I don't doubt that painting him as a loser is more popular with the right wing base than stoking outrage against Trump. However, the reality is that Trumpism is a very real threat to the Republic, and dismissing Trump as a loser doesn't change that reality. We are going to need to do what we can to make sure that responsible actors in and outside our government take that threat seriously and respond to it to avoid Trumpists consolidating an authoritarian government in our country. In addition, we may well need popular protests as a fallback if the GOP attempts to overturn a Democratic presidential win in 2024, or if the GOP wins legitimately and then tries to consolidate an authoritarian system.Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:41 pmQFT.Apollo wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:59 am As an Old School Liberal living in a Deep Red State, I sincerely hope that those on the Left one day learn that the way to discredit Right-Wing assholes like Trump is not to be OUTRAGED! by everything they say and do. That's what they are hoping for! That's Red Meat for their base: See how much the Lefties hate him!
The way to hurt someone like Trump: Roll your eyes at whatever he does and dismiss him as a Pathetic Loser. Don't even discuss what he's done or said. That plants real doubt in the tiny little minds of his supporters that they might be backing someone who is a joke and might lose the election. The Right-Wing Establishment understands this and is using this technique right now to discredit him. I only hope that the Left and their continual OUTRAGE over everything Trump does doesn't cancel out their efforts.
Calling out how ‘unusual’ or norm-breaking something he says or does is just fuel. People support him BECAUSE he colors outside of the lines and doing that drives the libs and progressives they hate, crazy.
They love the ‘maverick’ in him. The fact that his maverick behavior drives libs nuts is gravy.
None of that is going to work if we all collectively pretend that Donald Trump is a vanquished loser. That's not a switch that you can effectively just suddenly turn on in November / December 2024.
Now, maintaining constant outrage isn't really reasonable, and we shouldn't pretend that everything that Trump and the GOP does is equally outrageous regardless of context. But at the same time "LOL Donald Trump take the L" isn't likely to be an effective strategy here.