Milbank: Thumping Trump the best way for democracy to win

The crowd roared its approval.

Obama’s speech is part of a push by the Clinton campaign to expand the electoral battleground into reliably Republican states such as Texas, Georgia, Utah, Alaska and, particularly, Arizona, that have been put into play by Trump’s outrages. The Clinton campaign, which already has 32 offices and 160 staffers in Arizona, announced last week that it is spending another $2 million here and dispatched Bernie Sanders, Chelsea Clinton and the first lady to campaign in the state.

As a matter of math, Arizona is irrelevant: If Clinton is doing well enough to win here, she will already have locked up the election elsewhere. But if Trump is to be denied in his bid to subvert democratic institutions by claiming a rigged election, he needs to be defeated resoundingly.

The need to deal Trump a humiliating defeat has a sociological basis in the “degradation ceremony” in which the perpetrator (Trump) is held by denouncers (those with influence) to be morally unacceptable, and witnesses (public) agree that the perpetrator is no longer held in good standing.

Psychologist Wynn Schwartz, who teaches at Harvard Medical School, explained to me that what’s needed to have a successful degradation of Trump is an epic defeat. “If it is lopsided enough,” he said, “you don’t have critical masses of people who feel disenfranchised” or “who feel justified in saying that it was stolen.”

But if Clinton’s victory is narrow, the degradation ceremony fails, because a large chunk of the population feels swindled and remains loyal to Trump. Hence the importance of a landslide.

Arizona is key to rebuke

Arizona would offer an ideal rebuke. Carolyn Goldwater Ross, granddaughter of the conservative icon, introduced Obama on Thursday by saying, “I come from a long line of Republicans and I’ve stayed independent. … But this time it’s different.”

Apparently, many Arizonans agree. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the anti-immigrant icon and Trump backer, is trailing his Democratic opponent by 15 points in polling. The newspaper endorsed Clinton, its first embrace of a Democrat for president in its 126-year history. Arizona’s junior Republican Sen. Jeff Flake is a Trump critic, senior Republican Sen. John McCain has been attacked by Trump, and former Republican Attorney General Grant Woods has endorsed Clinton.

The first lady, in her fiery speech, reached out to Republicans offended by Trump’s disregard for democratic process.

“Our democracy is revered around the world, and free elections are the best way on earth to choose our leaders,” she said. “This is how we elected John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, two George Bushes, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.”

That’s right. This isn’t Trump v. Clinton but Trump v. Democracy. And the way to degrade the threat is to defeat Trump, convincingly.