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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEzra Klein: Trump's reality TV presidency is being crushed by reality
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/26/21303547/donald-trump-2020-polls-coronavirus-biden-reelection-losingTrumps reality TV presidency is being crushed by reality
Trump is falling in the polls because hes failing the country.
By Ezra Klein@ezraklein Jun 26, 2020, 8:00am EDT
snip//
Trump has spent the past three years and 158 days playing president on TV and social media. But he has not spent that time doing the job of the president. A strong economy that carried over from Barack Obamas presidency hid Trumps dereliction of duties. But then a crisis came, and presidential leadership was needed, and the American people saw there was no plan, and functionally no president.
Every insider account of Trumps presidency from Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury to Bob Woodwards Fear to Carol Leonnig and Philip Ruckers A Very Stable Genius to Anonymouss A Warning to Omarosa Manigault Newmans Unhinged to John Boltons The Room Where It Happened has painted fundamentally the same picture: a chaotic, lawless administration orbiting around a reckless, distractible, corrupt, overmatched, and disinterested chief executive.
snip//
Both Trump and congressional Republicans are treating the condition of the country as something that has been done to them. In part, this is simply an extension of a strategy that showed some chance of working six months ago: Ride the economic expansion that began under Obama to victory in 2020. It wasnt clear it would be enough Trump trailed Biden then, too but it was plausible.
Then, however, the tide turned, and so the posture of taking credit became a reality of absorbing blame. That a serious, determined approach to governance could have won public support as has proven true for Republican and Democratic governors alike seems not to have dawned on Trump. For all his strongman pretensions, he and his national allies are afflicted by a passivity thats proving lethal, for both their constituents and their careers.
How can you be a governing party if one of your principles is being against government? asks Stevens. Its that line of Ronald Reagans: The most dangerous words are Im from the government and Im here to help. This was a time we needed the federal government to save peoples lives, and it just imploded.
This is the problem Trump faces in 2020, and it will not be solved by tweets or Facebook strategy. He is falling in the polls because he is failing the country.
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Ezra Klein: Trump's reality TV presidency is being crushed by reality (Original Post)
babylonsister
Jun 2020
OP
kimbutgar
(21,157 posts)1. Terrible leader, terrible person and terrifying cult followers.
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)2. Excellent synopsis and on spot.
malaise
(269,049 posts)3. I find that line so ridiculous - they are governing
they are governing for themselves and their billionaire friends - they don't give a flying fuck about anyone else.
Wounded Bear
(58,664 posts)7. Democrats govern, Repubs try to rule...
hatrack
(59,587 posts)4. "UNINTERESTED", not "disinterested". Jesus, Ezra, you get paid to write . . . .
That jumped out at me.
leftieNanner
(15,119 posts)5. Very good article
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.