On February 12th The New Republic’s Editor, Michael Tomasky, published a 10,000 word piece of his own entitled “What the Democrats Need to Do Now” to win big.
My mind was blown reading it. The cognitive dissonance was dizzying. He really does think Dems are pure as the driven snow with nothing but good intentions and gosh darn it, they’re just not fighting hard enough, nor have they fought hard enough in the past. We will call this world he inhabits Earth 2.
Here on Earth 1 Democrats indicted former President Trump four times, with a goal towards putting him in prison. Prior to that they impeached him twice. They then sued in several states to keep him off the ballot for November of 2024. Now they’re promising to impeach him again if they win the House back. They’ve blocked, obstructed, sued, voted against and otherwise frustrated every single Republican agenda item. No “fight”? Really??
Mr. Tomasky listed nine action items that were all utterly devoid of self-awareness.
The very first one was about the fight they supposedly don’t have in them. “1. Why Don’t Democrats Fight More?” Mr. Tomasky had gone to a dinner of lefties there to discuss lefty things and one of them said:
“‘Well, Democrats come to Washington to get things done, and Republicans come to Washington to fight.’”
We wish! How many of us are on a constant low-boil about our garbage RINOs letting them get away with everything? He goes on:
“Democrats, by and large, are not insurgents. They don’t come to Washington to topple any establishment. They come to pass some legislation, help make people’s lives better.”
Nah. They just subvert, corrupt or try to outright repeal every Constitutional amendment under the sun, that’s all. They also infiltrate and abuse every lever of power in the bureaucracy too. Other than that, sure. They’re real establishmentarians.
Next was his lament on their supposed infighting. “2. Why Do the Democrats Fight So Much?” He begins:
“If they’re not great at doing battle with Republicans, there’s another contest to which many Democrats bring a lot of zest: the fight with one another.”
I see some friction here and there between the progressive wing and the old guard, but mostly I see them marching in lockstep. In fact, that’s a common complaint of ours: that our side can’t seem to do the same.
My cognitive dissonance continued at the mention of some mythical “center” of the party. “3. What the Center Gets Wrong.” What center??
Next he frets that they’re just too darned intellectual, arguing policy particulars instead of broader ideas. “4. What the Left Gets Wrong.” Towards the end, he writes:
“People know who you’re for by the enemies you’re willing to make. And the Democrats need to make enemies.”
Mr. Tomansky is clearly laboring under the impression that the Democrats haven’t ticked anyone off massively with all of their rhetoric and machinations. That’s some bubble. That’s a nuclear sarcophagus of a bubble, man.
Next he laments that Democrats aren’t telling stories with villains to win over hearts and minds — which is insane, as they’re infamousfor standing up human props as victims of this or that villain to tell a sob story. Under “5. Stories—and Villains” he writes:
“Democrats don’t tell stories. And they—or most of them—certainly don’t talk much about villains. Oh, sure, Trump is a villain… But who else? What story can the Democrats tell working Americans about why their lives are hard, and what villains can they name?”
He then goes on to isolate “corporate wrongdoers” as “the only one obvious answer.” He continues, defying gravity once again:
“But most Democrats don’t like calling out villains… There’s something in the genetic code of liberals that seeks consensus, that wants everyone to be happy.”
Yeah, that’s it, Tomasky. It’s in your genes. That’s you guys all over. Consensus-builders. Rays of effing sunshine.
He then casts America’s most famous counter-puncher as the initiator of every fight these poor Democrats get drawn into. Because if they’re not victims, they simply can’t function:
“Democrats should have learned by now from Trump that …the party that starts the conflict will always be cast as the active initiator, the second party as the passive responder.
This instinct [to start fights] is just not in the Democratic Party’s collective DNA.”
Once again, he talks about what’s in their genes. It’s starting to sound like they’re a different species. (Hm…) And what do you even say to this?? They’re “not fighters”? That’s all they do is fight.
“6. What Biden Did—and Didn’t—Do” is next up. He remembers a very different Biden than the one I remember. He seems to think Biden was too nice. Certainly not from his infamous September 2022 “red speech.” Biden said that we are a “threat” to their:
“personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
Sounds bad. He then went on to make 100% provably false accusations:
“…[They are] calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets. This is inflammatory. It’s dangerous. It’s against the rule of law.”
My head’s exploding now. Of course, that’s exactly what Democrat leaders have been doing just recently, regarding ICE! Literally calling for violence!
That’s the Biden I remember. Mr. Projection.
Tomasky then quotes Senator Whitehouse (D-RI). It’s a banger:
“[Biden] didn’t want to have enemies, he didn’t want to have adversaries, he didn’t want to have villains. They wouldn’t think in those terms. They wouldn’t speak in those terms.”
Unbelievable. The gentleman from Rhode Island must have missed that speech… or any other time Biden spoke about us.
(7.) and (8.) were all about free stuff then finally, “9. Conclusion: The Democrats’ Third Great Challenge” The first two challenges were answered, in Tomasky’s estimation, by The New Deal of the ‘30s and the civil rights laws of the ‘60s — which his party filibustered but we’re supposed to just breeze right by that. So what does Tomasky view as the “third great challenge”? Getting big money out of politics. To his credit, he recognizes it as a bipartisan problem, but, of course, when his people do it, their intentions are good and their hearts are pure, even if their methods are not. I, on the other hand, am willing to call out both sides as just flat-out corrupt and I have no problem doing so.
So 10,000 words only to point at eeeevil corporations and needed campaign finance reform. That’s an awful lot of words for a not too surprising conclusion. What was surprising was how virginally supine he thought Democrats were, because other than literal explosives, I don’t know what else he thinks they need to do. That’s about all they have left. They’ve done everything else.
POST SCRIPT: Obama gave an interview recently which became public just after I had finished writing this article and it’s clear the cognitive dissonance comes from the top. Behold just two clips from it: