Penance

Paul Campos highlights a New Yorker piece from a dozen years ago about the decision to place Sarah Palin on the ticket with John McCain.  Many have pointed to Palin as the precursor to Trump: a signally stupid populist who plays...OK... on TV but should be nowhere near the levers of power. Everyone kind of knows that when Tucker Carlson plays the stupid populist on Fox, that's an act.  With Palin and Trump, it's not an act. They are the manifestations of Hofstadter's Anti-intellectualism in American History.

What's fascinating is two names in the story who were most responsible for elevating "Barbie Spice" to national prominence: Bill Kristol and Michael Gerson.  One of the most confounding things about Trumpistan is that I find myself agreeing with Kristol and (to a lesser degree) Gerson on their criticisms of the Party of Trump. Anti-Trump support is key, I believe, in taking Trump down hard. Without it, I think Biden can win back Pennsylvania and Michigan (and likely Wisconsin) and probably add Arizona. But if you can mobilize the anti-Trump soft Republicans in the suburbs, the road opens up to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and possibly Texas.

There have been some mea culpas from the likes of Max Boot and Rick Wilson and other anti-Trumpers. There has been some short-sighted wailing and gnashing of teeth from Rose Twitter about how this proves that the Democratic Party is really just the GOP with a modest health care plan. What Rose Twitter and the entire Berniesphere never understood was that winning elections in America requires casting the largest net for votes. In 2024, I fully expect Kristol, Gerson and Jennifer Rubin to back Ben Sasse.  Whatever.  I want their votes in 2020 and maybe flip the Senate decisively.

Trumpism must not only lose in November, it must be discredited. Lindsay Graham said in 2016 "If we nominate Trump we will get killed, and we will deserve it." We need to make that statement a reality. We need Graham to lose his seat in a massive wave.

After that, Kristol and Gerson and Wilson and all the other men who thought they could harness the critical mass of anti-intellectualism in America to get them their tax cuts for the rich will do their penance.  Ideally, that will be watching Joe Biden sign major acts of progressive legislation.  That's their just reward.