In 2016, we self-absorbed, righteous, liberal Democrats laughed when Donald Trump, the failed businessman turned entertainer, staged a theatrical made-for-TV moment on the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president. It was jokish; Melania, the beautiful accessory trailing dutifully behind. He told us he was running because Mexican rapists and criminal elements were invading “our” country and that he could return America to greatness.
Today, on the 5th of July four years later, it seems appropriate to put that event in some kind of historical context. No one imagined a Trump victory in 2016 but it happened, and here we are in 2020 faced with an emboldened, delusional Donald Trump asserting that left wing, liberal, socialist elites are relentlessly campaigning to undermine his legitimacy and the democracy of “our” founding fathers.