Democrats believe that elections are one by spirited debates. Making cogent arguments to convince voters that your candidate should prevail in a free and fair election. Balder and dash, I say! Elections are won by focusing on some characteristic flaw of a candidate and then just harping on it to the exclusion of almost everything else. It's a key reason why Democrats frequently lose elections that they should have won. Republicans are very good at this, and Trump is particularly good at it. He knows something about key portions of the electorate that we don't seem to grasp. We better start grasping it in a hurry. Here are a few of the rules in Trumpworld. Like it or not, we live in that world to a great extent.
1. Funny beats facts. A hilarious speech crushes a serious speech. There really is no contest. A hilarious speech that exaggerates your opponent's personal flaws or deficiencies is gold. Democrats usually suck so bad at this that it is embarrassing. And we shouldn't! We have an opponent who is comedy gold, people. Trump is a swirling mass of inane utterances. Why are we not doing to him what Late Night has been doing for years? We also have some tremendous Trump mimics likely available to us. How about a Trump mimicry contest? Hilarious and mocks a guy who just can't take a joke. Hell, invite him to be a judge!
2. Find your opponent's weak spot and lean on it. Why did Trump bang on about her emails? Because it really doesn't matter what that weakness is. You just keep on bashing away and people will start taking it seriously. Why does Trump and his troll army keep going on about Biden's age? Because it works and is working better than ever. Who started the whole thing about his age? Right, Trump. Because he has a reptilian instinct about vulnerability in people. It's his evil super-power. Granted, Republicans have done this for a long time (Flip-flop, Willie Horton). But Trump is, dare I say, something of a genius in this regard. Just why is this so successful? Because it puts the opponent on the defensive. If you are defending, you are losing, which is why we are currently losing.
3. Make the campaign about your opponent. I can't help but mention that I said long ago that a debate was an incredibly stupid idea at a number of levels. If this is what passes for judgment in the inner sanctum of the Biden campaign, words fail me. DO NOT GIVE YOUR OPPONENT OXYGEN! Is that clear enough? FFS, people. You don't debate traitors; you beat them. If Biden agrees to a second debate, he is doubly a fool. I hardly need to mention that the format was almost designed to make Joe look bad. Trump loves TV. He is really good at it. Joe is not - really, not - good at it. His sweet spot is live audiences. He loves people and people like him. It shows.
The second part of this aphorism is to focus on a key weakness of your opponent and make that characteristic the thing that people think when they hear his name. Fortunately, Trump has already told us what that weakness is. He is cognitively impaired. He is obsessed with it, which is why he started in on Biden so early. It is incumbent on the Biden campaign to demonstrate that Trump is an ignorant, demented nutcase. Since we have literally hundreds of clips of his raving about sharks, electric boats, windmills, etc, etc, that shouldn't be too hard, except for one thing.
4. Repetition. I better say that again: repetition. You cannot just do a few ads. You have to plant stories in the press. You have to put up billboards. You have to run short, sharp, funny ads on TV and other kinds of media (FN, Tik-Tok). You have to be relentless. Every time someone hears the name Trump, they should think kook. Turn Trump into Abe Simpson. And, please, people, we don't need a sober debate of the issues. The issue is Trump and only Trump.