Happy Thanksgiving! I know it’s only August, but there’s a reason Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It’s not just that I’m thankful Francesca Hong lost the Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin. It’s why she lost. She dissed Thanksgiving (Halloween, too). This told voters in a memorable way that DSA candidates may have high IQs, but they’re awfully dumb sometimes. Thank God the primary season is nearly over. Tuesday’s mixed results kept this from being a “Summer of Angst” for those of us worried about dopey Democratic Socialists “colonizing” the Democratic Party, as Bill Maher put it. Wisconsin dealt a setback to the suicidal socialist insurgency, which might have some good policy ideas but risks taking the Democrats over the cliff. The larger problem remains. What to do about the Democratic brand, which is in the crapper? That’s a long-term project, but let’s start with retiring the term “moderate Democrats.” It misses the moment. Sad to say, we aren’t living in a moderate time. “Moderate” codes as “sellout,” even for independents. Voters of all ideological flavors are pissed and not feeling moderately so. Politicians know this. They know that no candidate campaigns on, “Vote for me! I’m a moderate!” In fact, have you ever seen the word moderate followed by an exclamation point, the most exciting form of punctuation? I haven’t. Because it’s not exciting. While moderates serve milquetoast, DSA progressives seem determined to make Democrats match Republicans as the stupid party. Abolish borders. Abolish the Senate. Abolish prisons. Sell out Ukraine. Celebrate Hamas. Combine that with Trump’s daily numbskull nattering, and we’re witnessing a stupidity arms race. Mike Judge’s 2006 film Idiocracy now plays like a sober documentary. Republicans too chicken to stand up to Republican stupidity are getting ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars clobbering all Democrats for the dumb things said by a small number of “Dumocrats,” as Trump calls them. The good news is that there’s an antidote to stupidity: common sense. That’s what David Crowley’s victory over Hong in Wisconsin represents. To unite for November, all Democrats—left, center-left, center, and center-right—should resolve to call themselves “common-sense Democrats.” After all, common sense ideas can be found in all parts of the party, and debating what constitutes it is healthy. It makes people think things through more instead of virtue signaling or taking mindless cover in the center. And it’s a way to avoid unforced errors. If candidates stop for… [TheTopNews] Read More.
1 day ago
