Why Trump voters are hurting their own cause in the midterms

This should be evident from reverse psychology “attack ads” Democrats have been running to boost Trumpier candidates in key Republican primaries. But, of course, that sort of thing is most obvious to political professionals or to very online political junkies — except the very online political junkies who are showing up in primaries to vote for Trump’s acolytes are not reading the kinds of news sources where they’ll learn that they’re getting played.

This is the tragedy of Republican politics right now. It looks increasingly clear that Trump is doing more damage to the Republican Party than to the “establishment” or the “deep state” or whoever it is that his most ardent supporters think they’re thwarting when they cast a vote for a Trump-endorsed candidate.

But that information cannot break through the reality distortion field that Trump has created around himself. The most influential parts of the conservative media ecosystem are not eager to give their audience the unwelcome news that a vote for a Trump candidate might well be a vote for that candidate’s Democratic opponent. Nor is the left-leaning mainstream media going to deliver that message successfully, because they long ago lost credibility with conservatives.