It may not be helping Trump, but hasn't hurt in any way that turns up in the (for what they're worth) polls. In a secular, multiracial, republic, bald assertions of blood-and-soil nationalism, or throne-and-altar conservatism _should_ hurt you. But then, I _should_ still be young and thin.

Progressive _policies_ are popular -- but this isn't reflected in election results. People aren't going to the polls to choose between competing policy slates, or theories of government. They're not even choosing magistrates. They're hunting up a stick to whale on people they don't like.

Ever seen anyone not-running for president as hard as Newsom?

How much of that is reading? It surely helps to have run hundreds of thousands of at least functional paragraphs and sentences through your head before turning to the writing task in earnest. Do you find many good writers who weren't avid readers? Not just serviceable ones, but good ones?

Kids will tell you that your best bets for license plate bingo up here are either the LL Bean main parking lot in Freeport -- or chain motel parking lots after an ice storm.

Tenants of white supremacy have an alarming tendency to skip out on the rent.

Always worth asking "Who decides what things are The Things Everyone Knows™?" It's not the product of spontaneous generation.

It's always worth asking "Who decides what becomes the Things Everyone Knows™ ?"

Not an uncommon story, either. You can name three such towns/cities without much thought, no matter where you live - North or South, or Midwest. It's a sea-change as mighty as the Great Migration, and with similarly-scaled knock-on effects. But it's diffuse.... so largely unheralded

Followed by a turn to the party out of power (by which the White House, and only the White House) in the next election. 1932 all over again, only with the R's on the winning end.