Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas famously criticized the modern Democratic Party as “chock-full of woke fantasies” and “crazy” during her rebuttal to Joe Biden’s initial State of the Union address.
The critique has become a familiar indictment, one that Republicans continue to replay time and again on the campaign trail.
President Donald Trump used similar dismissive rhetoric when he called out the Democratic side of the aisle for failing to stand for U.S. citizens murdered by criminal aliens during his most recent State of the Union address. He famously took special note of the Democrat’s lethargic response when he declared the “first duty” of government is to protect American citizens rather than “illegal aliens.”
Predictably, the Democratic resistance has responded in kind with its own Trump-era arsenal of rhetorical hand grenades: “Hitler” — “dictator” — “Nazi” — “No Kings,” etc.
I see similar back and forth in the responses to my social media posts whenever I speak to hot button social issues — especially criminal aliens — climate — religion — and biological boys’ participation in female athletics.
The rejoinders typically ignore the substance of my point but instead focus on the ways, means, ends, and (especially) the personality of one Donald J. Trump. The repeated indictments are by now familiar: Trump and Jeffrey Epstein; Trump and Vladimir Putin; Trump the misogynist; Trump the oligarch; and Trump the convicted felon.
The Trump indictments are further laced with progressive talking points that not so long ago would have been summarily dismissed in polite society: Why not open borders?; Why not alien voting rights?; Why not biological men in female athletics?; Why not fourteen genders? The accompanying tone is always cynical — sometimes aggressive — and every so often — substance-empty personal.
All of which begs a question: Has America’s labor-left party seriously bought into the woke/progressive agenda … or have traditional liberals decided it is easier to simply pile on the HATE TRUMP bandwagon rather than challenge ascendant progressives for control of their party? In other words, is all the performative virtue signaling on behalf of the 20 part of 80/20 issues a short-term survival strategy OR has a heretofore fringe core not so quietly realigned the oldest political party in the United States?
Before you rush to a conclusion, ask yourself a few difficult questions: Does the majority of today’s Democrats really believe biological men belong in women’s locker rooms – or that violent aliens should be protected from federal immigration enforcement — or that national borders (and math) are racist — or that parents should be shut out of deeply personal information about their school-age children — or that the Coast Guard, Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration should go unfunded during a war against a terror regime — or that collectivism, a term typically associated with communism, is “warm” — or that historic levels of Medicaid, hospice and child care fraud should go unpunished because the offenders belong to a protected immigrant group?
As recently as the Obama administration such questions would have been seen as more insulting than substantial and easily dismissed by a party whose elders respected cultural guardrails. But that was then.
Today, the stampede toward European socialism-lite is real. You can read about it on a daily basis.
A secondary thought: Whether the Democratic Party is truly “all in” on woke designs for America will not be revealed until Donald J. Trump no longer occupies the Oval Office (although voters will receive a pretty good hint if Democrats retake the House in November).
Still, a midterm win on a “Hate Trump” agenda does not a governing agenda make. Indeed, a platform of open immigration — gender fluidity – “Free Palestine” — court packing — alien voting rights – and declining parental control seems far too unserious for heartland American values.
Millions of less-than-progressive Democrats no doubt understand this … but only time will tell whether these mainstreamers are simply indulging short-term fictions in a desperate attempt at disentangling America from MAGA or are indeed undergoing a profound, long-term course adjustment. I’m guessing – and hoping – it is the former.
Bob Ehrlich is a former governor of Maryland, member of Congress and state legislator. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in America’s leading newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, can be seen and heard on their weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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