The Witness Chronicles, September, 3, 2024
Trump is a bore
Donald Trump’s Outrage is Boring
His fake anger barely covers his fear, but who cares?
Gertrude Stein once said of Oakland, California ‘there’s no there, there’, a kind of ultimate insult, that now applies to Trump’s incessant complaining, lies, phony outrage, and the entire endless schtick. A lot of us just wish he would go away.
There was a building level of existential dread across the Democratic Party when Biden was our candidate. That dread was based on the fear that Trump might have it in the bag after Biden’s disastrous debate performance. But Biden’s intensely generous decision to get out of the race and endorse Kamala Harris instantly transferred that dread over to the Republican Party in a political sea change never seen before in American politics.
Boom. Just like that we changed gears and the Trump campaign has still not regained their balance, seemingly stuck in reverse and unable to recover. And, to me, a lot of this is that Trump’s role as angry champion of the little people is no longer resonating.
Sure, his hardcore MAGA crowd are hanging tough. They have morphed into a sad cult, desperately wanting to believe his baloney will win the White House again. But their numbers are shrinking and they never were enough to actually win a majority. And it looks like they are the only believers left.
The guy is boring. We need to believe in something positive. That became obvious when Harris suddenly consolidated the Democratic Party overnight and, like that, the clouds cleared and we saw the blue sky. And that fantasy seems to have legs as she hacks away at a wide range of voter groups alienated by Trump’s incessant negativity and hate.
But that is the only path he knows and it won’t be enough to protect him from his real fear, going to prison as a total loser. The voter groups Harris is appealing to are not just traditional Democratic strongholds. Every day it seems more moderate Republicans wake up to the reality that Trump is destroying what is left of the party.
Part of it is just the constant display of pure stupidity by his campaign and the man himself, an essentially lazy guy who can’t be bothered with facts, policies, history or any of the other things that normal politicians live and breathe. And that laziness is reflected in his lack of any coherent ideas and his campaign’s recycling of the memes of outrage that once made him a novelty.
The man is boring. His running mate JD Vance is both boring and repulsive, and the more we get to know him, the faster his image gets worse. The two of them may have to bore us to death to win anything, and it seems like that may be their strategy.
It’s not working, they know it, and all they can do is double down. When they cooked up that stunt in Arlington National Cemetery, they underestimated the anger and disgust it would create. And their attempts to somehow turn it into anger at Harris and Walz backfired because it was so obviously their screwup.
One of the things we are seeing, and that I have repeatedly written about, is the response from Harris, Walz, and Biden to Trump’s insults and ridiculous claims. The response is no response, except the laughter that seems to drive him nuts.
The debate next week will be the next possible turning point in the election. Average Americans will see Trump, at length, in prime time facing off against a woman who knows what she is doing and who seems incapable of caring about Trump’s insults.
The Harris campaign is making a bet that the wheels come off and we see Trump for the loon he is. I have a vivid image in my head of Trump debating Hillary Clinton and looming over her as she spoke, openly menacing. That tactic is not going to work this time. None of his tactics are going to work this time.
Why? Because we’ve all seen it before. The novelty is gone. There’s no there, there.
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Of course you are quite right about Trump but unfortunately, when I look around at all the decent, normal people I know around me who are Trump supporters, I have not seen even one of them decide to vote differently. It's baffling and demoralizing but I am very afraid that it's the reality. We "liberals" live in an optimistic bubble and of course agree with all comments like yours about Trump. The problem is that the other side neither reads these kind of essays, nor would it change their minds if they did. It is a very sad truth that half this country is willing and happy to have a fool and a tyrant lead the most powerful country on earth.
Thank you for being here. I thoroughly enjoy reading your unique take on the political issues of the day! This one pretty much sets the record straight. Yep, boring and weird.