FTA:

A key challenge of our era has been to resist the temptation to constantly rage against Trump's latest antics--while making sure the silliness and buffoonery of Trumpism doesn't obscure how extreme and dangerous the situation is. We must not allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by the clownishness, the ridiculousness of this man and many of his most vocal followers. . . .

As we are all facing life under a clownish wannabe-authoritarian, it is worth grappling in earnest with the question of how we should calibrate our reactions to Trump. Some may think the "savvy" thing would be to just ignore his outlandish ramblings. As observers and citizens, we indeed need to be judicious about where we focus our energies. But Trump is not some fringe extremist online provocateur who is best dealt with by not dealing with him. And when people reflexively declare his public utterances a distraction, I sometimes find myself wondering: A distraction from what? Let's not pretend the Trumpian drama is just noise than can be neatly separated from the *real* work of doing politics. There is a fine line between staying focused on the bigger picture and clinging to a version of "normalcy" that has little to do with a political reality shaped and distorted by Trumpian extremism. The president's words have power, Trump is about to be president --and he comes with a whole machinery of rightwing activists, intellectuals, and media propagandists who will do as he says and do their best to make sure reality adjusts.

Then again, there is little use in being outraged all the time. It is exhausting, mentally and emotionally. Trump won't stop. We should not let him dictate the conversation so easily. There is also a risk of perpetuating the assertions of dominance behind Trump's musings. Not much separates raging at his every word from despairing over our supposedly hopeless situation. MAGA desires to project power and strength-- something we should subvert rather than confirm. Let's not indulge the false bravado.