IS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ROOTING FOR A CLUBBABLE TRUMP?

J.D. Vance praises Tucker Carlson and pals around with Steve Bannon. He wrote and deleted a tweet in which he called himself "a nationalist who worries about America's low fertility." In May, he gave a speech in which he suggested that Amazon funds Black Lives Matter in the hope that riots will wipe out Amazon's brick-and-mortar competitors (because, y'know, all Those People ever do is riot):

... Jeff Bezos [is] one of the largest funders of the Black Lives Matter movement, to the tune of millions of dollars. Now who benefits most when small businesses on Main Street are destroyed? Who wants to see their competitors unable to deliver goods and services to people so they get it delivered in the Amazon box? Jeff Bezos. There is a direct connection between woke capital and the plunder that’s happening in our society today. The people who are invested in destroying America via our corporate class are also getting rich from it. This is an important piece of the puzzle to understand.

In the same speech, Vance told his right-wing audience that

if our enemies are using guns and bazookas, we damn well better fight back with more than wet noodles. We need to use the same means if we’re actually going to win this fight.

-- which sounds to me like a call for physical violence.

I know we're all supposed to believe that Vance is a phony -- he recently deleted a number of old tweets criticizing Donald Trump -- but let's not forget that Trump flip-flopped on many issues, then became, on abortion, immigration, and many other issues, an extraordinarily doctrinaire right-winger as president.

Vance is now officially a candidate for Senate in Ohio, and the national press clearly wants to make him a star. Axios is already offering to help him measure the White House drapes:

Why he matters: Vance, 36, last week joined a crowded GOP primary field to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman. If Vance won the primary (no sure thing), he'd be the favorite to win the seat — and instantly would be talked about as a presidential possibility.

But of course. Trump is crude, gauche, and showoffy. Vance is a young former finance bro with a dadbod. In other words, he's the media's kind of guy. The humble-origins backstory increases his appeal, as it did for Bill Clinton and, to some extent, Barack Obama. But the bro-ishness is key.

As I've said before, the mainstream press might embrace the notion of Democratic rule after a Republican president has really screwed the pooch, but the press hates Democrats once they're actually governing. Then it's time for a new Republican -- and it would be especially delightful if the next great GOP hope could be sold as fresh young talent a la Clinton, Obama, or JFK.

And if he's a fascist, who cares?