The Democrats are going to be tough to beat in 2024. They are as unified behind Kamala Harris as the Republicans are behind Donald Trump.
Republicans are unified behind an agenda and a personality. But Democrats are unified not behind any grand ideas or exciting personalities. Democrats are unified by their hatred of Donald Trump, the same as they were in 2020 and 2016.
For eight long years, Democrats have not been running on any ideas worth mentioning, unless you call promising everyone more goodies an "agenda." They certainly haven't been running behind any scintillating personalities. Instead, their hysterical fear and hatred of Donald Trump has served as a uniting expedient. And the more hysterical the hatred, the more united they get.
It's like the stories parents tell their children to get them to behave. Trump is the bogey man and he'll come get ya if you don't join us. Otherwise, it's the threat that Trump will (choose one) "destroy democracy," "steal the election," or "enslave all minorities."
I confess to not watching the Democratic convention. It's more boring than most conventions simply because we all know exactly what they're going to say. Judging by the polls, the American people are tuning out the hysterical hate, also.
“Until we defeat Trumpism there’s nothing else that really, really matters,” Rep. Ro Khanna of California told reporters after a delegate breakfast on Tuesday. “And if we don’t defeat Trumpism, we’re going to be in a world of hurt, because there could be years of Republicans in charge.”
Is it really a "world of hurt" if the opposition wins the election? I guess the democratic niceties only apply when Democrats win.
Over two days in Chicago, Democrats have laced into Trump repeatedly, criticizing everything from his character to his legal problems to his policy proposals, including his management of the Covid pandemic. Former President Barack Obama even joked about Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes.”
And they are quite literally throwing the book at him. Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow on Monday brought with her on stage a hulking Project 2025 book — an oversized prop, visible from the cheap seats of the arena, designed to amplify the Heritage Foundation’s controversial blueprint for the next Republican administration that Trump has sought to distance himself from. A different speaker is bringing out the book every night, with Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta trotting out the over 900-page tome on Tuesday.
Is that really a wise move? Bringing out a book of Republican policy proposals when Democrats haven't bothered to give out any of their own? Just sayin'.
Related: The Stakes Have Never Been Higher: Schumer Outlines Democratic Agenda 'With the Guardrails Off.'
Democrats are going to have a hard time pivoting in some other direction once Trump is off stage. There are some Democrats who think it might be a good idea to get off the Trump horse and move forward. That idea is not playing well at the convention.
“It’s a tricky thing to get the balance right, and I am a firm believer that people rise to the moment that’s in front of them,” McMorrow told Politico on Tuesday. “In 2020, it really did feel like this singular goal was to beat Donald Trump, and that meant that it was a lot about education, about democracy and what’s at stake, and what he could do with the second term. And I think now people know that, so that message can only take you so far.”
The rest of the party isn't listening.
But many Democrats are betting that the threat of a second Trump term remains as potent a motivator for voters — both the party activists at the convention and the millions more Americans watching from home — as it did in 2020. Or when the specter of Trump helped power the party in the midterms in 2018 and 2022.
Over the first two days of their convention, prominent Democrats and rising party stars have used primetime speaking slots to deliver dire warnings about another Trump presidency and to reinforce his character flaws. Obama said Trump “has not stopped whining since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.” Former first lady Michelle Obama accused Trump of “demonizing our children for being who they are and loving who they love.”
Trump hate, Trump fear, and Trump disgust have animated the Democratic Party for eight years. What are they going to do without Donald Trump to kick around anymore?
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