Monday, September 30, 2024

Well, Let’s See

 A) ew posts Trump’s St. Michael imagery, says it “stokes” Trump’s “nut job” followers. Well, maybe those steeped in European Catholic iconography (he did use the Virgin of Guadalupe earlier), but not his evangelical diehards. I still think they find that disturbing, if not outright disqualifying. We’ll see.

She goes on to point out Harris put Republicans on the podium at the convention, but not Palestinians, and argues that’s hurting Harris in Michigan. Although putting Palestinians in prime time in Chicago would have hurt Harris everywhere in America NOT Michigan.

And the case before Chutkan is going to save us all (except the felony conviction didn’t sink Trump; nor the fraud conviction; nor the two libel judgments; at least didn’t sink him in the polls) because a superseding indictment due soon will FINALLY be the silver bullet. Pro tip: don’t hold your breath.

This is my favorite. In the context of Harris not walking away with the race (although almost all polling says she’s ahead, and Biden won with about 52% of the popular vote; still, too much is never enough), she cites Nate Silver:

Donald Trump looks weak and Donald Trump looks violent, but that is not yet a persistent news coverage theme (indeed, in his polling update, Nate Silver claims there’s nothing “like Joe Biden’s deteriorating public performances” that might be affecting the race in ways polling is not accounting for).
Nate Silver, who hasn’t gotten anything right since 2012 (to be fair to his models: Garbage In, Garbage Out; polls suck). ew again leans on “press coverage” to be the vessel to convince Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea that Trump is unfit (nobody expects the NYT endorsement of Harris to do that, even though they stomp Trump into the dirt in the process). The magical powers of cable TV (is that still a thing?) or newspaper headlines (are those still around?) will carry the day.

For people terminally on line, they sure think legacy media is still the only source of voter information. Apart from Elmo’s Twitter feed, of course. I really think more people get their news on line than not. And “low information” voters ain’t gonna be reading a new Trump indictment like it was the latest bodice ripper.

Besides: polls still suck. This is a “vibes” election; and Trump has all the wrong vibes. Frankly, we should be pointing out that SNL is making Trump look too sane, because IRL he’s gone beyond parody. But if you played him just as he is, he’d be frightening, not funny. I think a lot of people already know that.

Back to St. Michael:
When Donald Trump mobilizes Christian imagery, he does so not because he believes in any of it, but because he believes in power, and he knows he can get people who mistake him for the Messiah to go to war for him.
St. Michael subduing the devil in full Renaissance splendor (or is that Baroque? Yeah, probably the latter…) ain’t “Christian” among American evangelicals. You gotta keep in mind these are the spiritual descendants of the Puritans who thought Christmas was too Catholic, and wouldn’t allow even the word to be spoken. I can’t overstate how much that image doesn’t appeal to them. “Christian” is not the unitary term you might imagine it to be.

And then there’s alternative history:
The floods caused by Helene could be another. Right wingers are already trying to ensure this works like Katrina did for George W Bush.
Huh? When “Katrina” comes up in political discussions, it refers to Napoleon’s Waterloo, not the Duke of Wellington’s.
Tomorrow marks two key events: a Vice Presidential debate that may prove more momentous than prior debates (and JD is much more resilient to goading than his boss is), and Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, one day closer to the day he can vote for Kamala Harris.
When does early voting start in Georgia? And Vance is Trump without the guardrails. He doesn’t need to meltdown. He just needs to speak.
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