It’s almost like Donald Trump is intentionally saying outrageous things to throw this election. And yet, the crazier he talks, the more it seems to work.
Within the Republican Party, particularly, Trump’s downright scary rhetoric is either dismissed as mere eccentricity or even considered a virtue; regardless, it’s all proof he’s not a normal politician.
In a new Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa poll of Iowa voters, for example, Trump’s recent comments about illegal immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America made 42 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers more likely to vote for him (compared with just 28 percent who said it made them less likely to vote for him). Meanwhile, a whopping 47 percent of Republicans said the 2020 election “fraud” justifies terminating parts of the Constitution.
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“It’s a little off-the-wall, but you know? A lot of them do stuff like that,” a 57-year-old woman from Cumming, Iowa, said about the things Trump tweets. “At least we know he’s not a polished politician. He reminds me of my father.”
I don’t know how things are in Cumming, Iowa, but I don’t recall my father talking about immigrants’ blood or wanting to overturn parts of the Constitution. But maybe it’s just me?
Based on the polls, though, the 57-year-old woman (and her dad) are not the weird ones. Not in the GOP, at least.
But perhaps things could have gone differently.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris depart an event in the East Room of the White House on Oct. 30, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThere have been a couple of occasions since the 2020 election when Trump has been vulnerable. Yet, Republicans consistently refused to kick him when he was down.
The last time Trump was truly electorally weak was about a year ago, just on the heels of the 2022 midterms. Once again, though, Republicans failed to finish him off.
In this case, the problem was that Ron DeSantis—who was seen as Trump’s main rival—lacked the killer spirit to slay this dragon.
We will never know what might have been had DeSantis, who was riding high, aggressively attacked Trump after the midterms. Instead, he wasted time, refused to say that the 2020 election wasn’t rigged, and even provided cover for Trump when he was indicted.
In recent days, DeSantis has finally (if sheepishly) amped up his attacks on Trump regarding the 2020 election loss.
As the governor of the very diverse state of Florida, will DeSantis find the courage to call out Trump’s “poisoning the blood” comments? It would be a welcome sign of courage.
Regardless, my guess is that it’s too late for Ron—and probably, for the rest of us.
While I continue to hold out hope that Nikki Haley has a chance of wresting the nomination from Trump, I know it’s a longshot.
Survey results like the aforementioned Iowa poll do not instill confidence that Republican voters will kick Trump to the curb and save American democracy in 2024.
Unfortunately, this means that an ancient and wildly unpopular Joe Biden is likely the last line of defense.
In response to Trump’s “poisoning the blood” comments, The Biden campaign… released a statement criticizing Trump’s remarks.
I’m sure the Trump campaign is shaking in their boots.
Here’s the deal. If you’re going to have a president who is over the hill and a vice president who is even less popular than he is, you better have someone else who is a killer and an attack dog.
As far as I can tell, nobody on Team Biden can fill this crucial role.
This is a problem.
I’m old enough to remember when Democrats were utterly ruthless. Frankly, I used to hate them.
Consider the way Clinton “war room” veteran James Carville, who—seeking to destroy the credibility of Bill Clinton accuser Paula Jones—said, “If you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find.”
If Team Biden has anyone that vicious around, I haven’t seen him (or her).
The Biden campaign seems to be pinning its hopes on the notion that next year people will have a more favorable view of the economy, or (as was the case in 2022) that voters will prioritize saving liberal democracy over their own economic interests. A safer assumption would be that they have to destroy Trump completely and immediately.
Clinton-era operatives (like Carville and Paul Begala) and later operatives/pols (like Rahm Emanuel) knew how to vanquish an opponent. They didn’t wait around to see how things would shake out. They pounded you into the ground. They were mean. They were nasty. They were aggressive. They were effective.
Paul Begala, former President Bill Clinton, and James Carville.
Jemal Countess/WireImageBy the way, it’s not as though Team Biden doesn’t have ample material to work with.
Put aside the legitimate moral concerns about Trump channeling Hitler and how that bodes ill for liberal democracy. When Trump talks about immigrants from South America, Africa, and Asia “poisoning the blood” of America, he is obviously saying that non-whites are polluting America.
If you thought Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” quip was a gaffe or that Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” slur was political malpractice, then Trump’s statement should be considered the biggest political calamity in American history—if he is made to pay for it.
Imagine what a young Carville or Begala would do with that. Aside from a relentless full-frontal assault every day on every show where every Republican is forced to condemn or embrace the thought, every single voter of color in America would be shown the line a million times.
Now maybe in the fullness of time, Team Biden will get around to this strategy. Or maybe the American people will do the right thing (after every other option is exhausted). Maybe Team Biden’s seeming lack of urgency is really a sign of confidence, but 11 months out from the election, it does nothing to reassure the American public.
I’m just curious whether they are taking Trump’s chances seriously enough.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, then-Vice President Dick Cheney posited a premise that became known as the “One Percent Doctrine.” Cheney’s theory said that even if there were just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable happening—al Qaeda getting a nuclear weapon, for example—we should act as if it is a certainty.
As Donald Trump continues to spew authoritarian rhetoric, it is perhaps time that we treat his threat to democracy with the same level of existential alarm. Even if there is just a 1 percent chance he will (a) get elected and (b) do what he has promised, the stakes are so high as to demand more urgency.
This is, after all, the man who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election, called for the Constitution to be terminated, praises dictators, talks (jokes?) about being a dictator for a day, calls people “vermin,” and threatens to jail his political adversaries.
And let’s just say that there’s more than a 1 percent chance that Trump will be the next president and implement at least some of the “retribution” he has promised.
The time to hesitate is through.
