Not Normal Is the New Normal

Michael Scherer: “When it comes to electoral politics, this is not normal long ago became the new normal. The latest transgression by the transgressor in chief just doesn’t seem to move the needle. (Send a bodyguard to raid a doctor’s office? Yawn.) Barring something major, like firing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, it’s not clear the daily outrages have much more downside. And that’s good news for President Trump, who needs the upside of outrage to stay afloat.”

“Though many who work in Washington are wary of saying it, Trump’s big gambit has so far paid off — at least for him. He broke onto the scene as a political punchline making an argument no one else dared: He would gain more from breaking political, democratic and social norms than he would lose. To put it another way, losers behave like elites. Winners speculate baselessly about President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.”