Thread by @HoarseWisperer

My last comment on this and then I’m done with last night’s Nationals game:

It really cannot be overstated how subtly important highly visible public rebukes of Trump really are.

His base loves him for a variety of a bad reasons...

1/

High among them is the idea that he is powerful, popular and effective.

Trump is an effigy of sorts for people insulated from the realities of the full America.

They love him and think there is a secret undercounted majority who love him too.

2/

They love him because they think he is not just a bully but an effective one.

They think he cows his enemies into a fearful surrender.

They think the guy actually wins.

They think he is actually a winner in a way that would make an all-American baseball stadium cheer.

3/

A whole lot of people just saw their supposed hero humiliated and shamed by ordinary folks.

They saw him emasculated and made to look worse than small.

And that takes so much of the air from the sagging balloon of his facade.

4/

If you watched Trump get roundly humiliated in front of a national audience at one of the least partisan, shared events on our national calendar, pulling on a MAGA hat today feels a whole lot less like wearing the gear of a championship team.

5/

The biggest loser of the Nats-Astros game was Donald J. Trump.

His base, in significant part, loved him because he promised them that *they* weren’t losers and by electing him, everyone would see that.

Now he’s just a loser... and that wasn’t what they signed up for.

6/6