So he’s quite good at making it look like he’s actually doing something. But where’s the evidence? Hatred and fear of others has indeed been a central theme of his appeal. The longing of some mythical past age, the “good old days”.
It is. Racism has been a defining characteristic since the early days of the Trump campaign. There’s no poo-pooing or brushing it off as a fringe issue.
“Yeah, he has all the character of a rabies-bitten sewer rat and fosters the worst traits of people, but the way he showed the collapse of the neoliberal order!”
They just have to recapture Trump’s energy. It wouldn’t be hard. “Immigrants are rapists, woke is bad, beat the sh!t out of protesters, this country is in ruins and only I can fix it”, yadda yadda yadda. And telling him to “shut up”, as Biden has, clearly doesn’t work.
The elements that created Trump’s rise are still very much with us, if it weren’t Trump it would be someone else. Also, the discourse doesn’t need to go that way. We don’t need to respond to every low-bar attack with “Well, we can do it too!”
@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social I remember around the election we talked about the uncharted waters with Trump trying to overturn the election. How would you say the waters are now?
I also think it’s a fear of becoming the poor/“dirty”. Anyone can experience financial hardship and some deal with that fact by mocking those they’re afraid of becoming.
