CSotD: As The Campaigning Begins
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I can’t accuse Margulies of being a member of the Democrats’ Circular Firing Squad because, while he tends to lean left of the exact center, he’s politically independent and this seems more an observation than an accusation.
Then again, one should be careful what one observes, because everything beyond “Kids sure stare at their phones” carries some political weight, and this certainly is a criticism of the Democrats as the midterm election process begins picking up speed. Whether it’s intended as accusation or observation may be a distinction without a difference: It is a message that the party is in the process of losing the elections by nominating candidates who will alienate mainstream voters.
Auchter scoffs at the notion that a progressive will put off mainstream voters, and it should be noted that Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic candidate for the Senate, is not campaigning as a Democratic Socialist. Of course, pointing out that a lot of mainstream voters also have ethnic names, while effective mockery, doesn’t mean they won’t reject someone with the wrong ethnic name.
It may be more relevant to ask if endorsements from Bernie Sanders and AOC are good things or bad things. On the one hand, El-Sayed did not carry Detroit in the razor-thin primary, but, on the other, Michigan has already elected Rashida Tlaib to the House and has two Democratic senators.
However, the Michigan Democrats assembled a circular firing squad during the recent primary, taking performative offense at a remark El-Sayed made about John Fetterman and twisting their knickers under the assumption he meant his own opponent.
If nothing else, that may provide bulletin board fodder for the GOP this fall.
Molina notes that Democrats have already dumped two party members accused of sexism and domestic violence, while the Republicans are tip-toeing around their own accused members, with calls for Miller to step down but hardly with the vehemence or practical effect that was leveled against Swallwell and Platner.
As for Cory Mills, recent debates have taken note of his ethical lapses and dubious relationship issues, and Florida incumbents have turned against him, but he has Trump’s endorsement.
Not that a Trump endorsement is the Golden Ticket it used to be, as Andy Ogles discovered Thursday in the Tennessee primary, Bennett points out in an in-state commentary with national significance. That linked article suggests that, even with Dear Leader’s imprimatur, you do well to keep a clean record in the ongoing maelstrom.
We can expect accusations of extremism against progressive candidates to come from the right, and Kelley is only one of several conservative cartoonists to leap on that bandwagon. The sudden re-emergence of the Red Scare doesn’t feel spontaneous, and, while I don’t believe they all meet in the basement of a pizza place to plan this line of attack, it hardly seem coincidental to have so many cries of “Socialist!” and even “Communist!” emerging from the usual suspects.
I admire Kelley’s “history majors” crack, because it suggests that smart people aren’t falling for all this stuff about health care and affordability and such, which plants the idea that you would be wise to reject progressive candidates.
But it depends on nobody pointing out that a history major would recognize the hysteria that gripped us in the 1920s and 1950s, the last two times we had a really good Red Scare going on.
And for god’s sake don’t ask a history major about how tariffs operated in the Gilded Age, and, in fact, this might be a good time for conservatives to avoid talking about Gilded Anything, or some lit major will brush up their Shakespeare:
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily
To throw a perfume on the violet
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
Which was being said in criticism of King John, such that both literature and history majors would be aware of who was the dastardly villain in both Robin Hood and Ivanhoe, and who, in history, was forced to sign Magna Carta and provide his people with rights.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Dear Leader isn’t currently running for office, but “wasteful and ridiculous excess” may become a campaign issue for anyone carrying his endorsement or even his party label.
Trump has done a masterful job of assembling a loyalist cadre in his administration and within Congress, but the Reflecting Pool disaster has shone a spotlight on his other shortfalls: The State Fair nobody came to, the fireworks display that went off hours late and draped a toxic cloud over the capital and the MMA event that lost money and defaced the White House lawn.
Which is now the site of a faulty helipad project, since, while we’ve seen shots of presidents coming and going by helo for decades, Dear Leader must have a $5 million personalized granite platform for his trips.
And then there’s the matter of his new hat.
If he hadn’t made such a spectacle of primping, spraying and arranging his real hair, he might have gotten away with the toupee that has suddenly appeared on his pate, but his cranial haystack was so inartfully arranged that, like the orange makeup that stopped on jawline and short of his ears, it became a touchstone for cartoonists.
Now his new hat has become another target for ridicule.
McKee suggests that its generous locks might provide a hiding place for the Epstein Files which, despite Congressional demands and court orders, remain squirreled away.
And de Adder goes the opposite direction, showing how little it is fooling anyone, and listing the other things we’re not fooled about.
And Duquette takes the “less is more” approach, mocking the toop and tying it into one of Dear Leader’s misogynistic insults.
But Pett gets beyond all that and, instead, outlines what will likely be the dominant campaign issue of a party with cratering approval ratings and fading appeal to an increasingly discontented voter base.
As they stave off the Communist hoards, we offer this anthem:
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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