I considered writing today’s column about the PR rehabilitation of Richard Nixon. Investigators are reopening Watergate and relitigating its legacy — and this matters, because its aftershocks still reverberate: You can draw a direct, causal link between Donald Trump’s presidency and Watergate.
Without the former, there might not be the latter.
Because Trump’s 2015 ascendancy relied heavily on the Fox News Channel — and the Fox News Channel wouldn’t exist without Nixon media advisor Roger Ailes. What Ailes learned from Nixon shaped his TV vision. By some accounts, Fox News was first conceived during the Nixon years.
This makes sense: If you believe Watergate was less a “scandal” than a PR failure, launching an independent TV network that counterprogrammed the mainstream media was the logical solution. So Watergate fueled Fox News, and Fox News fueled the MAGA movement. (And eventually, the MAGA movement grew bigger than the network.)
Circle of life, young Simba.
Harpooning the great Nixonian whale inadvertently sowed the seeds of the Trump presidency. Not exactly a hunky-dory outcome for a party that swears Trump is worse than Nixon.
The law of unintended consequences strikes again!
But unintended consequences happen all the time, because politics is predictive: You’re legislating for the future while relying on incomplete data.
Very often, what sounds appealing today bites you in the butt tomorrow.
Besides, humans are bad at predictions. We get ‘em wrong more than we get ‘em right. Which is why the best strategy is pivoting when plans go awry — and pouncing when our enemy walks into a wall.
So instead of writing about Nixon, I’ll use him as a segue: When the law of unintended consequences strikes, a smart politician seizes the opportunity.
Because this week, Iran threw an airball. The mullahs are attempting to meddle in the U.S. midterms — and the same Democratic Party that wailed hysterically (and demanded prison sentences!) because of “Russian interference” is silent.
Therein lies our opportunity.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard wrote a letter to the American people, urging us to vote Republicans out of power. And to show you how keenly they understand our attention span, it’s a [checks notes] 26-page letter! (Sheesh. The mullahs would’ve had better luck with a TikTok Lego video.)
Iran’s error was miscalculating its toxicity. (And our endurance: Nobody’s reading a 26-page letter, bro.) But if we play our PR cards right, this error just might boomerang on the Democrats.
When the epitaph is written for the Iranian regime (which, hopefully, is soon), historians will blame Iran’s stunning hubris: At absolutely every turn, the mullahs overplayed their hand. Even when a face-saving MOU was in their grasp, they couldn’t resist the urge to thumb Uncle Sam in the eye, give Trump the finger, and attack civilian ships.
And now they’ve done it again: The mullahs actually believe their political endorsement is valuable enough to swing the midterm elections!
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has penned an open letter to Americans, calling on U.S. civilians to “wrest control back from corrupt politicians.”
The letter, published Tuesday, comes weeks before the U.S. midterm elections in November. Addressed to “the honorable people of the United States of America,” the letter accuses the Trump Administration of lying to the American public about the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran, which has just entered its eighth month, and calls on them to enact change through their votes.
“Americans need to wake up,” the letter reads. “Now is the time, as the American political system is at its weakest.”
IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi told reporters that the letter is not intended to sway the Trump Administration, but rather appeal to American voters.
Reread that last sentence: By Iran’s own admission, this is foreign election interference. There’s zero ambiguity about the regime’s intent.
And it’s election interference on behalf of the Democrats!
The left’s silence is deafening. Liberals are pretending it never happened. And they want us to forget, too.
Obviously, the Democrats won’t be pinning the mullah’s endorsement to their lapels. You’re not gonna see TV ads touting this glowing testimonial.
Because it’s deeply embarrassing — and could imperil their chances at winning the midterms. It’s not in their interest to acknowledge that they’re the preferred choice of the #1 state sponsor of terrorism.
(That’s not exactly the kind of message that resonates in the heartland.)
The Democrats want to focus on affordability and inflation — not Iranian terrorism. They have enough problems normalizing far-left candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and James Talarico in Texas. The last thing they need is an overt connection to the Iranian mullahs!
This gave me an idea.
MAGA should create a (parody) pro-Iran social media account. Set it up like a make-believe Super PAC and launch a multimedia PR campaign — with ads, posts, and fake TV commercials.
Unlike Russia, Russia, Russia, not a single Democrat has demanded hearings on Iranian election interference. (Weird, huh?) We can only assume it’s because they don’t find it problematic. So I’m sure they wouldn’t object to us sharing Iran’s testimonial with the voters — to ensure they have accurate information.
Let’s tell EVERY American that Iran wants them to vote Democrat! (Otherwise, “Democracy dies in darkness.”)
Make the ads funny. Run them in Talarico and El-Sayed’s states. Highlight the mullahs’ enthusiastic endorsement. Close with the tagline, “This commercial was paid for by the ‘Death to America’ political action committee. Not authorized by any candidate.”
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Iran’s attempted election interference backfired — and it ended up keeping the Republicans in power?
Yup. The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
How Nixonian.