By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Before Dems think about acting “normal”, they should figure out what the word means
Is President Donald J. Trump abnormal?
The answer depends on who you ask. Democrats have spent the past eleven-or-so years arguing (pleading?) that Trump was so far apart from “normality” in the United States that he couldn’t possibly be permitted to serve as president. They’ve blanketed the airwaves with pundits, spent billions on anti-Trump campaign ads, investigated him, sued him, searched his home, and even suggested he and his supporters should be confronted in public places, etc. Leftists have also tried, repeatedly (and unsuccessfully, thank the Lord) to assassinate him.
Yet Trump has emerged virtually unscathed the whole time, with reputation intact. Not even Trump’s pride has been dented. Or at least it appears that way. Two-non-consecutive term President Trump has done his level best to make it seem as though his manner of decision-making and governance has been patently “normal”, to the point where he rejects any notions that anything policy-oriented has strayed outside the boundaries of legality or good taste.
Yet Democrats don’t now, and have never, agreed that Trump’s presidency has been neutral.
Who’s right? The subject will most definitely capture the nation’s attention in this year’s federal midterm elections. In an article titled, “Democrats, shook by woke and Trump, make case they’re the normal ones”, Amie Parnes reported at The Hill last week:
“The 2028 Democratic presidential primary is shaping up as a contest over who can seem the most reasonable. Prospective candidates are imploring their party to be normal, while battling among one another over who is the most normal of all.
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom is making an appeal to his party to become more ‘culturally normal,’ while Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has urged his fellow Democrats to ‘talk like a normal human being.’ Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) has said that those in her party need to speak in ways that aren’t reminiscent of ‘the faculty lounge,’ a nod to the pundit class.
“It all looks like a pushback against ‘woke,’ which many Democrats blame for their losses in 2024. And it’s also an attempt to ride out what Democrats believe is the backlash forming against the absurdities of the Trump 2.0 era in Washington, D.C., and the country at large.”
Backlash? What backlash? Absurdities? What absurdities?
Do you mean Democrats still want to be “woke”, just not identify as such?
What I call the “Facebook liberals” in my sphere regularly whine about Trump doing this and that and labelling things like immigration enforcement or Trump’s preference for supporting Israel as being against humanitarian concerns because the Palestinians in Gaza are suffering as a result of the war their own leaders started almost three years ago.
The eternally disgruntled social media crowd also frequently posts banalities concerning LGBTQ causes and object to this or that Trump did in pursuit of his America First agenda or pro-country NATO policy. They especially squawked over Trump’s recent push to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America, seeing it as an affront to Native American traditions. Or something.
But Democrat office seekers and 2028 potential candidates would rather blast Trump’s policies as “abnormal” and/or cruel… to someone. To them, the issue isn’t whether there are millions of illegal aliens in the country, it’s about how the lawbreaker squatters are treated when they’re here.
So what is “abnormal”?
All an impartial observer needs to determine whether Trump has gotten inside the skulls of Democrats is listen to the opinions of insiders and donors who purportedly support the liberal party. The Democrat backers are so obsessed with the “normal” question – and its connection to their 2024 loss – that they’re wasting time bickering over what’s considered standard stuff instead of homing in on policies that might help them change voter minds going forward.
Why? Because they don’t have an agenda to tout, primarily. Instead, they concentrate on how weird Trump and Republicans made them sound rather than analyze the merits of the kook-fringe crapola they believe in.
Do you think Republicans ask each other whether or not they’re “normal”? Heck no. Republicans, for the most part (let’s leave Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Lisa Murkowski out of this), understand what is acceptable and what isn’t. Republicans fight among themselves over immigration levels and the best way to enforce laws, not if the laws themselves are unreasonable.
Democrats, on the other hand, much prefer waxing over the question of a biological dude in a dress being permitted to use the girls’ potty at the local school.
“Normalcy” is in the eye of the beholder.
Democrats have become captive to their own sense of freewill and look the other way regarding deviancy and, in some cases, debauchery (Drag queen story hour and senile Joe Biden’s “Pride” Month celebration featuring transgender “women” displaying their fake breasts), that they’re no longer allowed by their own voters and supporters to publicly list what they surmise is “normal”.
They can pay lip service to the concept of “normal”, but if they dared speak out in favor of traditional American culture, they’d be shunned by some constituency within their ranks. Whereas President Trump isn’t restrained to express his opinion on virtually any topic, Democrats outside of Rahm Emanuel don’t dare share views as freely.
The list of Democrats who can speak at liberty is short, indeed. It used to include former senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, both of whom left office willingly instead of opting to run the gauntlet to regain their party’s nomination. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has assumed the role in today’s Democrat faction, but he too could face involuntary elimination if he strays too far from the party’s current not-normal standard.
If California Governor Gavin Newsom says Democrats should become more “culturally normal” – what does that entail? Newsom’s presidential ambitions aren’t well disguised, so a tack to some semblance of the center would be called for, but the slick-haired, COVID restriction defying hypocrite wouldn’t be caught politically dead rebelling against his kook backers.
Conformance to the extremes is demanded of Democrat leaders.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris was unable to navigate the fine line between trying to appear “normal” and desiring to trash as much of the old America as possible to appease the leftists in her own party. She was successful in making the election all about Trump in the early stages of her ’24 presidential candidacy, but the independent-minded voters eventually demanded she display more of her issue cards.
By the time the hands were called in the high-stakes political poker game, cackling Kamala revealed she’d been bluffing all along. There was nothing there.
This is the trouble when your party’s only aim is to hold power. Sure, Democrats want to achieve things, but their sole motivation is to ensure they possess the authority to secure goodies for their side. The recent push by the communists/socialists merely exposed what they’d worked to do all along, which is take away freedoms, foster tyranny and, as “The One”, Barack Obama, used to say, “transform” government.
“Normal” is malleable to Democrats, because they’re for anything their supporters desire. “Rights” that don’t exist, except in their own minds. Abortion is a perfect example. Democrats fight for the ability to terminate their own unborn babies and to preserve the privileges of illegal aliens.
How are they going to make those policies sound “normal” to the skeptical voting public?
President Trump is one step ahead of them on history, patriotism and tradition. Trump’s agenda includes protecting American business, expanding the nation’s energy capacity, projecting American power abroad and making our cities safer here at home. Trump honors those who serve to better the country, not tear them down and threaten to take away their funding.
Americans recognize the difference, and this is why the Democrats’ efforts to make Trump appear abnormal can’t succeed in the long run. If the 2026 and 2028 elections boil down to differences in agendas and policies, Democrats know they can’t win. This is why they’re working to try and get their party colleagues to “act normal”.
Here’s thinking Democrats will fail in their quest to normalize themselves. It’s hard to portray an image when the policies you’re advocating are anything but normal. President Trump may not always make wise political choices, but his policies are sound. The Democrats are the abnormal ones. American voters will render their verdict in a couple months.
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 .