Even James Carville is flummoxed. As President Donald Trump moves at a breakneck speed to change the course of America, prominent Democrats have taken to the streets in small numbers to express their displeasure. Protesting, of course, is their right as US citizens. But why the loyal opposition believes trotting out the elderly likes of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will be effective is anyone’s guess. More and more, their vitriol – replete with fussing and fuming – appears to be, in the words of Shakespeare, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” As Trump rips through the bureaucratic maze of misused funds and the holy mess of an administrative state gone rogue, progressives find themselves standing out in the cold – literally – lamenting their opposition in song and words that would make a sailor blush.
Maxine: Unhinged Optics
Television is a deceptive and shrewd liar. Zoom into a tight shot, and it looks like there is a big crowd. However, the tell comes through the audio. Even with the best sound equipment, audio techs can’t make a couple of dozen people sound like the roar of a large crowd unless they sweeten the track, which is generally a no-no in the news business. As well, someone should tell Ms. Waters that shouting into a microphone overmodulates it, and the sound becomes distorted. There is, in fact, never a reason to scream into a microphone because its purpose is to amplify sound.
Simply put, if she stopped shouting, people might actually understand what she has to say. But perhaps that’s not the point. It may be that her words are meaningless, and the real message is her anger.
That brings one to question why Maxine & Co. are so exasperated. Is it because billions of taxpayer dollars are being saved? As Ruy Teixeira, writing for the Liberal Patriot, averred, “[O]ddly, Democrats seem to have decided that hitching their wagon to government bureaucracies is just the ticket they need to storm back against Trump and GOP.” Thus, they rail in favor of the profligate spending of USAID, but one must wonder if this is an effective rallying cry. Teixeira points out: “[U]nsurprisingly, anti-foreign aid sentiment runs highest among working-class voters, precisely the people who have been defecting from the Democrats to Trump, and without whose votes the Party cannot recover.”
In running for office for a third time, Donald Trump astutely claimed the mantle of the change candidate, and thus far, he’s more than kept that promise. In the run-up to Nov. 5, an article in The New York Times postulated:
“Running on change is often smart politics. Voters are perennially unhappy with the country’s trajectory, and the pandemic made it worse. According to Gallup, it has been two decades since a majority of Americans said they were satisfied with the direction of the nation. No wonder politicians cater to them with promises of new beginnings.”
Democratic strategist James Carville has made no bones about the fact that he believes his party has turned off the working-class voter with its far-left progressive policies on gender, etc. “And it's like, there's a, a plant somewhere in quote, progressive, unquote America, that just to seize how many jacka--, stupid things that they can embrace, it's stunningly stupid."
One wonders if pitching a tent with Maxine & Co. is really helping the Democratic Party’s cause. Is it bringing more people into the fold? Is it a valuable fundraising mechanism? Or is the ranting and raving just something to do because they have lost their seat at the table?
Less than a month into the second and final Trump era, old-guard Democrats appear to be sitting shiva over the remnants of a party in tatters. Perhaps they will rise again like the Phoenix from the ashes, but that doesn’t appear likely anytime soon.
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