17 Comments

Thanks for highlighting this article. Tim Alberta is one of my favorite Never Trumpers and his breakdowns of campaign strategy are terrific.

PS - if I ever put together a Punk/New Wave band, we're definitely going to be The Chaos Muppets.

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In other words, nothing in this story is new. Trump sows chaos. People eagerly show up to help him sow chaos. Some eventually burn out from the chaos. The true chaos lovers remain.

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When I read the Tim Alberta piece, I thought about writing a summary, but now I don't have to, because you have nailed it. Spot on!

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It occurred to me that Trump's "management style," that is hiring people and have them contend against each other, could be a lifelong strategy to deal with the fact that anyone he hires is more qualified and capable than he is.

Just a hypothesis. But like Trump's Razor, (https://x.com/joshtpm/status/1563641600626008064) consistent with the known facts.

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Yep. The one flaw in this Alberta piece is its excessive (_any_ is too much) imputation of reasoning/strategizing. Trump is pure id, a devil's brew of personality disorder + affluenza + Dunning-Kruger + fame. And anybody who'd work for him has ipso facto failed an obvious IQ test.

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I know there’re bigger issues at play, but students of politics are going to study how Harris and her campaign managed to get her to the election as well as they have.

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"For the past 20 months, he'd been hemmed in by a campaign built on the principles of restraint and competence." Wow.

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Dumb? I think Trump refers to them more accurately as “Suckers.”

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Blaming "the other" is a recipe for success. It's built into our DNA (and all other animals, who compete against each other for habitat). If "others" are the cause of our misery, then "hope" is nearby. It's just that simple. The popularity & resurgence of fascism is due to this simple fact. We have failed as a democracy. The American dream was just only a dream.

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God help us all

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Absolutely true that Trump loves chaos and enjoys mucking around, hurting his friends and keeping everyone around him unsure and insecure. But one other corollary, he always wants to be in control and at the center of attention. If the chaos or storyline starts drifting away from him, he hates it and shuts it down. It's always has to be about him as the center of attention and decision-making.

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Brad, Do you consider Seth Lipsky of the New York Sun to be a dumbbell? Lately I've been thinking about the great historian Richard Hofstadter and how he wrote so beautifully and persuasively about the anti-intellectualism symbolized by William Jennings Bryan ... whereas many have since concluded that he missed much of what was really bothering Bryan and his followers. You remind me of Hofstadter. I don't fault you or him for letting your creative prejudices inform your work, but ....

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I categorically object to this due to the calumny of maligning the noble Bulldog. No Bulldog would ever want anyone to be anything but well fed, warm, comfortable and loved.

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Does he crave chaos or does he feel the need to ratchet up the spectacle, no matter how grotesque, to keep his troops engaged? Re: Resignation....the troops on the ground must envy the philosopher princes over at Project 2025. It will be interesting to watch how they contend with Mr. Chaos.

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Smh, Trumps team never had control over the evil trump spewed.

They loved the hate, and spewed it themselves, and it got crazier.

To lay claim to any truimph in the beginning of said campaign of 2024, to normalize him is wasted.

He was always hating on women, and it was normalized by MSM.

No question who to vote for if you are a female in America.

I'm grateful for good men who know a women's worth.

We lift each other up.

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Email immediately previous to this one is from Jewish Insider saying that they are forced to conclude that Trump is not closing effectively and has not locked down NC. (These same people thought that Trump had momentum in all the states where the Senate race had tightened)

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"won't believe"?

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