The Bulwark and the Shark

 

The Bulwark is usually worth reading. Its mainly accurate coverage of Trump and its articles on other subjects are often well written and informative. However, it is possible to jump the shark even with Trump, and lately its writers have. A few days ago there was a piece suggesting with no evidence that the judge in Trump’s case in Florida will make a few rulings in favor of the prosecution to make sure she can stay on the case and then dismiss the charges with prejudice when the trial started, letting Trump skate. There have been articles characterizing the coming election as one in which the survival of democracy in America is at stake – warning that Trump would destroy the republic and that there might be no more elections after this one with Trump ruling by decree. That goes too far and frightens people unnecessarily - confusing what he might want to do with what he would be capable of doing. It may also help Trump. If it happens, a second Trump term will be bad, but it will not be the end of the world or the end of the republic. Pretending it would makes it easier for Trump’s defenders in the conservative media to argue to voters that the warnings about him, including the many appropriate ones, are just wild hyperbole from panicky Democrats.

It is also counterproductive to attack voters who favor or may favor Trump. Insulting people usually is not the best way to persuade them to consider your point of view. Today Mona Charen equated people supporting Trump to those supporting Hamas’s murderous savages. Other articles have insulted Trump voters as ignorant rustics too stupid to know what is good for them (“Cletus” and “Lurleen”), something not only vulgarly condescending to rural people but clearly false. If only country people, smart or otherwise, supported Trump, he would not be leading in the polls. There are too few of them. I cannot vote for Trump, but I understand that people can have good reasons for doing so. Some simply believe that the plans and policies of the Republicans are better than those of the Democrats. They may know Trump is a power hungry scoundrel, but note correctly that lots of politicians are power hungry scoundrels and decide to ignore it. Some see the green left, the bigoted DEI left, and the anti-civilization pro-Hamas left for what they are and favor Trump and the Republicans as a bulwark against them and the harm they want to do to the country. Some are very unhappy with inflation and the open southern border. Comparing him to Biden, some just see Trump as the lesser evil. Instead of attacking the voters, people at the Bulwark should urge the Democrats to move to the center, with or without Biden. The Dems probably won’t, but it would not hurt to tell them they should.