Jane Coaston

I hate everyone.

Nobody cares.

Right.

But that's not what they're doing.

And there does seem to be.

a sense like, yes, Donald Trump will invent polls in which he's doing amazing.

Like, I think that over the last couple of days, he was posting about how like, you know, I'm doing so great in this poll, but it was like a poll of Trump supporters, which like, sure, like, whatever.

But I think that the perception management is still key.

There is a sense of like,

We want to be liked.

And I think that that actually, in a funny way, ties back to, you know, I've been thinking a lot about the alleged conservative uproar over the Bad Bunny halftime show, which unless you are being paid to be mad about it, you are not actually mad about it.

Like there are people who are getting their checks there.

And I'm like, God bless you.

That mortgage payment came and you were like, well, looks like I'm going to discover what I'm mad about today.

But

There is nothing, I think, the American right wants more, even with having political power.

Elizabeth Bruning made this point years ago.

She writes for The Atlantic that the left has cultural power but wants political power, and the right has political power but wants cultural power.

They want so badly to not just be feared but also liked, which are not the same thing.

You know, there are DHS –