After nearly a decade of being forced to take Trump seriously, Democrats increasingly call BS on the whole charade
Sure, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy — a would-be dictator on day one who has called for terminating the U.S. Constitution so he can hold onto power even after losing a free and fair election. But while draped in the rhetoric of populism, Trump and his MAGA movement are not actually popular; the man himself has never won more votes than the person he ran against, a majority of Americans twice rejecting him and his off-putting cult of personality. That he was ever president is more or less because a few thousand swing voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania thought it would be fun.
President Joe Biden won in 2020 largely by promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency. In 2024, Democrats are making a similar argument but more forcibly: They’re pointing, laughing and dismissing Trump and his circus as a total freak show to which we can’t return.
This makes a lot more sense than weird. Old and weird is something one could put on a T-shirt or on a lemmy nbio and enjoy displaying it. It’s basically a Weird Al Yankovic T-shirt.
And the meaning of brat really hasn’t changed except in some limited social circles, just like the close association between coconuts, monkeys, and primitive tribal connotations. It’s as if someone was leading the Democratic marketing campaign by selling it within the bubble but in such a way that it is ultimately ineffective and easily twisted, and it’s giving me serious 2016 vibes. I really hope I’m wrong and just out of touch.