Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Need To Re-Frame Trump

 Jon Chait makes a good point that Trump's support among the billionaire class stands in somewhat stark contradiction to his unearned reputation as a populist champion. Like most populists, Trump doesn't really give a damn about the common clay of the new west. Still, as Josh Marshall says, you can't expect your campaign message to make itself. You REALLY can't trust the press to point out that Trump's policy agenda (aside from ending democracy as we know it) is massively inflationary and tilted towards the 1%. 

One advantage Trump has always had is that he's so freaking egregious in his manifest flaws that you can struggle to pick which flaw to attack. Still, I think I would prioritize the following:

- He's a sexual predator who wants to take away birth control. This is both E. Jean Carroll and Stormy Daniels to a degree, plus Dobbs.

- He's an endlessly corrupt tool of the plutocrats. There are his fraud trials and his frequent promises to do their dirty work in exchange for money.

- He hates America. Just listen to him.

That's a pretty solid three targets that have to be hit over and over again.

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