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.

  • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.