Trump's Ugly Politics Of Personal Destruction Isn't Working For Him
Regardless of what congressional Republicans tell their media pals about how the country is with the GOP on the issues, Jonathan Last is certainly right about Trump being unable to fight for the presidency on that battleground. His only plausible battleground— especially with his MAGA followers in mind— is the pig-sty or mud pit. Republicans like to pretend they want Trump to take the high road and fight over issue; but they know he can’t. Personal attacks and school yard shenanigans is all he knows. “In the Wall Street Journal, Gerry Baker warned that Trump was losing because he was being an erratic lunatic: ‘We need to be clear about the problem. It isn’t, as some have suggested, that Trump has been wrong-footed by the Democrats’ switch from Biden to Harris. Nor is it a reflection of accelerated degeneration. The Trump of the past few weeks has looked and sounded more or less exactly like the Trump of nine years ago. This is the problem. It is this Trump who lost the presidency in 2020. It is this Trump who lost the House in 2018 and the Senate in the Georgia runoff election in January 2021. Why did he win in 2016? Because he was new and up against the most tediously familiar and disliked politician in America. Even then, he only squeaked past Hillary Clinton by a total of fewer than 90,000 votes in the three decisive states. All this explains where we are now... Trump’s performances as he traipses around the country again are reinforcing the illusion of that choice. Instead of telling them consistently and repeatedly what they are actually getting if they vote Democrat, he is merely reminding them what they will get again if they vote Republican.’”
Baker is wrong and Last called him out on it: “Trump is doing exactly what he needs to in order to have a chance to beat Kamala Harris. And if Trump were to suddenly start running a disciplined, policy-specific campaign he would almost certainly lose… Trump’s best path to victory goes right through a mud pit and he’s going to do everything possible to drag Kamala Harris into it with him. What does Trump’s electoral coalition look like? He has a hard ceiling at 47 percent of the vote and his coalition is made up disproportionately of low-propensity voters. Low-propensity voter is a euphemism for someone who does not engage in politics at the level of policy. These are people who don’t vote, except for when Trump is on the ballot. And they make up a gigantic share of Trump’s coalition.”
The mud pit is why they vote and why they love Trump— cheap entertainment is their otherwise empty lives. These are people who would like to see elections decided in a wrestling ring. As you know, the outcomes are predetermined and the storylines are scripted and choreographed, but wrestling, a form of entertainment, does involve some real athleticism, risk and genuine physical toll on the performers’ bodies.
Kamala’s campaign has a very different view of how to win between now and November and Katie Glueck calls in leaning into liberty, pointing out how Republicans want to regulate our personal decisions. Walz admonishes Republicans: “I don’t need you telling me what books to read. I don’t need you telling me about what religion we worship. And I sure the heck don’t need you to tell me about my family… There’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business!”
“Democrats, wrote Glueck, “are making an aggressive new effort to challenge Republican claims to the language and symbolism of liberty. Using traditionally right-leaning words and phrasing, they are portraying themselves as the true champions of universal American values, and their conservative rivals as proponents of deeply intrusive policies that threaten fundamental freedoms. For Harris and Walz, those arguments are not quick throwaways— they are central and consistent parts of their pitches, and often among their biggest applause lines. Democrats hope that such messaging can help their party engage independent voters, and the occasional moderate Republican, by establishing common ground on ideals that transcend differences over, say, tax policy.”
The focus on freedom often dovetails with proclamations of patriotism. For Harris, a Black and South Asian Democrat who could become the nation’s first female president, that is also a way to assert and define her own American experience as she runs against a Republican who has a history of exoticizing and is already questioning her racial identity.
…Democrats say the transformation of the Republican Party has become only more apparent since the 2020 election: Trump tried to overturn his loss. The Supreme Court, propelled by justices he nominated, erased the constitutional right to abortion, leading to far-reaching abortion bans in many states and painful stories of women facing severe health complications. Trump became the first American president to be convicted of a crime and suggested that he had no intention of being a dictator— “except for Day 1.”
“The Republican Party used to embrace ideals of freedom, democracy, rule of law,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Walz’s fellow Minnesotan. “The language, the focus, the party of Donald Trump have turned it upside down.”
…Harris and Walz are embracing the freedom message at every turn, lashing government encroachment on issues of “heart and home,” as Harris has said. The Minnesota governor’s “mind your own damn business” line often comes after he says that Republicans think “the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office.”
But more broadly, they are also pressing an upbeat, unabashedly patriotic vision for the country, with Harris casting their partnership— forged despite two radically different upbringings in California and Nebraska— as an “only in America” story.
…Klobuchar suggested that for Harris, a former prosecutor, and Walz, who represented a largely rural, more conservative district in Congress, talking about upholding the rule of law or protecting individual freedoms came naturally— and that the themes were all too relevant in the current election.
“The words are not just words that have been co-opted,” Klobuchar said. “They’re words that actually describe where our party is versus where their party is right now.”
And… they’re pushing forward with popular economic plans like reducing drug prices and inflation and building— leaked as a trial balloon yesterday— building 3 million new housing units in her first term along with a tax incentive for builders who construct properties for first-time home buyers. and more-- and better.
Meanwhile, in Weirdville. his press conference yesterday was another p.r. disaster, or as the NY Times put it, off the rails. Trump couldn’t think of anything better to do than accuse Kamala of being a Communist and telling bemused members of the press that he’s “entitled to personal attacks” against her and whining about her calling him and Vance weird.
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