CSotD: The Whooosh Factor
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The leftists who have always attacked centrists are beginning to seem less extreme these days. In the days of Clinton and Obama, it was easy enough to say that, while there were things you wished they would or wouldn’t do, on the whole, they served well and had a broad sense of how a decent government should operate.
But IMHO the leftist in Rall’s cartoon has a point, because there is indeed a certain “What have you done for me lately?” that goes back at least to having the Democratic Party machine shove Hillary down our throats in 2016. I like Hillary and, in an open primary with multiple candidates, she might have emerged on top.
However, my Spidey sense began to tingle when we found that there were no other Democrats who wanted to be president, and only Bernie stood up against her. Then, on the eve of the critical South Carolina primary, John Lewis said that Bernie had never been in the Civil Rights Movement, but that both Clintons were. His later “clarification” was too little, too late to stop the rise of the candidate he had endorsed.
I don’t know if Bernie would have been any good as president or if he’s better as a gadfly. But I do know that, much as the Democratic Party leaders loved Hillary, the conservatives had already invested years in demonizing her and she entered the race heavily burdened with negatives.
Then, in 2024, the Biden debacle left us where we are now, which is that same-old-same-old isn’t working.
As Brodner notes, massive spending in Michigan may have made the Democratic Senate Primary close, but it didn’t stop El-Sayed from winning, despite his having been outspent something like 12-to-1. I haven’t seen an age breakdown on exit polling, but he clearly had the support of people who are tired of what they’ve been offered time after time.
Now the Republicans have dusted off and trotted out the Red Scare, which I suppose might appeal to people old enough to even recognize the hammer and sickle.
As I’ve recounted before, I found it puzzled high school juniors and seniors when it appeared in a cartoon about the Pope meeting Castro, back in 1996. Those kids are nearly 40 today and America’s median age is 39.4, and I don’t think it’s a smart move to base your appeal to voters on a scary-scary symbol that leaves more than half of them scratching their heads.
Nor, as El-Sayed proved and Brodner confirmed, can you count on dumping a ton of money to win. Horsey points out a race in which the candidate is expecting that her appeal to workers will cancel out her opponent’s financial advantage, and, by the way, TV ads aren’t the best way to reach an under-40 demographic that streams rather than watching broadcast television.
For that matter, cord cutters like myself are hard to pin down with TV advertising. Because my signal comes from towers and apparently originates from a head-end several hundred miles from New Hampshire, I’m seeing political ads for races in Rhode Island. The two states aren’t even contiguous.
Meanwhile, having Kevin Hassett go on CNN and announce that the economy is really, really booming isn’t likely to persuade voters who don’t watch Sunday talk shows or voters who know how many jobs have just been lost or voters who know the cost of gasoline and groceries.
And you can’t stave off accusations of Islamophobia if, when you ask Tim Scott (R-SC) why the Republicans are using Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed’s full name just as they have used “Barack Hussein Obama,” he responds “Listen, I go by Timothy Eugene. I get called that all the time.”
Sure you do, Timmy Gene.
The Democrats’ old road is rapidly aging, and they’d be smart to get out of the new road if they can’t lend a hand, because something’s happening here, and what it is may not be exactly clear to them, but the younger voters get it, as do voters struggling to make ends meet, and that’s a pretty impressive bloc.
As for traditional voters, they don’t support Trump’s adventuring in Iran, and are even less likely to approve of how he and Pete Hegseth have drawn down the nation’s supply of weaponry.
Sen. Mark Kelly has been vocal about what he calls a waste of munitions in an unnecessary, ill-planned war, which has earned him a second Pentagon investigation. He’s already suing Hegseth over his punishment for reminding service members of their obligation to resist unlawful orders.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Republican loyalists may approve of the confirmation of Trump’s lawyer as attorney general, but Kallaugher and Goris point out its likely impact on the Epstein controversy, which can barely be called an investigation because of how release of the files has been stalled and mishandled. Blanche has already demonstrated his loyalty to Trump with a softball questioning of Epstein’s jailed girlfriend and convicted accessory, Ghislaine Maxwell, which resulted in no new information but reduced punishment for her.
However, Katie Phang is due for a hearing Thursday before an apparently sympathetic judge on her lawsuit to force release of the Epstein files. Phang is known for her former work as a TV reporter, but is an attorney and has dedicated her current efforts to seeking justice for the victims in this scandal.
Women voters, and decent male voters, should see some action, one way or the other, on this matter before November. It would be interesting to see names of alleged perpetrators finally emerge, and Phang is determined that they must.
Left, right or center, it is a free country, after all, and voters will have to make decisions based on their values and on the perceived values of their national and local candidates.
The most important decision they face in midterm elections is the decision to show up at the polls, and while some of the things in the news may either motivate them to vote or motivate them to stay home, the first choice they’ll have to make is whether to pay attention to the news or let it all just whoosh over their heads.
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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