"... in the Trump matter. And how could Biden not be grateful? He’s trailing Trump in the polls, is facing an electorate that largely believes he is too old for a second term, and is underwater in approval ratings for his handling of most issues."
Writes Byron York (at the Washington Examiner).
The joke:
Writes Byron York (at the Washington Examiner).
The joke:
“Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone. Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ And I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.'”
Meanwhile, Trump has jokes too, and over at Politico, Michael Kruse is trying to convince us that there's something terribly wrong with that: "In on the Joke: The Comedic Trick Trump Uses to Normalize His Behavior/His supporters love it. Critics call it a sign of his autocratic tendencies."
Autocratic tendencies... can you believe it? He unleashed the deadly power of... humor.
His critics along with experts in rhetoric and nationalist and populist movements and leaders say... the mirth masks the menace....“He’s always been funny,” Jen Mercieca, the author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, told me — “branding” and “framing” his foes in a way that “undermines their credibility” and “reaffirms the us-versus-them polarization” all “under the guise of just joking.” Practically every joke is “an in-group and out-group joke,” and “laughing at the joke is a sign of loyalty,” Mercieca explained. “That,” she said, “is how autocrats work.”...
“Mussolini,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of Strongmen, told me, referring to 20th-century Italian fascist Benito Mussolini, “had the same twisted sense of humor” as Trump....
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/03/ha-ha-ha-media-audience-of-course.html
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