Trump’s Big Loser Energy, and Other Tales From the Annals of Political Messaging

In a democratic republic (and really in all times and places), the slavish hunger to be in the thrall of a strongman or a king is the ultimate moral degeneracy. It is a perverse form of moral weakness. The mores of civic democracy are rooted in strength, and self-respect. One of the strangest aspects of contemporary politics is the way that what were once the emblems of weakness and humiliation became rebranded as a kind of power: grievance, special pleading, whining, the demand for protection from the sting of defeat. It’s extremely weird. Trump is, more than anything else, a loser. He fears defeat and he can’t take it and he’s making wild claims to try to wriggle out of accountability and the public rebuke that he experiences as a moral death. Contempt, scorn and, yes, laughter are the only proper responses to Trump’s claims and demands. They’re weakness rather than strength, and no one should be fooled into treating them any other way.

 Josh Marshall

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trumps-big-loser-energy-and-other-tales-from-the-annals-of-political-messaging