The First Rule of Holes is that when you find yourself in one, stop digging. Steve’s Second Rule of Holes states that when your opponent is in one, send him a bigger and nicer shovel. The Progressives’ Third Rule of Holes is, if you think you’ve hit bottom, then get out the dynamite.
That is, at least, if I’m reading Chauncey DeVega correctly in Salon today.
DeVega launched his column with all the spittle-flecked invective expected by Salon readers, reminding them that Donald Trump will enact a “neofascist campaign to end America’s multiracial pluralistic democracy and turn the country into a version of Orban’s Hungary or Putin’s Russia, nullify the rule of law, ignore and stain the Constitution (and especially the Bill of Rights), make the country into a White Christian authoritarian state, betray America’s allies and friends, take even more of the American people’s money and give it to the richest corporations and individuals, and pull apart an already threadbare social safety net.”
Take a breath there, Chauncey.
After insisting that “Trump is going to be given a third term because the Constitution and rule of law increasingly no longer apply,” DeVega asked Berkeley political science professor M. Steven Fish for advice on what messaging the Democrats need.
“Trump tells people what he thinks and aims to change the way we think, while the Democrats wait for polling results and tell people what they think they want to hear,” Fish said of the party that is consistently on the 20-side of 80/20 issues like securing the border and keeping men out of women’s sports. If Democrats were such slaves to the polls, they’d hardly be recognizable as Democrats anymore.
There’s so much more at the link, all along these delusional lines.
To be fair, though, this former Bay Area resident would remind you that UC Berkeley does not exactly have its finger on the pulse of the nation. And the political science department barely has its finger on the zombified corpse of progressivism. I’d also add that my tiny, black, shriveled heart is filled with glee at the prospect that the Ideology Uber Alles wing is still in full charge of the Democratic Party.
It feels like I’m constantly reminding people that there’s no way the Democrats will stay this stupid forever. There comes a time when the need to just win some damn elections overcomes every other political instinct. And while the Democrats will eventually wise up, they have two obstacles to overcome — one of which might be unique in American political history.
The first is the party’s future — i.e., the youngest Democrat voters and elected officials are also the most ideologically motivated. They’re the American equivalent of Communist China’s Red Brigades, a topic I’ll get into deeper in this week’s Thursday Essay.
Bill Clinton was one of the youngest people elected president in 1992, in large part because the big-name party elders decided to sit that one out rather than face George H.W. Bush. Clinton promised to renegotiate, at least in part, FDR’s New Deal, which the elder Dems thought was sacred writ. Today’s Democrats give similar fealty to the party’s new god, Barack Obama. If there’s a young, centrist-seeming Democrat willing to shake the party loose from Obama’s unholy grip, they have yet to reveal themselves.
The second is that Democrats haven’t had to win elections to stay in power. Win or lose, the progressive-run federal gravy train delivered the goods to every lefty stop on the road to national bankruptcy. Should Elon Musk and the DOGE boys succeed in weeding out the partisan hackery spending, the gravy train will derail. Then Democrats will have to relearn the fine art of [checks notes] appealing to the broad center of the American body politic, instead of giving us endless lectures about men in the ladies’ room is a civil right, ackshully.
It helps our side that Donald Trump polls best with under-40 voters. Youthful idiots might be the future of the Democratic Party, at least for now, but the idiots are a minority even within their age cohort.
A day may come when the ideological blinders of Democrats fail — when they forsake their lady penises and break all bonds of zhellowship…
….but it is not this day.
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