If he finds Harris alluring, there is no doubt in his mind that America will too.
 

This is an edition of Brooklyn, Everywhere, in which a native Brooklynite ponders the many meanings of gentrification and what we lose in our relentless pursuit of “the American dream.”

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(Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Collection Christophel / Alamy; Max Mumby / Indigo / Getty.)

 

Donald Trump has a remarkably binary view of the world: Walls are good; migrants are bad. Tariffs are good; taxes are bad. People who love Trump are good; those who don’t are bad. And women are hot—or not.

Trump cares about everyone’s looks, of course. But as a former owner of the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants, he is a self-proclaimed expert on women’s beauty. He spent multiple appearances on The Howard Stern Show rating women on a numeric scale. You can see him, like a teenage boy, sizing up every woman he encounters.

This is boorish, of course, but politically, it has proved useful. When he thinks a woman is unattractive, Trump has an easy way to dismiss her …

Erotic appeal is a form of power that Trump seems to actually respect. By declaring these women undesirable, Trump has portrayed them not just as bossy, unattractive shrews, but as weak.

When Trump thinks a woman is hot, however, the situation gets a lot more complicated. And Trump thinks Kamala Harris, whom he will face for the first time onstage in tomorrow’s debate, is a certified hottie.

How does democracy end? Find out in a new podcast.

 

There are authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States. To root them out, you have to know where to look. Listen to Autocracy in America, hosted by Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev, wherever you get your podcasts.

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