June 7, 2017--Jack: How to Lose the Next Election

Midterm elections are more than a year-and-a-half away and though 2020 is years from now, already Democrats are doing an excellent job of arranging to lose both.

Depressing? For me, and I know for most of you, deeply so.

But there is lots of time to get our act together. But, first, there are a few things we have to stop doing.

First and foremost, we have to stop being stupid.

I know many on the left think that Donald Trump is the stupid one, but by recent evidence, compared to some prominent liberals, he is looking politically savvy and we are busy shooting ourselves in the foot. Both feet.

Jack has been eager to point this out to me.

Over coffee Monday morning, as pumped up as I've seen him in some while, he said, "Tell me what you think about this."

"Go on."

On Meet the Press on Sunday who compared Donald Trump to OJ Simpson?" Jack paused to grin at me.

I stared into the bottom of my coffee mug and said, "Go on."

"I'll give you a hint. It's a he and he ran for president and almost won." I didn't say a word.

"About Trump withdrawing from the Paris climate deal, one of your favorites said--'He says he's going to go out and find a better deal. That's like OJ Simpson saying he's going to find the real killer. Everyone knows Trump isn't going to do that because he doesn't believe in it.'"

"Is it Al Gore?"

"Close but, no, John Kerry. Hang on, there's more. Here's an easier one for you. It happened Friday night. I'm sure you'll know who it is. While interviewing Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who was out humping his new book, The Vanishing American Adult, the host said he needs to visit Nebraska more. The senator then recommended he visit his state and 'work in the fields.' Again, one of your favorites, looking at Sasse quizzically, raised his hands and said--forgive my language but I'm quoting him, 'Work the fields? Senator I'm a house nigger.' There was embarrassed laughter. But that's what he said."

"I'm afraid I do know who that was."

"Tell me."

"Bill Maher," I mumbled.

"Speak up. I can barely hear you," Jack said. I chose not to but he raced on, "Then there was a late-night TV host. Can you tell me who it was? After saying he was outraged by President Trump's put downs of journalists, including a colleague, John Dickerson, at the end of a profanity-filled rant, he said, and again I'm quoting him, I'm not making this up,  'The only thing Trump's mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's cock holster.'

I knew who did that but declined to take Jack's bait.

"And I'm sure you know who posted this picture." He dug out his iPhone and quickly found an image of Kathy Griffin holding up an effigy of Donald Trump's severed head.

"My point is this," Jack said, sounding serious, "My point is that while the country is being torn apart by partisanship and violent disagreements about how Trump is doing as president, while this is going on, and I've confessed I have my problems with him, some problems, this is the best you can do?"

"There are plenty of other things going on," I said, "Like marches, like media coverage of his most outrageous behaviors, like Democrats in Congress opposing some of his craziest ideas like the budget and healthcare legislation. It's not all Kathy Griffin and Stephen Colbert."

"But you're missing the larger point. Though what you say is objectively true, that though these kinds of racist and snarky episodes occur only occasionally, they really turn off the very kinds of voters liberals like you want to attract back to the Democrat Party. You have no idea how alienating this kind of mocking smugness is. It only reenforces the opinion that liberals are out of touch with average people and can't be taken seriously. It's another example of how conservatives and many Independents see the Democrat Party captured by east and west coast elites."

Reluctantly, I said, "I can't say I disagree with you about that."

"And then on top of this," Jack said, "Hillary Clinton is running around the country making speeches (I assume for big bucks) about why she lost the election. Blaming everyone and everything but herself. Whining about how she ran out of money, that James Comey sabotaged her candidacy, and that her defeat is all the result of misogyny. This too isn't helping your cause."

He folded his arms across his chest, leaned back in the booth, and, feeling good about himself, simply smiled.