I'm pretty sure that Jeffrey Goldberg and The Atlantic didn't mean to suggest that Donald Trump is riding to the rescue, braving the swamps of the District of Columbia in order to drive out the alligators that populate the D.C. swamp. 

But that is the message that MAGA folks got out of the magazine's dark and brooding cover. 

This looks to me like Trump's coming to rescue us from the desolation and destruction created by the Swamp, and he's dragging the rest of the "do nothing" Republicans with him. pic.twitter.com/HPZZuCuRC9

— Jellenne 🇺🇸🌵🌞 (@jellen805) September 9, 2024

The Atlantic, as I have often noted, is a frustrating magazine for me. Within its pages have been printed some truly excellent writing, but during the Trump era, its writers and editors have been remarkably deranged about anything Trump-related. 

Never Trumpers remind me of the witch-burning scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The villagers (average Democrats) on the rampage identify a "witch," and the elevated intellectual knight calmly explains how to test the accused to see if she is a witch. 

The intellectual explanation, of course, is even more ridiculous than the rampaging ignoramuses. The Atlantic plays the role of the knight. 

In today's world Trump haters come in two similar flavors: those who just hate Trump and those who come up with ridiculous excuses to hate Trump. If you are viewing their behavior from the outside both look insane. 

No doubt the editors at The Atlantic look at their cover and fear for the fate of their beloved D.C. power structure, but when I look at that picture I see Trump bravely riding into Mordor toward Mount Doom to destroy the Ring of Power. It is weird that liberals would look at that image and think "I want Washington D.C. to remain like that."

What's striking about the cover and the cover story is the assumption that Trump has imprisoned the Republicans and is taking them unwillingly in the direction he wants. That is, of course, delusional. Republicans chose Trump in a series of primaries, and almost every Republican is committed to voting for him. According to the latest New York Times poll at least 95% of Republicans are set to vote for Trump--a larger fraction of the party than Democrats who plan to vote for Harris. 

Liberals see Establishment Republicans as spineless for not taking on Trump. Republicans see any Republican who secretly harbors a desire for Trump to lose as part of the Uniparty and in need of a new line of work. Any conservative who believes, secretly or not, that the country would be better off under a Harris administration isn't thinking of the country, but of himself. 

When I look at that cover it seems to me that Washington is that dark swamp, and Trump is riding to the rescue. It's not scary; it's a sign of hope. 

As with so many heroes he is deeply flawed, and perhaps once he cleans up the town it would be better for him to ride off into the sunset. 

But it takes a strong man willing to do dirty work to clean some situations up, and if there were ever a time when that has been the case in America, this would be it.