Josh Marshall at TPM made a point yesterday about the current moment in U.S. politics that rang true to me, at least partially. He was talking about the debate about Biden’s age, which IMO isn’t unwarranted but is completely pointless:
A lot of this “debate” comes down to the fact that people do not or cannot get their heads around the idea that Trump is popular. Roughly enough Americans want Donald Trump to be President again. We’ll find out in November if it’s just under enough, as it was in 2020, or just over, as it was in 2016. But in terms of who we are as Americans and the state of the country, that’s not a huge difference. For a lot of people it’s easier to inflate their own sense of agency, or that of the community they imagine themselves a part of, by believing that Trump’s ability to get elected can only be the product of Democrats’ mistakes. So Trump’s beatable, it’s just that Democrats are putting up a weak candidate, Joe Biden. Or Trump’s beatable, but Democrats are controlled by establishment neo-liberals. Or Trump’s beatable, but Democrats are too woke.
My quibble is I don’t think Trump is as popular as generally supposed. He owns a large enough plurality of the GOP base to rule the Republican Party through fear. But as we’ve discussed, he’s yet to crack 60% in a primary contest, which isn’t exactly a “strongman” result.
That said, I think Marshall may be right when he says there’s an element of denial among some folks who oppose Trump, a reluctance to accept that tens of millions of our fellow citizens are eager to restore an embarrassing fascist buffoon to power. I struggle to accept that myself, and I live among his supporters and therefore see daily evidence that the enthusiasm for his narcissistic effluvia and demagoguery is real.
Open thread.