'Old, Weird and Tired': Columnist Says 'Sanewashing' Can't Clean Up Trump's Debate Performance

[babylonsister]

‘Old, Weird and Tired’: Columnist Says ‘Sanewashing’ Can’t Clean Up Trump’s Debate Performance
by Alex Henderson | September 12, 2024 - 6:24am

— from Alternet

snip//

In a scathing article published the morning after the debate, Salon's Amanda Marcotte stresses that all the "sanewashing" in the world cannot clean up Trump's "weird" and "bizarre" debate performance.

Sanewashing is a slang expression that means trying to make extreme ideas seem rational. And the debate, Marcotte argues, was a nonstop demonstration of how unfit for the White House Trump is.

"Old, weird, and tired: Trump knew those were the words he had to contend with going into the debate," Marcotte explains. "Yet he couldn't help but prove the charge. As practiced a liar as Trump is, he can't hide who he is and how much worse he's getting. He spent the debate vomiting out all the weirdest right-wing conspiracy theories as though he was a scowling human embodiment of an illiterate MAGA meme."

Marcotte continues, "He belched out a bizarre fantasy that doctors commit 'execution after birth,' which drew a fact-check from moderator Linsey Davis. He yelled a lie about how immigrants are 'eating the dogs' and 'eating the cats,' which triggered another fact check by moderator David Muir. He sounded very much like a chatbot programmed to speak only in far-right phrases, except worse, because it's shorting out. If that sounds like an exaggeration, it's not. He literally said, at one point, 'She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.'"

If Harris' goal was to bait Trump into showing how unhinged he is, Marcotte writes, she was wildly successful.

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http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/alex-henderson/111526/old-weird-and-tired-columnist-says-sanewashing-can-t-clean-up-trump-s-debate-performance

[mucholderthandirt]

1. Her goal was exactly to show Trump as he really was, to get him rattled and spouting the usual nonsense.

And of course, he provided the circus, as expected. No drugged down sleepy Don, we got the full-on ranting like a madman experience.

Kamala Harris could sell a course on how to debate people like Trump. She learned how being a prosecutor, letting the defendant show their true colors to the jury. There are a few others in our party that can do it, Jasmine Crockett is one that comes to mind.

[Martin68]

2. I think the sanewashing shelf life has reached its limit, and just isn't working the way it used to. You can

sanewash Trump as much as you like, but it won't make him look any better anymore.

[pansypoo53219]

3. i prefer creapy to weird. spider GAH! creapy.

[IbogaProject]

4. I'm ok with sanewashing

As long as it casts light on the corporate media's extreme biases.