The reason “thug,” “gangster,” “king,” and “fascist” so often bounce off Trump is that those words are meant as moral indictments, but they arrive wearing jackboots, a crown, and a soundtrack. They do not paint him as helpless. They paint him as a man who can terrify enemies and impose outcomes. In a TV-soaked political culture, that reads less like disqualification than presidential virility.

American politics has a graveyard full of men who died from the opposite disease: looking weak. Adlai Stevenson was the elegant “egghead.” Michael Dukakis put on the tank helmet and looked like a substitute teacher on a field trip to the motor pool. John Kerry had medals, but got turned into a windsurfing, French-looking, flip-flopping rich guy who seemed to deliberate while Bush decided. Howard Dean did one crazed yell and suddenly looked like he could not govern a lunch line. George H. W. Bush spent years haunted by the phrase “wimp factor.” Jeb Bush got machine-gunned with “low energy.” Jimmy Carter got wrapped in malaise, hostage humiliation, and the feeling that history was happening to him rather than through him.

That is the point. In presidential politics, “dangerous” sits next to “strong,” but “hesitant,” “careful,” and “thoughtful” sit next to “weak.” Voters say they want virtue and stability, then respond to swagger, theatrical force, and the fantasy of command. Trump, elderly and absurd as he is, still benefits from being cast as the barbarian at the gate rather than the hall monitor in the doorway. A barbarian can be feared, hated, mocked, and despised, but he is still granted potency. The hall monitor gets ignored.

So when people call Trump a fascist or a gangster, they may think they are shrinking him. Often they are doing the opposite. They are giving him the Idiocracy treatment: turning him into President Camacho for people who think politics is not a moral test but a televised cage match. In that arena, the dangerous lunatic often outruns the guy who looks like he needs permission.

I can also make these even nastier and more Facebook-native.