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Let’s talk about the other, equally if not more dangerous people who are using trump as cover and will emerge when the time is right. Let’s talk about all the Youngkins out there who will say one thing and be another and how and why they are getting away with the ruse. trump is who he is and we know who he is. I’m way more worried about the shadow people milling around behind him.

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Donald Trump might not be holding office, but he is not out of the political scene. Currently, he does NOT take up all the oxygen in the room because he is not on Twitter. Other presidents went off into retirement quietly. They went on vacation, worked on books and presidential libraries,

painted, did charitable good works. Trump has no inner core to sustain him. I think it was Anthony Schwartz who said Trump was empty, that all there was to him was what you saw. He is and always has been focused on himself. He was a “useful tool” for GOP. He did expose the many numerous flaws in our system.

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I take your point that Trump is largely out of sight - but he is very much in sight for his people, particularly through right-wing "news" outlets like Fox and the rest. I think the interview that Lovett did with Jen Psaki is illustrative of this - she made a point about their alternate universe, and that can't be underestimated. I think that is why he got so many votes last time. I'm grateful other outlets have stopped covering his b.s., but there is still a market for it.

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Please, Mr Bloomberg. Buy Fox News. Pay double for it.

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I suppose (and hope) that a Trump wannabe, at least the ones who have emerged so far, will be more beatable than Trump, who seems to have a supernatural power to draw new voters out from under rocks, rotted tree stumps, and some fundamentalist churches.

DeSantis won the FL governorship by only 32,000 votes. He’s a poor campaigner, is flustered and insulted by media questions, and only won by dint of an excellent ground game and “socialist” lies about his opponent in South Florida, all served up by a first-rate campaign manager. Trump is over-bearing which looks strong in the moment. Trump can emotionally connect with his supporters. DeSantis doesn’t have that knack. He flails and complains.

And can anyone imagine Ted Cruz drawing marginal voters to his cause? Or Josh Hawley? Marco Rubio? Rick Scott? No, Trump has an emotional hold on his voters in the same way that George Wallace did with his.

I fear Trump would be that toss of a coin away from winning, as Dan said. He is worse than Wallace. George wanted to change the country by pushing it back into its Jim Crow/Reconstruction past. Trump wants to destroy it.

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This feels like an opportunity for local action now heading toward 11/8. We don't have to pull a McAuliffe and overly Trumpify GOP candidates. But we could maybe hammer he tiny wedge in the GOP a little bit further, peel off a few NAVs, and maybe even a couple R voters if we're lucky, by getting local R candidates to pick a side now, ahead of the primaries. And by "local" I include everything from the school board to the House. Maybe something along the thread of: "From (local issue) to (local issue), we can't expect good-faith debate, coherent policy, or informed votes from a candidate who is detached from reality or who embraces violence. So, it is important for candidates to tell voters now: Do they understand that the 2020 election was secure and fair? And do they believe the violence of 1/6 was legitimate political discourse?"

At a minimum, it would remind people what Republicans have done, and hopefully give a few a bit of agita.

Would there be a down side to that message?

Dunno. You people are smart. What do you think?

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As my social-justice-warrior grandma used to say, "From your lips to God's ear."

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