As they freefall into the black pit of irrelevance, Democrats flail about for a branch to grab to break their fall, maybe even a toehold to try to climb back out.
I recently wrote about the DNC's latest attempt to reanimate two old tactics that used to have traction: unionization and fearmongering. These Democrat rallying techniques have lost their mojo, however; unionizing today mostly appeals to well-paid federal employees with more PTO than the rest of us could ever hope to have, and Americans have heard Democrats cry wolf too many times for their scare tactics to take hold.
Now, out-of-power leftists are hoping to resurrect another technique that was quite effective for them in days past: storytelling. Specifically, this is the art of designating a victim with a sob story for their media counterparts to blast everywhere 24/7 in an attempt to turn public opinion their way. This method has in the past spotlighted alleged victims of racism, police brutality, homophobia, immigration policy — you name it. If the Democrats are trying to change a law or custom, they will find a sad-faced poster victim around whom to rally the effort. It’s the practical application of (maybe) Stalin’s proclamation that “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” Democrats highlight that singular tragedy to manipulate emotions and stir passions in ways statistics never will.
To attack the Trump administration by this route, Democrats need to identify its victims. To that end, they have erected a portal into which victims of Orange Man Bad's evil policies and Elon Musk's cruel DOGE can enter their tales of woe.
"Today, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), joined Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats in announcing a new effort to hear directly from Americans harmed by the Trump Administration," said the pair in a statement:
“If you lost your job, been denied important services, or face other impacts because of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s extreme, illegal, and unconstitutional actions, we need to hear directly from you,” said Wasserman Schultz. “This is one key way we can fight back, by sharing our story and standing together. House Democrats are also challenging Trump and Musk in Congress, the courts, and inside our communities. With your personal stories, we will be better able to fight to protect you and other Americans.”
Far be it from me to interrupt my enemies when they are wasting their time chasing their tails, but spoiler alert: it's not going to work. Like screaming "Trump is Hitler!" "Threat to muh sacred democracy!" "Trans the kids or they'll kill themselves!" and "This is just like the Handmaid's Tale!" this tired tactic won't change anyone's mind, either. Americans have figured out the left's game of "Do what we say or this adorable puppy gets it!"
I wish I knew who gets credit for this meme I came across, but it perfectly illustrates how the Left will attempt to save its hideous legions in the deep state from the ghastly axe of DOGE:
Knock yourselves out, lefties — Americans are onto your victim-story schtick.
Much of the credit for breaking this spell goes to Trump campaign 1.0 official Corey Lewandowski. In 2018, he appeared on Fox News across from former senior Democratic National Committee adviser Zac Petkanas. The topic was the then-leftist sob narrative target, cruel President Trump's policy of separating foreign nationals from the children accompanying them as they illegally traversed the U.S. border. In well-established progressive style, Petkanas began to tell a sob story about a 10-year-old girl with Downs syndrome separated from her mother, and Lewandowski wasn't having it:
You could tell immediately that this was a direct hit. Petkanas got BIG mad — just look at his face!
Days later, the media still couldn't process that Lewandowski rejected their SOP emotional manipulation. “An apology? I owe an apology to the children whose parents are putting them in a position that is forcing them to be separated?" he hurled back at them, before turning the tables with some sob stories about innocent Americans. "We owe an apology to Jamiel Shaw and Brian Terry and Kate Steinle’s family, [we] who have allowed those individuals to be killed by illegal aliens,” he said. “The American people owe an apology to those people. When you cross the border illegally, you have committed a crime, and there is accountability for committing crimes, and there should be.”
Sob stories started losing their punch after that, and they're not going to work for the Dems now. Not least because it's the left itself who have destroyed lives and livelihoods. People lost their jobs when Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline and other oilfields; they lost their businesses when Democrats went into full virus-panic shutdown fascism; they lost their children to illegal alien crime and fentanyl overdoses. Worse, the Democrats did this to them using their own tax money.
So, no: the image of weepy laid-off swamp creatures sobbing about losing their cushy jobs isn't going to move the masses beyond perhaps giving them a chuckle.
Related: Whatever Will Become of All the Displaced Swamp Creatures?
The Democrats are certainly welcome to waste their time trying to squeeze a few more drops of juice out of yet another one of their tired old chestnuts. Unfortunately, they burned up any remaining credibility they had with the American people in the white-hot conflagration of their fanatical, hysterical Trump hatred.
And in the meantime, it would be a shame if people who had been harmed by Democrat policies started using the Democrats' sob-story portal to tell their own tales of victimization.
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