How to Unlock the Authenticity Trap

(Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Bulwark | Photos Shutterstock)After both of Donald Trump’s election wins, the election punditry industrial complex decided that Democrats needed to run candidates who “talk like a normal person,” weren’t “grown in vats,” and can relate to voters like real people.This is in large part a reaction to voters regularly noting that Trump is authentic because “he’s not a regular politician,” while viewing Kamala Harris as phony and inauthentic despite on paper being vastly more qualified than Trump. After all, Trump authentically tried to overturn an election.The word “authenticity” gets kicked around a lot, including by me. But, like a lot of buzzwords, it’s important to grapple with what we’re really talking about when we say “authenticity.”Before his dow