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Democrats Can Still Hit the Fastball [1]
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Date: 2025-03-17
Before the 2024 election, when Kamala Harris seemed promised, the Democratic party was thumping its chest and bragging about the bench behind her. As heartbroken as I was, like most of my fellow Democrats, I immediately thought of 2026 for the midterms and 2028 to signal in the designated hitter. The conventional wisdom has always been Republicans fall in line, and Democrats fall in love. It was easy to fall in love with former Vice President Harris. She had a long list of public service as a prosecutor, Senator, and Vice President. She fought for the rights of battered women, homeowners, and civil rights. The bonus would have been her continued historical reign as the first female black and south-Asian Vice President melded into a historic presidency. As quickly as the furtherance of hope and change faded, like the recent 401K profits in the stock market—the Democratic bench is still present, but the team is lacking a power hitter.
Just when a setup batter seemed to have emerged when Senator Chuck Schumer vowed last Wednesday to vote against the Republican unilateral budget, he bunted on Thursday and changed his mind. Admittedly, there were no good choices for Senator Schumer, but the party faithful at least wanted an opportunity to swing at the fences. The superpower for Democrats must be eternal optimism. The defeat of Kamala Harris is not the first woe-is-me moment that I have seen as a liberal Democrat. When former President Lyndon Baines Johnson stated at the end of a long-forgotten speech, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President,” in March of 1968, the same glum feeling with the reelection of Donald Trump was present when Richard Nixon was sworn on January 20 of 1969. Nixon's reelection landslide was touted as the death knell of the Democratic party.
Similarly, the all-out conservative attacks on the Clinton administration, which they characterized as the fall of decency, and the Democrats were accused of leaning into the country’s moral decay. The administration of the first black President, Barack Obama, was followed by the 2016 election of Mr. Trump in what Van Jones called “White-lash.” So, I guess some of my optimism about surviving America descending into fascism comes from my experiences with the Nixon attempt at destroying the Department of Justice, the Reagan administration making racism acceptable, and the economic crashes of both Bush II and Donald Trump 1.0. With the Democratic superpower being eternal optimism, the superpower of Republicans is eternal selfishness. They have successfully disguised their governing failures using the strategy pioneered by George W. Bush’s chief strategist, Karl Rove: Accuse your opponent of your weakness.
What was once a party of the loyal opposition, the GOP became a party that has indeed embraced the moral decay of America. The party that sent GOP representatives to the White House to extricate Richard Nixon is now willing to accept or excuse rape, thievery, fascism, and the destruction of lives in exchange for power. Journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher gives the most precise definition of conservative superpowers I have heard in years when she paraphrased the quote, “They are frequently wrong but never in doubt.”
Your Vote is Still Your Voice
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