Mark my words. He will. He has smart people running his campaign. Even anti-Trumpers will admit that. They'll help keep him in check. He will certainly go outside the boundaries they establish on occasion but he and his cult are well-rehearsed at covering for these small blunders with "that's not what he meant" or "you obviously suffer from TDS" or "Biden does that too" kinds of response. Fox News and the rest of his media enablers know how to do this without being prompted.
You're talking about the Trump enabling apparatus, not Trump himself. He's too far gone from the stress of having to fork out massive cash for appeals that he doesn't have, plus all the criminal trials, at least one of which is firmly set for a month from now. He has noticeably deteriorated in his speech and thought patterns and he looks terrible, his bronzer becoming more and more like Kabuki makeup.
The FOX clowns and his assorted fluffers can try to spin it all they want, but Trump is not going to stop making the election about pure personal vengeance, absent of anything like a message that could draw new people in.
I agree that he'll double down on the vengeance because it is part of what makes the voters ignore all his crimes. As long as he successfully portrays it all as a result of institutional abuse of power, he plays into the voters' desires. They all distrust government and established power. The GOP has been working on that since Reagan.
All we can hope for really is to peel people off from the fringes of his misinformation cloud and hope that what's left is small enough that he loses the election. Even if that happens, we're not out of the woods. They will cheat in whatever ways they can to throw the election into turmoil. Since 2020, we know about some of these ways but I'm also sure they have some others up their sleeves that may surprise us (AI, Russia). They weren't ready in 2020 but they will be this time around.
You're assuming that we haven't learned a few tricks since that time and that we don't have effective counter-strategies the way we didn't in '16. We're going to be hypervigilant about all the things you mentioned.
Doubling down on the vengeance as part of a tu-quoque fingerpointing strategy has a diminishing return. Normal people hear "but mommy, Jimmy hit me first" and wonder what this histrionic protestation of innocence is trying to hide. One or two indictments might be politically motivated, but 91? A jury verdict for rape and defamation, another judgment for defamation, a massive jury judgment for clawbacks from business fraud, none of which are even remotely traceable to Joe Biden? And the GOP's Joe Biden impeachment whataboutery falling completely apart? No, this plays to nobody but his established Kool Aid customers.
And I was speaking more about the messenger than the message. Trump is a _mess_ these days. He's been in a rapid, visible decline. Even the darkly brilliant and disciplined Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles can't fix this.
Trump is constitutionally incapable at this point of moderating his tone.
Mark my words. He will. He has smart people running his campaign. Even anti-Trumpers will admit that. They'll help keep him in check. He will certainly go outside the boundaries they establish on occasion but he and his cult are well-rehearsed at covering for these small blunders with "that's not what he meant" or "you obviously suffer from TDS" or "Biden does that too" kinds of response. Fox News and the rest of his media enablers know how to do this without being prompted.
You're talking about the Trump enabling apparatus, not Trump himself. He's too far gone from the stress of having to fork out massive cash for appeals that he doesn't have, plus all the criminal trials, at least one of which is firmly set for a month from now. He has noticeably deteriorated in his speech and thought patterns and he looks terrible, his bronzer becoming more and more like Kabuki makeup.
The FOX clowns and his assorted fluffers can try to spin it all they want, but Trump is not going to stop making the election about pure personal vengeance, absent of anything like a message that could draw new people in.
I agree that he'll double down on the vengeance because it is part of what makes the voters ignore all his crimes. As long as he successfully portrays it all as a result of institutional abuse of power, he plays into the voters' desires. They all distrust government and established power. The GOP has been working on that since Reagan.
All we can hope for really is to peel people off from the fringes of his misinformation cloud and hope that what's left is small enough that he loses the election. Even if that happens, we're not out of the woods. They will cheat in whatever ways they can to throw the election into turmoil. Since 2020, we know about some of these ways but I'm also sure they have some others up their sleeves that may surprise us (AI, Russia). They weren't ready in 2020 but they will be this time around.
You're assuming that we haven't learned a few tricks since that time and that we don't have effective counter-strategies the way we didn't in '16. We're going to be hypervigilant about all the things you mentioned.
Doubling down on the vengeance as part of a tu-quoque fingerpointing strategy has a diminishing return. Normal people hear "but mommy, Jimmy hit me first" and wonder what this histrionic protestation of innocence is trying to hide. One or two indictments might be politically motivated, but 91? A jury verdict for rape and defamation, another judgment for defamation, a massive jury judgment for clawbacks from business fraud, none of which are even remotely traceable to Joe Biden? And the GOP's Joe Biden impeachment whataboutery falling completely apart? No, this plays to nobody but his established Kool Aid customers.
And I was speaking more about the messenger than the message. Trump is a _mess_ these days. He's been in a rapid, visible decline. Even the darkly brilliant and disciplined Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles can't fix this.
Let's hope you're right.