Thursday, May 4, 2017

Flashback to the 2016 Democratic Campaign

As a reminder of what the Democratic campaign against Donald Trump looked like, here is a message Elizabeth Warren posted on Facebook a year ago today.

While we're having problems now with Trump seeming to flake on his campaign promises, let's never forget why he won the election. Trump was out there talking about major policy issues: immigration, trade, national security. The Democrats were name-calling. Look at all the insults this US Senator hurled in a brief and public post.
  • racism
  • sexism
  • xenophobia
  • KKK
  • incites supporters to violence
  • praises Putin
  • authoritarian
  • dictator
  • attacks
  • puts our servicemembers at risk
  • cheerleads illegal torture
  • a collection of charlatans
  • contradictory
  • nonsensical
  • incoherent
  • truly bizarre
  • narcissism
  • divisiveness
  • toxic stew of hatred and insecurity
223 words written, and 20% of them are insults. The rest serve merely as scaffolding, a place to hang the insults like little ornaments of angst. They are just overhead. The only item in the whole post that communicated any information  was the phrase "toxic stew of hatred and insecurity," which seems to be a projection of Senator Warren's own psychological condition. Other than that, there is nothing of substance to be found in this rant. Remember, we were told constantly that Trump was the vacuous candidate, the know-nothing who would disgrace our political system. And yet this sitting senator, one of the leading Democrats in the country, could do no better than string a series of insults together.

The American public picked up on this, to some extent. Enough to give Trump a strong electoral victory, at least. And if in the next three years the Democrats can't find someone to do any better than just string insults together, a task for which most playground children are qualified, then I wouldn't suppose 2020 will be very pleasant for them, whether or not Trump abandons his base.

No comments:

Post a Comment