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.
I specifically remember Trevor Noah having an opening monologue to the Daily Show some time just prior to or after Trump having taken office about this exact topic. Essentially he was saying it allowed Trump to control the narrative. Every time he lied, the left leaning media would be off digging up facts and statistics to come back and says “ah ha ya! Look at this!” But by the time they get back to respond, he’s gone off and changed the topic and made another blatantly false condemnation of some group of people. And so the cycle repeats itself.
Noah’s proposed solution was the same as a child having a tantrum: ignore them. When things go wrong, make it clear why it’s a result of his policies or rhetoric. Stop playing politics like you’re playing them with a competent adult. You’re not.
Yeah it’s a bit like dealing with the school bully I think. They want to make people flustered and upset because it makes them feel big and gets them attention. But if you give them even a little bit of their own medicine they can’t handle it at all.