We all know the type: the one who pushes the envelope of taste in an attempt to be raw and edgy. This is the type of person who busts out the egregious profanity, dirty jokes, or inappropriate stories to prove how cool he or she is. It rarely works.
Look at the shift of the political parties in America today. For years, the Democrats were the cool guys. They were supposedly fun and hip; even in cringe moments like Bill Clinton playing the sax on Arsenio Hall’s show and answering questions about underwear, the Democrats embodied a certain kind of joy. The Republicans, on the other hand, were squares like Alex P. Keaton.
Side note: Alex P. Keaton was my favorite sitcom character as a preteen. I didn’t like his overly formal dress, but he loved Ronald Reagan, which endeared him to me.
Now the switches have flipped in so many ways. The wokescolds of the Democrats come across as schoolmarms, while the GOP, especially its Trumpian wing, is having all the fun. Now the Dems want to reclaim the hip edginess, but they’re trying it by going lowbrow. You could say that the Democrats are replacing class warfare with crass warfare.
Matt Lewis pointed out the Dems’ plight in a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed:
They didn’t get into politics to be the spreadsheet managers of the republic. They wanted to wear sunglasses indoors and quote Aaron Sorkin dialogue in real life. They imagined themselves as the effortlessly cool John F. Kennedy, with that tousled movie-star hair, poolside tanned skin, and those classic Ray-Bans that always made him look like he just walked out of a GQ shoot.
The problem? Cool doesn’t work when it’s forced. Ask any middle schooler (I’ve got two). When today’s Democrats lean too far into their edgy side, it doesn’t look like an organic vibe shift — it looks like panic in skinny jeans. “We’re raw now! We clap back! We vibe with Gen Z!” Yeah, sure. Right after the PAC luncheon and before the panel discussion on infrastructure reform.
Lewis noted that the Democrats are envious of today’s Republicans, who have become the “chaos agents” and the “punk rockers.” That’s why they’re attempting to engineer a brand they call “dark woke.” Just like Democrats can’t meme, this crop of lefties isn’t so adept at branding.
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Whether it’s Elissa Slotkin dropping F-bombs, Jasmine Crockett slinging threatening rhetoric, or David Hogg trying to boot the Boomers from office, “dark woke” comes across as nasty and desperate rather than edgy and cool. Besides, Hogg’s beta-male scrawniness and perma-scowl are the antithesis of cool regardless of party affiliation.
Frank Bruni, one of the elder statesmen of the New York Times opinion page, called out this behavior in a recent newsletter. He highlighted Slotkin’s profanity in particular.
“Slotkin also confused plain-spokenness and profanity, dropping the F bomb at the start of an exhortation that her party ‘retake the flag,’” he wrote. “That wasn’t the end of her expletives. I suppose she was going for earthiness, but that’s hardly a proxy for worthiness.”
Of course, Bruni says that instead of trying to be cool, Democrats need to highlight the issues that motivate them, and he used Chris Van Hollen’s El Salvador stunt as an example. The problem is that the issues Bruni says are worth highlighting don’t exactly resonate with voters.
The Democrats are short on substance these days, and their answer is to try to win on edginess and shock value. For a party that has long claimed the moral high ground, going for the low blows is a weird flex that comes across as little short of desperation.
