“Context Is All.”

I think it’s easy to underrate the extent to which broadcast TV & radio plus smaller market newspapers tend to present a “cleaned up” and more coherent version of Trump creating the impression that Crazy Trump is just a twitter persona. https://t.co/UkjqogKQ16

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 1, 2020

I know, I over-reference Forster. But Trump in a rally is a WWE figure, a character, an act. Yes, I think media prefers a narrative and falls into the trap of finding order in chaos. Not a failing generally (who wants to read an incoherent series of unfortunate events?), but Trump exploits it. Except Trump in the context of a rally is a character no different from a “professional wrestler “ or a sports team mascot. And then the debate puts him in a different context. And what was amusing and excusable is neither.

The debates were going to save Trump? I think they’ve ruined him. No one can ignore who he is now. Some won’t care, but not enough of them to matter. And who he is now is his own worst enemy. He’s a comedian still running the same schtick, but his audience is bored. Or disgusted.