Matt Yglesias: Orange Man Bad

Yes in some ways, no in others.

But this is unequivocally false, and only someone with one foot still in the echo chamber could think it:

The central political fact of our era is that Donald Trump is a total piece of shit and scumbag. It long ago became “cringe” to center one’s politics on this point, but it remains fundamentally true.

I mean, yeah, he's somewhat--though not totally--a piece of shit. And he's somewhat--though not totally, a scumbag. But the same can be said for most Presidents of my lifetime. What's absurd is to say that--even if Trump were a total piece of shit and a total scumbag--this would be the "central political fact of our era." (Though he's right to say that centering one's politics on the non-fact in question long ago became cringe...)

   The central political fact of our era, as any even vaguely objective person can see, is the radicalization and crazification of the American political left. And Trump is largely a consequence of that central political fact. There are a lot of people like me out there who would never even have considered voting for the Bad Orange Man if not for the unhinging of the left. In fact, even that unhinging didn't make me consider voting for him--I voted HRC in '16. Rather, the capitulation of the Democrats and the rest of the mainstream left to the radicals was also necessary. If the Dems had kept the radicals at arm's length, I'd likely still be voting blue.