,
5 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
I’d recast the “victories” bit of this otherwise brutal analysis by @PhilipRucker and @AshleyRParker. Trump scores by targeting Congresswomen and Baltimore. Suckling the NRA. Torturing migrants. White patriarchy is why he was elected. We can’t forget that. wapo.st/2kcmVwo
Is the president winning, or his presidency? Not the former, but certainly the latter. Trump may be historically unpopular, sagging in important states, and trailing every top challenger. But his presidency is accomplishing its goals—and we must understand them for what they are.
It is cathartic, I guess, to read an assessment of Trump’s summer that judges it to be “incompetent, indecisive, intolerant and ineffective.” But when it also says his racist attacks on the “Squad” and on Baltimore “stoked weeks of racial animus,” therein lies the normalization.
Trump does and says racist things because that is why many of his voters chose him. He campaigned openly on these horrific goals. To a considerable degree, he is accomplishing them. That’s why I do not root for this president to “succeed.” Think about what he considers “success.”
Trump was barely called a racist in that @washingtonpost story, and he still acts as though he can’t handle it. The reality is he seeks to disempower the word, lessening its impact for when it is used properly. This is false outrage, employed with purpose. wapo.st/32lCxxJ
