I wish it were so, but he's holding it together. To understand how the low info swing voter absorbs this, turn off the volume. Or leave it on, but zone out the words. Try to focus on vibes only. And that is not great for those who wish to save democracy.
What we want is Trump to start scowling and raving and getting red-faced with anger. He's.....not doing that. He can stand there saying "windmills kill newborns because feminism" and it will wash over people as long as he doesn't seem unhinged in his affect.
This is why my personal crusade is to undo the notion that "tone policing" is forbidden, and to focus on substance. Unfortunately, that's not how humanity works. People (sadly) ONLY respond to tone & vibes.
To be fair, many to most people DO respond to substance, especially if they're in a listening mindset. But our elections in a hyperpolarized environment are decided by a small fraction people who are dum dums.
All his comms team had to do was get Biden to bait Trump into having a Nathan Jessup/You’re goddamned right I ordered the code red! moment and they *couldn’t*even*do*that*
Realistically, a June debate would have more chance of changing the media narrative than reaching low-info voters directly. They’ve clearly failed to do either (although I don’t think it’s as bad as my feed seems to think).
Those people don’t watch the debates though. They actively avoid political news. I’m worried about the soft leaners who might just stay home because they’re frustrated with the candidate and the party
