This country's past five presidents, Joe Biden, Trump, Barack Obama, George W. be. They were likely candidates you might enjoy having a beer with. But this was not the idea of the stiff, robotic Mr. DeSantis, who often seemed flustered when forced to have conversations with voters.
It was a reminder that despite all the ideological diatribes of the Trump era, some things will remain the same. This means that personality is important in the presidential system. Although great in theory, it wasn't all that appealing in practice. Trump didn't pretend to be competent. But he was funny, uninhibited and extraordinarily funny.
But what makes Trump truly unique is the paradoxical nature of his political orientation. Calling it even directional might overstate the problem, since it suggests consistency where there is none. Trumpism can be extreme without becoming dogmatic. That ideological lightness may sometimes even be mistaken for temperance, or, in the memorable words of author Matthew Yglesias, more accurately, “liberal moderation.”
Republicans are focusing on economic issues, not to mention believing the 2020 election was stolen, and while they may again support things like a Muslim ban. The political party that longed to privatize social security no longer exists. The small-government ambitions of former House Speaker and one-time Republican wunderkind Paul D. Ryan still inspire rote references. But under the Trump administration, politicians who might once have worried about ballooning budget deficits pushed through two of the largest stimulus programs in U.S. history.
After the election was allegedly stolen by Biden (more than 60% of Republicans still claim so), this Trump version of the Republican Party teamed up with Democrats to pass a historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. and the $280 billion Chips and Science Act. Promote domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research. Sure, it was still a chaotic party, but there was reason to hope it was more functional than anyone else's.
Even on culture war issues, President Trump's ideological strength tends to change depending on his mood. After DeSantis focused on fighting “woke” as his signature issue, Trump mocked him, saying, “I don't like the word woke, because woke… Because you hear, “I'm awake, I'm awake.'' It's just a word that they use.'' Half the people can't even define it. they don't know what it is. ' But just a few hours after saying this, he went back to using the word himself and made no apparent attempt to define it.
This is not a weakness. That's a strength. At a time when American politics revolves more around the intangibles of “who we are” than the policies we support, Trump’s credibility—honesty to be dishonest. His unabashed attitude and unapologetically putting self before country endear him to tens of millions of Americans. This is also what makes Trump a uniquely dangerous figure. Just as he is not guided by ideology, he is not limited by ideology either. He clearly does not believe in his ideas beyond his thoughts about himself and his greatness.
This distorted veracity and indifference to a greater cause or vision, combined with his charisma and comedic timing, is a kind of superpower. And there is hope in this. For better or worse, Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime political genius. It's hard to imagine a confluence of events that would produce someone comparable in the foreseeable future. This is at least reassuring.