Defeating fascism is not someone else’s job
President Joe Biden’s comments on the Trump conviction were in Dan Pfeiffer’s opinion calibrated about right. “He’s a serious person addressing a serious matter.”
However, that doesn’t excuse the rest of us from being surrogates. Big moments matter, Pfeiffer reminds readers. Trump’s cut over the eye. It may be unseemly for Biden to pound him. But not for us. Work the eye. Now (emphasis mine):
One of President Obama’s cardinal rules of politics is that if you don’t talk about the giant elephant in the room, the voters will wonder what you are trying to hide. Trump’s conviction while running for President is a giant fucking elephant.
Just ask yourself, how would Republicans handle it if Joe Biden were convicted of a misdemeanor related to the handling of classified information? Would they turn the other cheek and tell people to respect the verdict before pivoting to inflation or another issue?
Seems unlikely.
The Republicans would use every weapon in their media arsenal to brand the President as a criminal in the eyes of voters. Heck, Trump, the GOP, and the MAGA media have called him ‘Crooked Joe’ absent a conviction, an indictment, or one iota of evidence.
There is simply no need to recite rote talking points about the sanctity of the judicial system. Our opponent in the election was convicted of serious crimes; we should make him answer for it at every opportunity. The Republicans running up and down the ballot are slavishly devoted to defending that criminal. They should explain why they think a former President is above the law.
The media will move on in a matter of days. Other news will intrude. One of the core lessons of communications—especially in a world where the traditional press has a fraction of its previous reach—is that if you want people to know something, you have to tell them and then tell them again and again. Once you are so sick of saying something that you might puke, you probably need to say it a couple more times.
Trump’s bizarre, rambling press conference, where he whined about his plight at the expense of a message that actually persuades voters, is yet another argument for why Democrats should talk about his conviction as often as possible.
Make it news. Keep it in the news.
Marcy Wheeler was on a tear about that last night, albeit spurred by complaints about Merrick Garland.
“The left is losing the fight against fascism politically,” Wheeler added. “That’s not Garland’s fight. It’s yours.”
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