[WARNING. My Republican friends will like this article more than my Democratic friends. Despite my general anti-Trump inclinations, the thesis presented here is that the Democrats in the House are on the cusp of reelecting Donald Trump to a second four year term. And, Lord, I hope I’m wrong.]
Yesterday Jerry Nadler (D-NY) announced that the House Judiciary Committee which he chairs has sent out 81 letters of inquiry seeking documents and cooperation from 81 separate people and entities. The Democrats immediately attempted to portray this mass mailing as much needed and long neglected oversight. Meanwhile, the Republicans are calling the move a fishing expedition, designed to embarrass the President, not a plan to engage in meaningful oversight. Guess what? The Republicans are right. To understand the point, simply compare this to the step-by-step widely respected approach of the Special Counsel’s investigation.
Each request needs to be carefully understood and explained to the voters. Remember that elections are about voter perception. “Perception” is the key word here. Voters do not “know” the facts. They instead “perceive” based on what their senses tell them from whatever news sources they employ. In this case, 81 requests has the “sense” of being more a triggered avalanche than a careful turning over of each stone.
This, unfortunately, is just the beginning salvo of the House Democrats performing the nearly impossible dual tasks of stepping on their own message while making the utterly unlovable bully in the Oval Office a sympathetic figure. No longer the spawn of Satan, Trump stands to be handed, through no device or planning of his own, the mantel of besieged President. And America loves nothing more than the once dangerous cur reduced to poor cornered puppy who needs their saving stroke/vote to be comforted in the face of the mean dogs set upon him.
Meanwhile, in the vast 2020 field, the great purification exercise has begun. It should dawn on folks that the blue wave election of 2018 is just four months in our rear view mirror, and already the Democrats have forgotten its positive lessons. The Democrats did not net 40 House seats and a shiny new majority by demanding fealty to a radical left wing agenda. They won their great victory by steering a middle course, running moderate candidates of military and law enforcement background, and playing against the perceived radicalism in the Republican Party. They were, in a phrase, the party of the center. Republicans had abandoned the center and Democrats, for once, acted in logical purpose to appeal to the centric suburban voters of the Midwest and South, taking and nearly taking seat after seat from the now-radical-right Trumpian Republican Party.
The lessons of a successful election, won just four short months ago, have been lost in the ideological exuberance of left wing ideology. We should understand this about winger ideology, be it left wing or right wing. The wingers command the passion. But the centrists command the vote. The average suburban woman, who Democrats finally brought to their side four months ago is interested in her own well being and that of her family. And, yes family still matters to her and is not a silly bourgeois concept. She cares about the environment and opposes the Trumpian right wing anti-environmentalism of the Republicans. And, good for her. She is not, however, ready to turn in her SUV for the left wing pipe dream of universal public transportation.
When left wing Democrats demand acquiescence to concepts like Medicare for All and free college for all, those in the center, responding based on their perception, are susceptible to the counter cry “How do you plan to pay for all this free stuff?” That counter cry makes sense to the middle. And, while the radicals with their passion may determine the primary and nominating processes, it is the center that decides general elections.
As we are having this discussion Democrats are passing solid legislation that could, if properly presented and perceived, shore up their reputation for centrist, practical solution based governance. The reasonable gun legislation, providing for universal background checks enjoys 97% support with the public. HR-1 with its clean government reforms reflects popular demands to scour our federal government from the ills of lobbying and political money grubbing. But who among us political junkies is fully aware of these efforts, and who in the centrist suburbs, focused on their own families joys and struggles, is aware these efforts have even taken place. They might be impressed if they knew.
With 81 cooperate-or-else letters out and Republican messaging of a President under siege from a political fishing expedition and Democratic loyalists’ demands for a sharp left turn from the message that won the mid terms just last November, the perception of those who carried the Democrats to recent victory will quickly turn to a remembrance of how the Democrats responded to their victory in 2008 and how it was seemingly necessary to spank them for their overreach come 2010.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com .
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.