By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Democrats never talk about a governing agenda, mostly because they don’t have one
Question for Democrats: Will hating on and bashing President Donald J. Trump be enough to inspire your voters this year?
Ask the average Democrat (if there is such a thing anymore) what he, she, “they” or it, or whatever – thinks about the above subject, and the answer will probably be — “no”. They’ll then reiterate, in several different styles, how much they really do hate Trump, yet they’ll require Democrat candidates to offer more to earn their votes.
The Republicans have their own motivate-the-base issues.
This is an entirely reasonable proposition, since Democrat voters seem to run on an unspoken quid pro quo system, whereby they demand – and receive – something in exchange for their support.
In the old days, Democrat politicians appreciated these implicit demands, and they used the “requests” to justify their liberal, big government program proposals. In the early 1990’s, Hillary Clinton planted the seed for nationalized doctor visits by insisting that government run healthcare was wanted by the American people.
Hence, the concept lasted throughout hubby Big Bubba Bill Clinton’s tenure as president, but didn’t come to fruition until “The One”, Barack Obama, codified the concept during his presidency. Obamacare was cemented into law and Republicans have had a heck of a time stopping the slow bureaucratic creep and takeover of the industry. Many say Republicans didn’t really try to do it, but that’s a topic for another time.
But Democrats had an agenda back then, and they often cloaked their big government designs in voter-friendly language like “make the rich pay their fair share”, or “we’ll save the planet from climate change”, or, “no human being is illegal” (which has morphed into a call to defund ICE), or, Democrats’ favorite rallying cry, “every woman must have the right to make her own reproductive choices.”
At one time, Democrats believed in things, and they were proud of their advocacy for control of government so they could provide those policy “goodies” to their voters.
But now, Democrats have mostly become a permanent opposition party fixated on resisting one man in the most insulting manner possible – and then tossing in a jibe at his political platform to round out their spiel.
If Democrats have an agenda, where is it? Inquiring minds want to know.
In an opinion piece titled, “Democrats need an agenda before socialists write one for them”, the always insightful Michael McKenna wrote at The Washington Times this week:
“…In politics, like in much of life, those who have direction, purpose and energy tend to do a lot better than time servers. Candidates who run campaigns focused on what they want to achieve almost always beat campaigns run by clubhouse hacks whose entire pitch to the voters is that it is their turn to win and to rule…
“If someone can’t or won’t explain to you what they plan to do if you put them in charge of anything from mowing lawns to being governor, you shouldn’t hire them. The Republicans, salesmen by nature, are usually pretty good at the sales pitch.
“The Democrats, however, have failed that test for most of my life, with the exception of President Obama, who was quite clear that he wanted to fundamentally transform the United States of America, and not in a good way. Team DSA does a pretty good job of explaining what it would do if we throw it the ball. Until the Democrats get better at that, every primary election — and perhaps every general election too — is going to be an adventure.”
Prepare yourself for the journey, then, because the Democratic Socialists are here to stay.
Socialists/communists are like garden pests. Once you know they’re there, merely wishing them away won’t do the trick. You either have to visit your local garden store and acquire the means to try and deal with them yourself – or call in an expert, which will probably be expensive and require you to take time off work and be home to “babysit” the pros as they address the plague.
There’s no easy – and “free” – alternative.
By all appearances, establishment Democrats prefer sticking to their present course, trusting that they can demonize Trump indefinitely and this minimalist strategy will be ample to carry them to victory in November. Democrats remember back to 2018 when they simply made Trump the issue and it was adequate to help them gain a couple score of House seats off of swing voter anger alone.
Back then, of course, Republicans helped in the Democrats’ smear Trump mission by failing to pass anything to begin the Obamacare dismantling effort, and voters noticed. Add in the “Russian collusion” narrative and it was sufficient to drive Trump’s approval ratings low enough to get Republicans apprehensive about a “blue wave”.
Do you remember how smug Nancy Pelosi acted when she realized she was primed to be Speaker again?
Democrats talked openly about officially removing the first-term president, but it wasn’t until they reassumed power that the hate-Trump forces consolidated to actually vote to impeach him. History may repeat itself in 2027 if Democrats take the majority in the House after the next Congress opens. They’re being very coy about their impeachment intentions, but the topic is most certainly included on all strategy meeting agendas in Democrat-land these days.
Why? Because impeachment is related to Trump, and obsessing on Trump is a safe way for them to compete in elections. Toss in the “affordability” argument they’ve adopted and you’ve gone a good distance towards securing enough winning seats to hand Hakeem Jeffries the gavel.
The vision of Jeffries taking the Speaker’s seat should frighten Republicans enough to get them ready to work. What kind of America do you want?
At the same time, Democrats have tied themselves in knots by their intra-party struggle with the Democratic Socialists, their own version of garden pests who will only proliferate until the party establishment finds a way to treat the emergence of the unwelcome invaders.
We recently noticed a box we had on our back patio served as a cozy place for yellowjackets to build a nest. The box was near our trash and recycling cans, so it’s not as though we could simply wait until the weather turned cold and the nasty, stinging insects would offer the easiest and most trouble-free fix by just freezing to death.
We also ruled out buying a do-it-yourself chemical treatment to spray them and hope they would die and not return. So, we called a pest control company and a tech doused the box with about a gallon of pesticide… and no more bugs did we see!
The Democrats’ concerns are more complex, starting with, as McKenna pointed out, the fact they offer few, if any, ideas on how they would improve the country beyond the fact they’d plan to stand in the way of Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda. It’s as if the totality of the MAGA agenda had its own set of ideas and could be knocked off course by Democrats standing in place and shouting a lot.
Democrats claim they’ll bring down prices, but won’t say exactly how they’d do it. They boast about being able to lower the price of healthcare, but don’t specify what it means beyond hinting they’ll boost government’s power to control markets – or just throw more money at the issue. At the same time, Democrats have been silent about the astonishing fraud that was unearthed in the big federal entitlement programs. Nope. They just look the other way.
Instead, Democrats whine – “But Trump is awful! Trump says he’ll annex the Strait of Hormuz! Or Trump’s ballroom will be really, really expensive, and he lied about taxpayers not being asked to contribute!”
And don’t forget the standard Democrat plank of, “We’ll repeal Trump’s tax breaks for billionaires!” Democrats won’t include figures of their own, or explain how they’ll get the tax laws changed without Trump going along with it, but it sure gets Democrat voters animated!
Democrats run the risk of having the Democratic Socialists define the party brand, yet levelling with voters about their true intentions will only drive ballots towards the Republicans. Democrats will continue using “Trump” as the main reason they merit being returned to power.
Sooner or later, voters must become wise to the naked sell-job.
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 .