"Bloomberg is the only one who can beat Trump" is a great example of how if the "right" people repeat something confidently enough it becomes "common wisdom".
The power to beat Trump is not vested in any candidate but in the electorate. It wasn't true about Bernie (and still isn't), it's not true about Mike.
You ever watch Willow? Warwick Davis in a high fantasy movie. He wants to be a wizard's apprentice. The wizard holds up a hand and asks the aspirants to identify which finger contains all the power in the universe.
They all guess wrong.
They all guess wrong.
But later, the wizard asks Willow what his real answer was, the one he had thought about and then rejected because it felt silly.
The answer: "My own."
The answer: "My own."
The Dimension 20 campaign The Unsleeping City does a variant of this with the "chosen one" trope and one of the characters realizing that she doesn't need anyone to anoint her as a hero, she can choose herself.
President Obama tried to tell us that we are the ones we've been waiting for.
We did not listen. We did not know how.
We did not listen. We did not know how.
If we vote against Trump -- in sufficient numbers to overcome the obstacles he and his party throw up and the structural advantages and the attempts to muddy the waters -- he loses.
Any candidate can become a focal point for inspiration that helps get out the vote. Any candidate can become a lightning rod for attacks and controversy focused on their actual and imagined baggage that depresses the vote.
Any candidate will do both of those things.
Any candidate will do both of those things.
It's bad enough to look for a savior who will defeat the evil overlord and restore goodness to the land.
It's worse to think that what we need is to find a bigger, badder bully to attach ourselves to in hopes we'll benefit from his protection.
We don't need either.
It's worse to think that what we need is to find a bigger, badder bully to attach ourselves to in hopes we'll benefit from his protection.
We don't need either.
In the very online neighborhoods of Trumpland, there's a persistent belief that they successfully "memed" him into office. That's part of why they're so devoted to him. They believe they share in his victory.
I honestly think that's part of where Bloomberg's campaign is getting their online playbook from. They're looking at how Donald and his agents (direct and indirect ones) basically injected his campaign into the public consciousness and trying to deliberately recreate it.
I think Buttigieg has been trying something similar, in terms of portraying his victory as an absolute inevitability, and while he obviously hasn't cinched that as a public perception I think he's benefited from it.
Pete's habit of ambiguously declaring himself the victor in situations that are either unclear or absolutely not the case gets shredded in social media but I'm not seeing any signs that it's hurt him.
One of the big takeaways from this era of US politics is that if you're a respectable enough white man you can state any ridiculous thing with sincerity and people won't seriously challenge you even if they're rolling their eyes... and then other people will believe you.
