What I think might be dooming Democrats is the reaction to these events -- first, the weeks-long, very public undermining of Biden (and, to a lesser extent, Vice President Harris) by fellow Democrats and Democratic donors, and now the media's pro-Trump mythmaking. One example is CNN's Van Jones saying this:
But today is a terrible day. If you pull back and look at this thing – strength versus weakness – a bullet couldn’t stop Trump, a virus just stopped Biden.Jones's words are echoed by Shane Goldmacher and Lisa Lerer in The New York Times:
An extraordinary three weeks in American politics took another surprise turn, after the White House announced on Wednesday that Mr. Biden had contracted Covid, forcing the president into physical isolation just as his presidential candidacy hung in the balance....Here's a simple statement of fact: Most people would have survived Trump's wound. Joe Biden would have survived Trump's wound. If Biden had experienced that kind of graze wound, he would have been walking around the next day with a bandage on his ear. (And the Republicans who are treating Trump's bandage as if it's a holy talisman would be mocking Biden's bandage. We all remember how they questioned the severity of the wounds that won John Kerry three Purple Hearts by wearing "Purple Heart Band-Aids" at the 2004 Republican convention. The wound that won Kerry his first Purple Heart was minor, but the wounds that led to his second and third Purple Hearts were much more significant than the one Trump suffered.)
For a fleeting few hours on Wednesday, the two presidents presented starkly dueling images that fed into the very story line Republicans were unspooling at their convention — that Mr. Trump was strong and Mr. Biden was weak. One was flying to his beach house on Air Force One to enter seclusion as his party fractured around him; the other was welcomed as a wounded hero by thousands of cheering supporters, some of whom bandaged their ears in a show of solidarity.
And Biden is very likely to survive COVID. He disembarked from Air Force One unaided. We don't know how Trump would respond to COVID now, though we know he barely survived his 2020 bout. I don't recall anyone in the media arguing in 2020 that Trump's COVID was a metaphor for his weakness.
Many liberals believe that the mainstream media valorizes Trump because media owners, being wealthy, want him to win. I think that's a factor -- but I think many reporters, especially male reporters, are responding to something more visceral in Trump's stagecraft and showmanship. He carries himself like a Big Man on Campus. He's the alpha jock, and betas bend to his will. I think many male reporters were high school nerds who internalized hatred of themselves and admiration of big dumb jocks like Trump.
Trump isn't a smart man, but he knows how to manipulate people who thrill to the sight of an alpha beating his chest. When he got home from the hospital after being treated for COVID, he went straight to a balcony and melodramatically removed his mask. A few seconds after the shooting, he pumped his fist and repeatedly said, "Fight! Fight!" (no link needed, obviously -- we've all seen this way too often). We don't have any evidence that a broad cross-section of voters respond to this -- all Republicans seem to, as do some men who are outside the GOP's usual base. On the other hand, it's repellent to people who hate macho posturing.
But there don't seem to be very many haters of macho posturing in the mainstream media. Mainstream reporters see the world in terms of alphas and betas. Democrats were fortunate in 1992 and 2008 to pick nominees who could satisfy this media craving. But Republicans are satisfying it now.
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