Troll on Troll Violence -- the unprecedented political logic of 2024

This is a unique ad for a unique presidential election and I have to admit, I may have missed its larger significance on first viewing. Take a minute and watch this. It is very well done and, unless I'm missing an obvious counterexample, unlike anything we've seen before





My first reaction was that this is a spectacularly adept bit of trolling, part of the larger campaign of the Lincoln project and George Conway's psycho-pac to ratchet up the stress on the already erratic Trump, sometimes going so far as to buy airtime in West Palm Beach on channels the former president is known to watch. This is not that different than the tactics Harris used in the debate to devastating effect.

There's always been an element of mind games in presidential politics I'm certain that Johnson's team was hoping that their ads would keep Goldwater off balance, the same with Bush and Dukakis, but their opponents were not the primary intended audience. Nixon in 1972 may have come closer and if anything played dirtier, but I can't think of any direct parallel there either.

We never seen this kind of psychological warfare against a candidate during the general election, because we've never had a candidate like Donald Trump. No one has been this easy to manipulate and distract.

Now that I think about it, however, I suspect there is a larger intended secondary audience. You can't be more unique, but 2024 reminds us you can be unique in more ways. In this case, the relationship between the president and the vice president is, at least in degree, unprecedented in modern politics. We've had tickets where the presidential and vice presidential candidates didn't like each other, had serious ideological disagreements, even had a history of mutual criticism, but we have never had a pair like Donald Trump and JD Vance. Today's Republican Party is hardwired to see conspiracies and betrayal in every shadow. The idea of that billionaire tech moguls have cooked up a scheme to put their own Manchurian Candidate into office is alluring (and before I get any snide comments, the Manchurian candidate was not Raymond Shaw; it was Raymond Shaw's stepfather). Hell, I'm not entirely certain it's wrong.

It is impossible to say how it would play out if such a theory were to gain a foothold in MAGA. The cult members will almost certainly remain faithful to Trump, but would they be as eager to vote if they believed they were actually helping a nefarious plot? Could some simply wash their hands of the election? Would Vance start facing hostile crowns when trying to campaign? Will the campaign find itself having to spend its time debunking these conspiracy theories rather than promoting the ones it creates?

There's no telling what if any impact this would have, but the only way I could see it being good for the Republicans is if the New York Times editorial board believes it and decides they can go easy on Trump. (I might not be joking.)