Political news reports out of Washington these days are full of encouraging details that media tell us augur well for Democrats in the midterm elections set in 11 months.
These reports can find and deliver gloomy news on the economy because, apparently, only Republicans are responsible for a soft economy, which everyone needs to understand is now good for Democrats.
They also note that President Trump’s approval ratings are underwater, as they always are and were last year when Trump captured every single swing state.
The media see ominous signs of discord among Republicans, which presumably would be good for Democrats, right? And they ignore the same predictable discord among Democrats because that wouldn’t fit the current fashionable narrative of Hope.
By the way, does anyone recall a time when discord did not dominate Swamp news?
The GOP happens to control Washington at the moment — the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. That’s thanks to the electoral spanking that voters administered last year to the party that tried to sell the nation on a nitwit vice president as a credible successor to an addlepated commander in chief.
All of which explains mainstream media’s current eagerness to pronounce the looming doom of the overwhelmingly successful congressional, judicial, and policy agenda of a president, who is in reality exceptionally good for the business side of media that despise him.
Out of curiosity, sports aside, what else is of compelling news interest these days besides anything involving Donald Trump?
There is a serious problem, however, with this widely distributed narrative that is so hopelessly optimistic for Democrats: Like pretty much all the coverage of Donald Trump that they dish out, it is only part of the story.
Remember how they told us that Joe Biden was reportedly “sharp as a tack,” even while fairies that no one else could see danced before the president’s empty eyes?
Remember how we were told about 10 years ago that Hillary Clinton’s ascension to hubby’s Oval Office was virtually guaranteed because her opponent was a crude political neophyte?
Clinton was so thoroughly shocked by Trump’s historic upset that she couldn’t appear publicly until the next day. An avid media consumer, Trump may have been a little startled himself, which he’d never admit.
The fact is, the rich guy from the Fifth Avenue penthouse outworked his opponent. And he did it again in 2020 and 2023-24, despite all the hoaxes, legal hurdles, and court dates thrown in the way to break him.
All of which failed.
Clinton’s staff planted questions in town hall audiences. Kamala Harris paid a million dollars to talk with Oprah before an adoring audience. Harris was running as a change agent to succeed Jill Biden’s senile husband, but admitted to a nationwide TV audience she could not think of anything she’d have done differently.
More importantly, Trump listened to voters. And then he crafted policies to address those concerns and actually saw them through. Changing your mind is one thing. But keeping promises rules.
You may not like everything about Trump, or anything. But can you picture Chuck Schumer chuckling with delight as he scooped out french fries for surprised customers at a suburban McDonald’s drive-thru? An inauthentic Schumer wouldn’t know which end to eat first. And customers at the window wouldn't know him from Hakeem Jeffries.
Schumer and Jeffries are both from Brooklyn, you know. So is Bernie Sanders. Two Jews and a black are so-called leaders of the national party of diversity, all from the same borough of the same city that just chose a democratic socialist as mayor.
We should take their word that passes for diversity.
And therein lies the problem for the Democrat Party. Its leadership, if you can call it that, is old, stodgy, and clueless.
To demonstrate his leftist bona fides, the Senate minority leader led his party into the Schumer Shutdown, which became a record-breaking political sinkhole that won them nothing but blame.
That same left-wing crowd hustled Biden and Harris into spending multiple trillions on favored causes that ignited the worst inflation since Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 election over the same issue.
Then came November 5 last year, and the Democrat ticket that spent $100 million every seven days of the 15-week campaign watched helplessly as their worst nightmare cruised back into the White House to start painting gold everywhere.
So, why are Schumer and Jeffries still touting leftist lines? Wouldn’t it be better to try a different direction than the one just rejected with 58 percent of the electoral votes?
When the GOP ticket got royally spanked in the 1964 presidential election, the party got the message. It changed direction. Just two years later, Republicans captured three new Senate seats, 47 in the House, and eight new governor’s offices.
Then, two years after that, the GOP began a winning streak of five of the next six presidential elections.
What alternatives have Democrats offered since the Clinton debacle? Marathon speeches. Photo op stunts at the Capitol. Let’s see, oh, Trump is bad, really bad. And….that’s it. The man inhabits Democrat heads as well as the Oval Office.
You haven’t seen much about this in the news, but quietly, a youth revolt is building within the party of Andrew Jackson across the country. About time.
A younger generation is trying to assert itself. That’s how wolf packs and elk herds and political parties rejuvenate.
You might date its tepid start from 2018 when a 10-term New York House Democrat leader named Joseph Crowley, a likely heir to caucus leader Nancy Pelosi, was upset in a party primary by an uppity 28-year-old bartender named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
A one-time campaign worker for Bernie Sanders, AOC is now 36, which makes her age-eligible to mount a 2028 primary challenge to Sen. Schumer, who turns 75 this week.
Dick Durbin, who turned 81 on Friday, is retiring next year from the Illinois Senate seat that he’s occupied since late last century. “I know it's time to pass the torch," he said as if that was news to anyone but him.
Nancy Pelosi, who turns 86 in March, is also dropping out of Congress after 20 House terms that somehow made her a multi-millionaire.
It is true. Operating in a congressional minority is a politically powerless and frustrating position. Although given the shameful Weekend with Bernie Biden Scandal, they richly deserve it. And the multiple benefits, perqs, and a $174,000 salary for partial workweeks aren't too bad as jobs go.
In a series of recent articles, Axios detailed mounting anger among Democrat House members and candidates against their own party’s leadership over allegedly weak opposition to President Trump and his policies. Many vowed not to support Jeffries as House caucus leader.
They see a growing anger among their base that has, in some cases, morphed into a disregard for American institutions, political traditions, and even the rule of law.
Progressive House Democrats aimed particular anger at Senate Democrats who voted to reopen the government after a record-long shutdown. "We had a moment right now where we needed fighters,” said Alabama Rep. Shomari Figures (AL-02).
According to Lee Miringoff of the Marist University Institute for Political Opinion, the deepening party divide is caused by age and an identity crisis:
The Democratic Party is searching for its identity, and I think there’s a wide split between the pragmatic old guard and the well-known people — the Bidens, the Schumers, the Pelosis — that group … and other Democrats of the more progressive, new generation.
And, let's be honest, after all the skullduggery they so futilely threw at Trump for a decade, it certainly didn't improve their mental condition losing again to the nonstop man who is the Eveready battery of politics.
One major question: Although not widely known, these divisions will complicate the kind of party unity necessary for several hundred individual victories across the country next year.
If Democrats nonetheless erase the GOP’s slim current House and Senate controls, the latent militancy of so many incoming members augurs for a tumultuous final two years of the Trump presidency.
But a key midterm question remains: Absent fresh campaign policy ideas from ambitious Democrats, will “Trump is still bad” be a strong enough platform to capture enough district wins when the man’s name will not appear on a single ballot?
