In any normal campaign season, now would be the time President Trump and his embattled Republican colleagues would be trying to expand their base. Given a generic congressional ballot that has consistently favored Democrats by
between 6 and 11 points, one would think appealing to the nation’s wary centrists and independents would be a matter of basic political survival for the Republican Party.
But this is not a normal campaign season, and Republicans aren’t led by a president with normal political concerns.
Almost one-fourth of Republicans now say they are
financially worse off under Trump than they were under Joe Biden. Rather than connect with voters’ anxieties, Trump has
raged against their ingratitude while
dismissing their economic woes as hoaxes and delusions. It is certainly a novel approach to electioneering.