Entertaining Stuff

Tearing Apart the Body Politic

National politics in the United States is entering an interesting phase.  2020 looms and the Democratic Party is desperate to secure the Presidency.  To do so it has to defeat the incumbent, Donald Trump.  It also has to carry the House and the Senate if it is to be able to change the directions of national policy.  

We are eagerly anticipating the show.  We recall the memorable words of Captain Jack Ross in A Few Good Men when he prepares the jury for the anticipated antics of his courtroom opponent:

Lt. Kaffee is gonna try to put on a little magic act here. He's gonna try a little misdirection. He'll astound you with stories of rituals and dazzle you with official-sounding terms like Code Red. He might even try to cut into a few officers for you. He'll have no evidence, mind you, none . . . but it will be entertaining.

We expect that the Democratic Party will end up having no substance, mind you, none at all--but the campaign for President will be entertaining. Already we see infighting that has the hall marks of  Party dismemberment.
  Each candidate--already announced or soon to be so--has to appear more radical, more ideologically pure, and, therefore, more fringe and extreme than those who have already thrown their hats into the ring.

As Rich Lowry from National Review put it:

Democrats are about to embark on the first “woke” primary, a gantlet of political correctness that will routinely wring abject apologies out of candidates and find fault in even the most sure-footed. The passage of time will be no defense. Nor the best of intentions. Nor anything else.

Any lapses will be interpreted through the most hostile lens, made all the more brutal by the competition of a large field of candidates vying for the approval of a radicalized base. The Democrat nomination battle might as well be fought on the campus of Oberlin College and officiated by the director of the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Every new candidate that emerges has to hurdle two obstacles: firstly, they have to distinguish themselves from everyone else in the Democratic Party that has announced an intention to run for the Presidency.  And the coin of that realm today is lots and lots of evidence of being more radically chic than everyone else who has declared their ambitions.  The second hurdle follows immediately after: they have to face down a roaring amphitheatre which is devoted to undermining their credentials of radicalism.  In this game, it is the most extreme, and the most radical who wins. 

Candidates now need to prove their views are the most radical of all.  Daily, the rank-and-file of the Democratic Party moves leftward.  Consequently it is now well into the territory we used to call the "Loony Left".

Rich Lowry concludes:

In every presidential campaign, candidates have to explain and backfill to get with the party’s latest program. What will make this process so much more intense for Democrats is the belief that even past mistakes involving the choice of words or symbolism are affirmatively injurious of other people. And that such mistakes represent deep sins to be repented of.

Even Kamala Harris, who calls racism, sexism, and transphobia matters of “national security,” isn’t safe. She was once a prosecutor, after all. Reviewing her record, a New York Times op-ed writer said that “she needs to radically break with her past.”

Who doesn’t? No one will be woke enough to emerge from this process unscathed.

Such extreme political correctness is thoroughly engaging.   Not at all helpful to the fortunes of the Democratic Party.  But entertaining.  Thoroughly so.  There are few things more captivating than a Lefty politician repenting of "deep sins".