By Jeffrey A. Rendall
’28 Dems went to Germany to call Donald Trump a fascist; the joke(s) were on them
‘What the heck are they doing there?’ I wondered to myself, as news reports flashed regarding the gaggle of would-be 2028 Democrat presidential candidates at last week’s Munich Security Conference.
There she was, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in all her conceited glory, dressed-up like an adult and clearly enjoying being the center of attention in a room full of important-looking European dignitaries who couldn’t double as Democrat leaders or Bernie Sanders-backers. AOC frequently sounded as though she was searching for words to describe Trump Secretary of State Marco Rubio (he was there, too) in the most unflattering terms allowable and yet struggled to distinguish herself.
What’s more – former first lady, New York Senator, Obama Secretary of State and failed 2016 Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was in Munich, too. So was slick-haired kook-fringe California Governor Gavin Newsom. And the exudes-charisma (NOT!) Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as well. Arizona Senator Mark Kelly also paraded his shiny scalp among the trendy crowd, though I didn’t see a report on the bald-as-a cueball alien/elf-like Trump-hating liberal from the sunbaked deserts of The Grand Canyon State for his time there.
All of them spouted off about American foreign policy as though they were experts in the realm of extra-American affairs trying their darndest to make Donald Trump into an ignorant lout who doesn’t understand the threat of climate change or what makes the earth really turn when humankind is so bent on destroying it.
It was obvious there was enough hot air at the Munich conference as it was, and the Democrats only contributed more to the warming planet with their passionate spewing of carbon dioxide through their breath. Spreading lies takes a lot of energy, after all.
How bad was it? In a typically well-worded and reasoned piece titled, “The 2028 Democrat Contenders’ Pilgrimage to Europe”, the always prescient Scott McKay wrote at The American Spectator last week:
“Those various climate summits at whatever posh digs the Euros could situate have attracted Democrat politicians for years. You don’t hear much about them anymore, now that the global warming doom-and-gloom prognostications have all fallen apart. At some point, taking to the stage and echoing Thunbergian stupidities like ‘the planet will burn up and be uninhabitable in 12 years’ if whatever hard-core socialist command-economic policy fetishes aren’t engaged in tends to go out of style after 12 years, and then some go by with none of the forecasted doom coming true. So you don’t generally get the Democrats’ big guns at those events anymore; or if you do, nobody really pays attention…
“Trashing the American president in front of the rest of the world like this is something we used to think was abhorrent. It used to be said that politics stops at the water’s edge. But these people don’t believe that at all. Their views on politics mirror their views on immigration, which is to say they don’t recognize any borders.
“And they aren’t very serious about the world or America’s place in it.”
No, they’re not. Democrats love being seen purportedly “caring” about stuff, but when push comes to shove, all they do is emit the same nonsense and hyperbole that they always do.
In the days since the Munich conference concluded, Democrats have been somewhat critical of AOC’s performance overseas, as “The Squad” leftwing agitator famously screwed up her elucidations as to why Trump’s policies are so bad for human existence – and why Democrats’ solutions would be better. The fairly insignificant (outside of the United States, at least) New York congresswoman looked like a fish-out-of-water buffoon when she began waxing about racism and immigration excesses in the U.S. Why would the European elites pay any mind to such things?
The old continent has enough problems on its own. I highly doubt Europeans appreciated the young New Yorker lecturing them about anything. Could AOC win a debate with Trump, even among a sympathetic crowd like that in Germany? She and cackling Kamala Harris could compare notes from a “what not to do” course on speech and debate.
I’ve often surmised the best and most effective strategy for Republican presidential candidates and nominees (in helping voters make up their minds) is to simply let Democrats talk about… well, themselves. Democrats don’t dare venture into the policy realm because whatever they said would get them in trouble with their kook followers and disqualify them with the general election base.
How so? Well, Bernie Sanders can go on and on and on about inequality and Medicare-for-All, but as soon as he opens up his thick-accented trap and speaks on his true beliefs, most of the world’s right-thinking folks dismiss him as a nutcase and move on to the next Democrat hoping against hope that there’s a Bill Clinton/John Fetterman sound-alike who makes some sense and could, on a good day, convince fence-sitters to go with him/her.
Such a hypothetical hybrid Democrat is becoming rarer and rarer to find, however. Senate Minority Leader “Chucky” Schumer’s been making the media rounds of late dragging the Voter ID-is-Jim Crow nonsense, so we can’t look to party congressional leadership to do the job either.
By the same token, we haven’t heard much about the possibility Crooked Hillary Clinton is considering a 2028 run, twelve years after her catastrophic failure as a Democrat nominee ushered in the Donald Trump era. Hill’s been hanging around, for sure, and the American people are a forgiving (and forgetting) lot, but would there truly be a groundswell of desperation sufficient to reach for a second Hillary try at the top job?
I wouldn’t bet the house on it, put it that way. Besides, Hillary’s “moderate” views on closing the border and concocting a solution to the illegal immigration thing wouldn’t find a home in today’s Democrat party. They may have moved even too far left for Hillary Clinton. My, it’s a changed world, isn’t it?
The more time goes on – and we’re about a year before the parties get serious about working on 2028 – the clearer it becomes that Democrats are still probing for a presidential-level successor to senile Joe Biden and Barack Obama. The fact Hillary Clinton showed in Europe and was positioned on discussion panels demonstrates she shouldn’t be ruled out no matter how old and “out there” she seems to the rest of us.
When it comes to Democrat politics, the Clinton duo has more lives than a cat. Bad news doesn’t stick to them and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal hasn’t tarnished them, either.
Yet another post-Trump Clinton comeback would appear highly unlikely, but with the dearth of talent in liberal-land these days, never say never. The Crooked one herself probably could never be convinced she won’t ever be president. Who among the liberal higher-ups would stand up to her?
Cackling Kamala Harris wasn’t at the Munich meeting last week, but recent surveys have shown her with a sizable lead in hypothetical Democrat presidential fields, and, if anything, the margin is growing. California’s Newsom looked good (in the primary electoral sense) not so long ago, but Gavin started exhibiting more of a flash-in-the-pan sheen of late as reports of rampant fraud trickled out of California. Americans aren’t as gung-ho about high-speed train boondoggles and green energy as ol’ Gavin figured they would be.
Newsom’s wife’s recent rant hasn’t helped his cause, either. Poor Gavin. Newsom needs the media’s cooperation and assistance. It won’t happen this way for him.
More thoughts… Senator Mark Kelly at an international security conference? Really? For what? The medieval cable-type series troll doesn’t exactly fit the suit, does he? Kelly lacks AOC’s and Gretchen Whitmer’s good looks, so what would his selling point be? Objective politics watchers probably don’t even think of Kelly when they’re naming off the most effective foes of President Donald J. Trump. But I guess, in a “It’s now or never” kind of world, a presidential run in the next cycle would be perfunctory for a man like Arizona’s strange-agitator Mark.
We should be thankful that ambitious would-be Democrat presidential candidates are so eager to reveal their intentions that they travel to Europe just to be regarded as a serious contender to be Donald Trump’s successor. Unfortunately for them, there aren’t any Democrats who could fill the current president’s shoes.
Who’s worse off – Democrats for making fools of themselves, or us for having to watch as they do it?
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .