It's worth noting that the re-emergence of a Trump-Stormy Daniels sexual encounter won't matter at all to Trump's standing because a) alleged family values voters/evangelicals don't care about past sins, especially if redemption is assumed (the get-out-of-hypocrisy-free-card)...
2/ And, more generally b) as several smart folks have pointed out, Trump's appeal isn't as a moral avatar, but as a populist, the vessel for his supporters' feelings, beliefs, hopes and anger. Scandals don't shatter that vessel...
3/ Bizarrely, faced with such an emotional barrier, it's policy that counts. Trump falls not on immorality, but failure, perceptible costs to those who might vote for his rage cocktail. Screwing w. health care, raising taxes on working folks...
4/ that kind of thing actually matters -- and if we can both drive that record home an add to that a simple, clear vision of how Democrats will make it possible to pursue one's goals w/out, e.g., worrying your kids could die for lack of HC...
5/ Then we're in w. a chance. This isn't to say Trump and GOP scandals don't matter: they do. "Shitholes" makes it harder for some people to rationalize their votes for him; such wretchedness drives down energy and enthusiasm and turnout, etc....
6/ And a drumbeat about how so many of the Trump admin are basically stealing taxpayer dollars (looking at you Price (remember him), Pruitt, Zinke, Mnuchin etc.) helps reinforce the idea of the GOP as the party of rich thieves. But my point...and I do have one...
7/ Is that no one out there has any illusions about Trump's character, integrity, continence, stability, etc. Those who support him have made it clear they don't care about much worse than a decade-old dalliance w. a porn star...
8/ and hell, the bros, the red-pill boys, the alphas probably applaud the news. And those who are disgusted by Trump didn't need this encounter to remind them he's disgusting; we get daily top ups on that score, thank you very much. All of wh. is to say that...
9/ if there's one mistake of 2016, committed by both the media and, to some extent, the Democrats, it is that simply being clearly not awful in the face of an obviously awful Trump was not enough to put a close election out of reach...
10/ That needed through all the noise and media malpractice, some persuasion fo the next three or four percent of the electorate that there was an affirmative, good reason to go D, beyond the true fact that Trump and his Republican allies were wretched specimens of humanity...
11/ And we need that now, for November, and looking forward three years, for Nov. 2020: not just better policies (wh. we have by the bushel) but a short, clear, powerful expression of the organizing vision behind those policies. Here the sermon endeth.
