No. of Recommendations: 7
While I appreciate the honesty about Trump, it sure seems like a double standard to say that it doesn't matter if Trump is a sleazebag, but it does matter that Biden is a sleazebag.
I think the point is slightly different. It matters if Trump is a sleazebag...but it stops mattering so much if Biden is also a sleazebag.
The idea is to create a permission structure for people to vote for Trump. Most people, in the abstract, don't want to vote for a sleazebag. They don't imagine they ever would vote for a sleazebag. So if your candidate is a sleazebag, people will not be happy about voting for him.
But one way to eliminate (or reduce) their unhappiness is if there is a permission structure that allows them to justify their vote. They don't want to vote for a sleazebag...but if both candidates are sleazebags, then there's no escaping it. So it's no longer a bad thing for them to vote for a sleazebag, because they don't really have a choice. It cancels out. They're not doing a bad thing voting for a sleazebag, because everyone's voting for a sleazebag.
In fact, the other folks are worse! They're being all hypocritical judging me for voting for my preferred sleazebag, lecturing me about how bad it is to vote for a sleazebag - when they're voting for a sleazebag too! At least I'm honest that my guy is a sleazebag - they're the ones just lying to themselves and everyone else about their guy.
Believing in all that makes it so much easier to vote for Trump. It frees you from the need to deny that Trump is a sleazebag (which is hard) or to create a rationalization for voting for a sleazebag (which is harder). That's the good work that Comer was doing for the GOP - not heading towards any type of formal action against Biden, but creating that permission structure for Trump supporters to be free to love their guy again.
