Trump’s critics are one reason he’s President

The build-up to the US presidential elections is going to seem a whole lot longer than the few months of juvenile tribalism we still have to endure.

Already the news bulletins are full of pictures of Donald Trump shouting into (half empty) stadiums and grown men who think baseball caps work well with a suit and tie (each to their own, I’m no fashion expert).

This will be offset by angry, over-earnest types who think the way to bring down Trump is to constantly shout terms like ‘racist!’ and ‘sexist!, as if everyone else will suddenly have a moment of clarity. It might have escaped their notice but this tactic didn’t work too well for Hilary Clinton and her supporters last time.

It’s almost as if self-righteous fingerwagging and namecalling is not the best way to achieve mass appeal. See also: last year’s UK elections.

The army of people make a virtue - and a living, in some cases - of shouting down Trump should maybe look instead at the reasons he’s in The White House, rather than just labouring the point about how awful he is (don’t forget, we can see for ourselves).

Trump was elected in the first place because of the failure to present an appealing alternative for floating - or ‘normal’ - voters. Most people just want practical politics, not holier-than-thou middle class radicalism. They probably don’t particularly want boorish insults and bovine sloganeering either, so why not leave your right-on dogma at the door and come up with something better?

On the plus side for the anti-Trumpers many of whom would actually be bereft if he lost in November - the Los Angeles Times reports this week that his Democratic rival Joe Biden is ‘not as disliked as Clinton’. Something to work with there.

If I was a US election strategist, I’d suggest giving up on the endless whining and instead present a more constructive argument than not being Donald Trump. And jokes about his hair are unlikely to win you a landslide.

‘People want practical politics, not holierthan-thou middle class radicalism. They probably don’t want boorish insults either’