Trump's theatre of the absurd will not be penalized
The outrage is the point. Democrats might consider giving him what he wants.
In the need to cast about for a metaphor to normalcy, Democrats and the liberal commentariat have settled upon 2004 and the re-election of George W. Bush, another “accidental” president who was ratified by the popular vote on his second try and carried a cocksure but ultimately misconceived “mandate.” In two years, Democrats flipped Congress on a wave of voter unrest. By 2008, Barack Obama secured 365 Electoral Votes in his romp to the White House, as historians moved to downgrade Bush’s tenure. Because the fog of defeat lifts gradually with time, history is the only near-term remedy.
How the opposition should act in the immediate is the trickier part.
One realization about the 2024 election that Democrats must gargle, swallow and stomach is that a majority of Americans — 75.8 million, in fact — chose this with clear and open eyes. In 2016, it could be argued that candidate Donald Trump would temper his worst impulses once bestowed with the awesome powers of the presidency. One could plausibly say they had been hoodwinked. Then, the risky behavior was the gambit.
Now, norms-busting is the mandate.
Fifty-nine percent of voters told the AP exit poll Trump was too extreme. And yet Kamala Harris was only able to accrue 48% of the vote.
At the outset of his transition, Trump winked at rationality and toyed with the lure of popularism with his appointments of Susie Wiles as chief of staff (sane), Marco Rubio (respected) at State and John Ratcliffe (experienced) as CIA Director. Turns out those were just the carrots in the corner of the appetizer tray at a party that was just starting to uncork.
Pop. 🍾
Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy.
Trump’s main dish has arrived — and taken honestly and in conjunction, they are truly the most authentic representation of Trumpism: Less ideological, more reactionary. The intended jolt of the announcements are just as consequential as the individuals themselves. They are counter-cultural outsiders, rabble-rousers and disrupters far more thoroughly than they are even Republicans or conservatives.
But their elevation in Trumpworld Part Deux should be of little surprise.