Party Crashers: Trump and Woke Progressives
– By Howard Sierer –
What do Donald Trump and woke progressives have in common? Both are pulling their respective parties away from the majority of American voters. This coming fall’s elections may depend on who succeeds in inflicting the greater damage between now and then.
Trump’s surprising win in 2016 along with Republican majorities in the Senate and the House fostered a number of welcome changes: tax cuts that led to faster economic growth and sharply higher wages for lower-income workers, both achieved while keeping inflation in check. Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees, now all justices, were a huge win for the rule of law.
But Trump’s ego and his incessant, inane tweets along with his continual anti-factual claims were a constant distraction and provided plenty of fodder for his political opponents. The upshot: Republicans lost the House in 2018 and both the presidency and the Senate in 2020.
Trump’s personal failings came to a head when he blamed his 2020 loss on election fraud. No meaningful evidence of election fraud has been identified in any state by election officials from either party. One of Trump’s highest-quality appointees, Attorney General William Barr, says Trump went “off the rails” when Barr told him his election fraud claims were baseless. Barr resigned in protest.
Fraud claims produced two political disasters for the Republican Party. First, they suppressed Republican voter turnout in Georgia’s senatorial runoff elections on January 5th, 2021, resulting in two Democratic senators and Democratic control of the Senate.
The following day, Trump’s claims prompted the infamous assault on the Capitol building with its attendant damage to the Republican Party by association. As if these weren’t damage enough, he continues to flog the election-fraud dead horse to this day.
Trump is a populist, not a traditional Republican, so party leaders were slow to support him even after his election. While he continued to exasperate them with his personal antics and foibles, mainline Republican leadership fell in behind him when he supported their policy prescriptions, for example, his judicial appointments that came directly from their playbook.
To the chagrin of Republicans like me and in the absence of a recognized alternative, Trump is now the face of the Republican party. As such, he sees himself as the party’s kingmaker, endorsing candidates around the country for national and state offices. To win his endorsement, candidates must embrace his election-fraud narrative.
The last straw in my book: Trump called Putin’s Ukraine invasion threats “genius” and “savvy.” His four-year track record of praising Putin while disparaging our NATO allies was unpresidential and contributed to today’s Ukraine war.
Two Republicans, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, have shown some promise as potential Republican leaders on the national stage. Both have managed to attract favorable attention while not soliciting endorsements or support from Trump. We can only hope.
On the far left, extremist “woke” progressives have co-opted Democratic Party leaders. Pres. Biden ran as a moderate but has governed as a progressive. The resulting damage to the Democratic Party is becoming more evident by the week.
Over the last five years progressives burned books, rioted, defaced, and burned buildings, demonized and physically attacked political opponents, and even shut down liberal writers and editors that didn’t toe their line. The progressive movement to defund the police resulted in a massive crime wave impacting primarily the low-income people they claim to be helping.
Democrats failed to pass their radical Build Back Better legislation. Now in desperation, the congressional progressive caucus and even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are urging Pres. Biden to implement its various provisions with executive orders, an action that would be both unprecedented and unconstitutional.
A recent opinion column on this website accused Utah’s Republican legislature of “edging toward authoritarian censorship.” Actions by Utah’s legislature pale to insignificance when compared to these Democratic calls for Biden to assume dictatorial powers by unilaterally imposing a massive overhaul of government policy with far-reaching social and economic impacts.
Students of political history will recognize all the above and more as harbingers of both Hitler’s and Stalin’s rise to power a century ago. Today’s woke students and the radical left are blind to the extent that their actions mirror those tumultuous times.
Instead of condemning all this, Democratic Party leaders justify it as acceptable reactions to the injustices inflicted by “systemic racism” and white male dominance of society.
Pushback by Democratic leaders against the nonsensical parts of the progressive agenda has been piecemeal. Pres. Biden abandoned several progressive priorities in his State of the Union speech. Speaker Pelosi changed her tune on defunding police after seeing voters defeat progressive candidates in state and local elections across the country this last fall.
Republicans have a leadership problem: Donald Trump. Democrats have a problem with voters: the progressive policies they’ve advocated.
The question for both parties is whether they can rise above and beyond the destructive influences that have poisoned today’s political environment. It’s time for the adults in both parties to grab the reins of leadership and set our ship of state back on a rational and positive course.
Viewpoints and perspectives expressed throughout The Independent are those of the individual contributors. They do not necessarily reflect those held by the staff of The Independent or our advertising sponsors. Your comments, rebuttals, and contributions are welcome in accordance with our Terms of Service. Please be respectful and abide by our Community Rules. If you have privacy concerns you can view our Privacy Policy here. Thank you!
Click here to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or a Letter to the Editor
