Fred is right; Trump's secret sauce was he never sat down; he never shut up. It didn't matter how stupid what he said was, he was taking over the narrative because the press let him. It's now clear that Americans prefer performance over governance so if we want to govern again, we better perform.
Say that.
1000%. “Strong and wrong is, sadly, better than right”
Except the key here is "the press let him". That's the exact damn problem now, isn't it? The press acquiesces to the GOP and Trump and flavors all their coverage in their favor. But when Dems try to do the same strategy? The press gives scorn, rage, accusations of being the "real fascists" etc.
And we're seeing that exact dynamic right now: the media, not just legacy media but even social media, gilding GOP actions in the most generous terms while every Dem action is put under a microscope and treated as negatively as possible, if it deigns to recognize Dem action all where/when it happens
So Democrats should be more like offensive fascist wannabe dictators and his goons? Trump has no secret sauce. He just gives racist sexist bigots an excuse to be as awful as he is. THE PRESS LETS HIM, as you note. They don’t do that for Democrats.