The Weekly Flail — April 5, 2024

POLITICS

America- We are in a continuing cycle of fear and loathing as the media struggles to make Donald Trump threatening. Lexington, in this week’s Economist, makes a good point I think:

In response to last week’s newsletter about former appointees of Donald Trump who have repudiated him, Matthew Musick of Honaker, Virginia wrote to muse that, perhaps in another time or place, a character as extraordinary as Mr Trump “would sound farcical in the extreme and of course humorous”.

“I am no Democrat, he wrote, “but I will say adamantly: it is a shame when we cannot laugh at a fool. Laughter is probably the one thing that would irk him most.”

Mr Musick’s summons to laughter may aggravate not only supporters of Mr Trump but also the Democrats who regard him as a menace. But I think he is right to observe: “Americans seem to be losing their ability to laugh at themselves.”

Is Donald Trump funny? Yes, he is a pathetic, aged snake oil salesman pretending to be something else. Are the people behind him dangerous? Yes, but they also seem to be fools, some with money, except for the few who have achieved the banality of evil.

Looking at everything from political contributions to every electoral contest in the last three years, Trump himself is not a threat. The…