Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a solid lead in the polls over political newcomer Donald Trump. And why not? Clinton was thought to have been the most qualified presidential candidate in history, having served as First Lady, United States Senator, and Secretary of State. She was also very smart, savvy, and ruthless, having allegedly manipulated superdelegates, the DNC, and the primary rules in order to disenfranchise Bernie Sanders’ voters.
Meanwhile, Trump had dispatched the GOP primary field with ease, despite the fact that he had no credentials, no sense of decorum, and was functionally illiterate. Still, pundits all agreed that Trump stood no chance of beating Clinton. But Hillary had two things working against her. First, she was not personable, and second, she was arrogant to a fault. The latter trait would be her undoing. Coming down the stretch, Bill Clinton, a successful and still admired two-term president, advised his wife to focus on the Rust Belt states, and to make as many trips to that region as possible. According to numerous insider reports, Hillary angrily dismissed Bill’s advice. On election night she wished she had listened to him. Though she garnered more votes than Trump, Donald beat her in the Rust Belt, and it was enough to prevail in the Electoral College.
By 2020, Americans of all stripes had grown tired of Trump’s bullying ways and his mishandling of the COVID pandemic, so they voted Joe Biden into office. Democrats were hopeful that the Biden/Harris victory would launch an era of political dominance for the blue team, but it wasn’t to be. Uncle Joe’s age caught up with him, so much so, that staff limited his interaction with the press. But they couldn’t keep him totally out of the public eye, and on those occasions, his speech became increasingly jumbled, and at times he didn’t seem to know where he was. Meanwhile, Biden managed to let over 2 million illegal immigrants cross our borders in less than four years, and food prices were continuing to rise.
When Democratic leadership finally forced Joe from the 2024 race it did so without a cohesive plan for naming his successor. And when Harris was anointed without so much as a mini-primary, the party opened the door for Trump to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to win two non-consecutive terms. During her abbreviated campaign, Harris avoided tough interviews because she was widely known for her word salad answers. To make matters worse, she couldn’t defend her failed immigration policy (Biden had put her in charge of the border crisis) and even said there was nothing she would have changed about Biden’s policies. Unfortunately, her gender and skin color also worked against her due to an increasing number of voters who were misogynistic and racist. But perhaps those hurdles could have been mitigated had it not been for Kamala taking her eye off the ball. Just as Hillary had ignored Middle America in 2016, Kamala refused to move her politics to the center and listen to what Middle America was trying to tell her. Americans didn’t want illegals streaming across our borders. They didn’t like having to choose between food and rent. And they also had grown tired of Democratic wokeness. Americans were tired of having politically correct pronouns forced on them, and tired of having biological men invade women’s sports. Biden never got that message, and Harris didn’t know how to adapt to it. Thus, Republicans easily won the White House, Congress, and the Senate, all in one night.
The question is, have Democrats learned their lesson? The answer is no, and I’ll cite one policy issue as an example. After Trump declared that there are only two genders, all Democratic politicians should have followed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lead when he came out against young men playing women’s sports. After all, girls and women have been seriously injured when competing against biological males, and Democratic elected officials need to understand that.
Instead, most of them have continued to double down on their out-of-touch wokeness. Earlier this month when a Senate bill was proposed that would have officially banned trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, not a single Democrat supported it. And then there was the testy exchange during a recent White House summit in which Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills told Trump that she would not obey any presidential order that barred biological males from participating in women’s sports. But perhaps the most telling incident of how Democrats haven’t learned their lesson occurred last week during a congressional hearing. GOP committee Chairman Keith Self introduced Sarah McBride, a trans representative from Delaware, as “Mr. McBride.” McBride then snarked, “Thank you Madam Chairman.” That’s when Democrat Congressman Bill Keating angrily scolded Mr. Self and refused to let the hearing proceed until the Chairman introduced McBride in a politically correct manner. Channeling the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, drama queen Keating said, “Mr. Chairman have you no decency?” Rep. Self then adjourned the hearing, and the people’s business was put on hold, while yet another Democrat had a temper tantrum designed to shame middle Americans for not embracing multiple genders.
It’s no wonder that a recent CNN poll shows the Democratic Party’s favorability rating is at an all-time low. Truth is, average Americans of all faiths, genders, and races just want to feel like our elected leaders are “woke” to our everyday concerns, and if they can’t manage to do that, then it will be a cold day in Hell before Democrats take back the White House.
Democrats Still Don’t Get It
Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a solid lead in the polls over political newcomer Donald Trump. And why not? Clinton was thought to have been the most qualified presidential candidate in history, having served as First Lady, United States Senator, and Secretary of State. She was also very smart, savvy, and ruthless, having allegedly manipulated superdelegates, the DNC, and the primary rules in order to disenfranchise Bernie Sanders’ voters.
Meanwhile, Trump had dispatched the GOP primary field with ease, despite the fact that he had no credentials, no sense of decorum, and was functionally illiterate. Still, pundits all agreed that Trump stood no chance of beating Clinton. But Hillary had two things working against her. First, she was not personable, and second, she was arrogant to a fault. The latter trait would be her undoing. Coming down the stretch, Bill Clinton, a successful and still admired two-term president, advised his wife to focus on the Rust Belt states, and to make as many trips to that region as possible. According to numerous insider reports, Hillary angrily dismissed Bill’s advice. On election night she wished she had listened to him. Though she garnered more votes than Trump, Donald beat her in the Rust Belt, and it was enough to prevail in the Electoral College.
By 2020, Americans of all stripes had grown tired of Trump’s bullying ways and his mishandling of the COVID pandemic, so they voted Joe Biden into office. Democrats were hopeful that the Biden/Harris victory would launch an era of political dominance for the blue team, but it wasn’t to be. Uncle Joe’s age caught up with him, so much so, that staff limited his interaction with the press. But they couldn’t keep him totally out of the public eye, and on those occasions, his speech became increasingly jumbled, and at times he didn’t seem to know where he was. Meanwhile, Biden managed to let over 2 million illegal immigrants cross our borders in less than four years, and food prices were continuing to rise.
When Democratic leadership finally forced Joe from the 2024 race it did so without a cohesive plan for naming his successor. And when Harris was anointed without so much as a mini-primary, the party opened the door for Trump to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to win two non-consecutive terms. During her abbreviated campaign, Harris avoided tough interviews because she was widely known for her word salad answers. To make matters worse, she couldn’t defend her failed immigration policy (Biden had put her in charge of the border crisis) and even said there was nothing she would have changed about Biden’s policies. Unfortunately, her gender and skin color also worked against her due to an increasing number of voters who were misogynistic and racist. But perhaps those hurdles could have been mitigated had it not been for Kamala taking her eye off the ball. Just as Hillary had ignored Middle America in 2016, Kamala refused to move her politics to the center and listen to what Middle America was trying to tell her. Americans didn’t want illegals streaming across our borders. They didn’t like having to choose between food and rent. And they also had grown tired of Democratic wokeness. Americans were tired of having politically correct pronouns forced on them, and tired of having biological men invade women’s sports. Biden never got that message, and Harris didn’t know how to adapt to it. Thus, Republicans easily won the White House, Congress, and the Senate, all in one night.
The question is, have Democrats learned their lesson? The answer is no, and I’ll cite one policy issue as an example. After Trump declared that there are only two genders, all Democratic politicians should have followed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lead when he came out against young men playing women’s sports. After all, girls and women have been seriously injured when competing against biological males, and Democratic elected officials need to understand that.
Instead, most of them have continued to double down on their out-of-touch wokeness. Earlier this month when a Senate bill was proposed that would have officially banned trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, not a single Democrat supported it. And then there was the testy exchange during a recent White House summit in which Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills told Trump that she would not obey any presidential order that barred biological males from participating in women’s sports. But perhaps the most telling incident of how Democrats haven’t learned their lesson occurred last week during a congressional hearing. GOP committee Chairman Keith Self introduced Sarah McBride, a trans representative from Delaware, as “Mr. McBride.” McBride then snarked, “Thank you Madam Chairman.” That’s when Democrat Congressman Bill Keating angrily scolded Mr. Self and refused to let the hearing proceed until the Chairman introduced McBride in a politically correct manner. Channeling the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, drama queen Keating said, “Mr. Chairman have you no decency?” Rep. Self then adjourned the hearing, and the people’s business was put on hold, while yet another Democrat had a temper tantrum designed to shame middle Americans for not embracing multiple genders.
It’s no wonder that a recent CNN poll shows the Democratic Party’s favorability rating is at an all-time low. Truth is, average Americans of all faiths, genders, and races just want to feel like our elected leaders are “woke” to our everyday concerns, and if they can’t manage to do that, then it will be a cold day in Hell before Democrats take back the White House.