The perennial question
The Faye Dunaway character in “Network” explained Howard Beale’s popularity: “The American people are turning sullen. They’ve been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam, Watergate, the inflation, the depression; they’ve turned off, shot up, and they’ve fucked themselves limp, and nothing helps. The American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them.”
Is Trump just Howard Beale? It’s as good an explanation as anything, I guess. But remember, Howard Beale was certifiably nuts.
The man is a disgraceful pig. His antics on the witness stand today were beyond outrageous. Lisa Rubin on NBC describes his testimony as “someone who was not in control of his id today.” He’s not in control of his id any day. And yet, he is leading in the battleground states right now because Joe Biden is old and foolish people have bought into his hype that he personally made the economy perfect when he was in office. (It wasn’t, they just have short memories.) It’s infuriating.
Meanwhile, his cult is so impervious to any facts that tarnish their Dear Leader that they are now living in an alternate universe. Look what happened in Florida this weekend:
Please listen to this message I delivered to the Florida GOP. If you agree with me then go to https://t.co/RzzpNHlC00 and support with a $20.24 contribution.
— Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) November 4, 2023
pic.twitter.com/1ULAcOaRRN
Trump acted the way he did on the stand because he knows he has an armed mob backing him up.
Lest we lose hope, there is this:
If the former president is convicted and sentenced — as many of his allies expect him to be in the Jan. 6-related trial held next year in Washington, D.C. — around 6 percent of voters across Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin say they would switch their votes to Mr. Biden. That would be enough, potentially, to decide the election.
That could do it. But it’s almost paralyzingly depressing to realize that only 6% of voters who currently support Trump would reject him if he’s a convicted felon. It’s stunning. To bring back a common refrain during the Clinton impeachment, “what do we tell the children?”