5mo ago

Trump’s Campaign Is Drowning in Rage: Faced with a surprisingly united Democratic Party, the Republican nominee is trotting out the same old strategy

newrepublic.com Trump’s Campaign Is Drowning in Rage

Faced with a surprisingly united Democratic Party, the Republican nominee is trotting out the same old strategy.

There was One (very) Angry Man at the Georgia State University Convocation Center last Saturday. Donald Trump had harsh words for everyone. He insulted his general election opponent, “Crazy Kamala” Harris, for her “low IQ,” and jeered at President Joe Biden for “choking like a dog” during the debate that started the campaign to convince him to step aside for Harris. Trump slammed several Georgia Republicans, including “disloyal” Governor Brian Kemp, who Trump said should “get off his ass” and do something about Atlanta murders. The GOP nominee even went after the host university itself for not letting more people into the at-capacity stadium to see Trump.

That’s a lot of grievances to air at an event meant to rally supporters of the former president as he seeks another term in office. And it’s understandable why Trump—who has appeared flummoxed at times over how to handle a head-to-head campaign against Harris—would go back to his old, winning 2016 playbook: Insult people and groups of people. Blame immigrants, city-dwellers, Democrats, and insufficiently loyal Republicans for the ills of the country and the world.

But anger, a driving force in 2016, is a weakening tactic, eight years after Trump shocked the world by defeating Hillary Clinton. Enough voters were tired of politics as usual that election that they were willing to see if a blunt talker could be better. Biden prevailed in 2020 because voters wanted to turn on the TV and be bored by the president.

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surprisingly united Democratic Party
I'm very skeptical of her support for any progressive policies, and really frustrated that opinion pieces are already encouraging her to abandon progressives to win, but I'm still going to vote for her far more enthusiastically than I did Biden (and I would have voted for Biden) because that's what you do when immediate dictatorship is the alternative.
- Agreed. Fuck sources like CNN telling her to drop cabinet heads like Lina Khan, just because daddy business doesn't want to pay taxes.
  It's strictly a donor thing as even in super conservative idaho, I've never heard negative things about the more progressive positions. It's only business owners that hate it.
  
  Fuck owners.
- Walz as VP pick suggests an openness to progressive policies.
  
  I'm so damn happy she picked him over Shapiro too. Means she's not slipping her values to satisfy the majority but actually going further and trying to actually change things.
- We're being pragmatic. Hopefully, with a Harris presidency, we can fix what broke. Trump needs to face the charges for J6. I haven't read enough about what's happened but if jeopardy has already attached then he needs to stand trial for everything connected to it.
  He cannot die before being brought to trial because the whole thing of "Presidents can't be charged" needs to go away.
  
  The important thing is to keep up progressive pressure after the election. The big mistake of 2008 was progressives thinking "we put Obama in there, and now we can relax and let him take care of it". The administration wore itself out pushing a health care bill that managed to be both overly complicated and weak at the same time. A highly astroturfed Tea Party then wins in the midterms, and Obama doesn't have the opportunity to do anything else.
  Celebrate wins and keep pushing this enthusiasm. It can't end in November or January.
  
  The important thing is to keep up progressive pressure after the election.
  My impression is that Bernie and AOC were putting pressure on Biden even during the 2020 runup based on articles I remember seeing at the time. (I'm sure "putting pressure" doesn't mean exactly the same thing when it's POTUS and you are a fairly new representative, but you know what I mean) I hope that the same is going on here and/or that they and others have already established a relationship with Kamala during the previous years that will be of benefit in that regard.
- It all depends on what she does.
  If she wins she appoints the new leadership of the DNC, if she really is progressive then that alone could be huge.
  Or she could let the same people run it and nothing will fundamentally change.
  But who she appoints as DNC leadership is going to be the first real sign of what she'll be like in office.
  
  We got some good and necessary changes to delegates after Hillary's failed coronation. Now we'll likely see required primaries due to Biden's almost disaster. I do hope Kamala and Walz make changes to incorporate a truly diverse coalition for democrats. Including leadership for core demographics.
  
  Primaries are already required.
- I read somewhere that her voting record in the senate was the closest to Bernie Sanders of any senator.
  
  I read that too, but I also read an analysis that I'd struggle to find now which essentially said "that's not as indicative of progressive policy opinions as you might think" based on what differences did exist.
  And there's also this article about her record before becoming a Senator, which if you don't want to read the whole thing sums itself up pretty well in the last couple paras. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/kamala-cop-record/596758/
  To be clear - I'm voting for her, and fairly enthusiastically. But I'm no more than cautiously optimistic that she's going to even attempt to kick over any of the apple carts that Bernie or AOC would given the chance, and I'm hoping she doesn't pull anything in a direction I'd consider as backwards. It would be great to see her ram through some police reforms - that would be a pretty good litmus test when considering the particulars of her past that concern me. I'm a believer in personal growth and change - so I'm holding my breath to see what if any there has been.
- It's my duty

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