’re forcing out, yes. Not as fast as we got rid of Anthony Weiner, but they’re out.
The worst Dems have at the federal level might be Pelosi making stock trades. You know, like half of congress, but for some reason only she (rightly) gets attention for it. Maybe we should include more people than just Pelosi in that conversation.
Yeah, the nj guy is getting replaced with andy kim who is infinitely better.