Once again, fast-moving events are giving me more to write about than I can keep up with. So I’m bumping a few good news stories to a Wednesday column, and discussing another topic today: the Dems’ fascinating recent attempts at social media outreach to voters.
If by “fascinating” I mean “gut-churningly cringy.”
Which I do.
Remember when Obama and the Dems were running rings around the GOP with social media and their savvy (if shallow) appeals to the savvy (if shallow) youngster voters? That seems like a thousand years ago now, and after the podcasting/new media-driven election of 2024, I was curious to see how the lefties would respond, now that they’ve had four months to lick their wounds and regroup.
Annnndddd…they’ve got nothing.
Actually, worse than nothing. They’ve got Rosa Delauro.
DeLauro is one of the spry, “fresh blood” types in the Dem House membership – clocking in at 82 years young, and serving only her 18th term. She often wears her hair dyed an unconvincing black, with a lot of equally unconvincing blue/purple. She sometimes wears glasses, which are always bizarre. And she recently made a TikTok video beginning with the words, “Yo, this is the ranking rizzler on Appropriations…”
And it somehow got worse from there.
Delauro’s painful “oldster trying to relate to young folks” video follows the trail blazed by our favorite Indian scout, Grandma Squanto (#wemustneverstopmockingher), in her infamous, “I think I’m gonna have me a beer” home video.
In both cases, each old pol had to realize the vast cognitive gulf (definitely not the Gulf of America, in this context) between her wizened appearance and her ridiculous slang usage. So maybe they’re going for kitschy, or self-aware irony? But if so, that’s a wild swing and a huge miss, the kind that leaves a batter corkscrewing herself into the ground after several complete turns on the follow-through.
But those are individual loons, each failing in their own inimitable way. What’s even more interesting to me is the psychology behind the Dems’ coordinated efforts, as you’ve probably seen in the “choose your fighter” debacle.
In this video, a variety of Democrat congresswomen imitated video game characters, dropping into the most unconvincing fighting stances you’ve ever seen in your life. The only way they could have looked more ridiculous would have been if they’d been dropped directly onto a rake, causing the wooden handle to rocket upwards, flash between their tiny, clenched fists, and knock them unconscious with a satisfying “croquet-mallet-whacking-a-coconut” WHAP!
But just when it seemed like that self-beclowning incident was as bad as any collaborative video could get, someone at DNC headquarters must have said, “Hold my 180-proof grain alcohol dosed with meth and watch this!”
And that poor soul came up with the “Sh*t that ain’t true” video, a vulgar, ungrammatical script that features a politician reading a laundry list of what he sees as Trump’s failures during his first month in office.
As a stand-alone clip, it’s standard political fare: “My opponent has screwed up in the following ways…” But it’s not a stand-alone clip, because it turns out that around two dozen Dem pols recorded the exact same script, delivered in almost identical ways.
Each one holds a little microphone in front of her, sits at the same time, uses the same moronic gestures. “Prices are up (point thumb up), not down (point down).” Apparently nobody in the leftist brain trust remembered the prime directive of “talking to the camera” political ads: you want to look like you’re actually speaking frankly to your viewer.
But by putting out the identical ad read by a series of politicians, they reveal and emphasize that these are all bad actors reading from the same script. That strategy shows how utterly disconnected these people are from the American people.
A fundamental part of Americans’ self-perception is that we are stubbornly independent people. We came here to follow our own lights when it came to religion and speech, and revolted to get out from under too-strict control from our British forebears and their monarchy. “Rugged individualism” is stamped into our national DNA, aspirationally if not always in everyday practice.
Conversely, “conformity” and “marching in lockstep” are phrases in our national language with negative connotations. We disrespect those who lack individual initiative as soulless “company men.” We often derisively call people who follow the crowd (or more demeaningly, “the herd”) metaphorically insulting names like “puppet” or “robot.” Comparisons of humans to “lemmings” – all mindlessly going over a cliff together – are not compliments.
And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when these thoughts take on any kind of political connotations, they are usually associated with totalitarian leftism. In the novel 1984 – and in the iconic Apple commercial from that year that borrowed that novel’s trappings – the citizens under the sway of Big Brother/government were colorless drones, clomping alone in unison or standing motionless in uniform, undifferentiated columns.
Conformity is an inevitable part of politics – a major party wouldn’t be a major party without some kind of “party line” that must be followed to some extent. But we also push back against too closely hewing to the party line. We deride repeated and cliched responses as “talking points” and “marching orders,” and we don’t like candidates who transparently follow them.
But not the Democrats! Those dopes have been addicted to talking points, and ham-handedly incapable of hiding the fact that they are slavishly repeating them. Remember when George W was perceived as a lightweight presence on the political stage, and within 2 minutes of each other, every national Democrat on tv was saying that he “lacked gravitas?” Despite the fact that none of those dolts had ever heard the word “gravitas” before?
Or when Tim AWOLz called the GOP ticket “weird,” and then every room-temperature-IQ lefty was all over the airwaves repeating it? Or when some drone from the leftist Borg decided that the word-salad-spewing empty-skirt that was Que Mala was suddenly “brat,” and that her campaign was overflowing with “joy?” Within minutes, you couldn’t swing a dead cat on the Dem convention floor without hitting three septuagenarians prattling on about the joyful brat-ness of the proceedings.
And now, after four months to engage in some serious self-reflection, the Dems come up with the “Schiff than ain’t true” trainwreck, which combines the off-putting insistence of a crank’s manifesto and the warm authenticity of a hostage video.
Keep it up guys. You’re doing great. If you listen closely, you can probably hear the vast rumbling of tens of millions of voters coming over to your side, led by the wildly enthusiastic “youth” who are attracted to your vibe, and your squidgy, or whatever the hell else the kids are saying these days.
Oh, and here’s the memo with next week’s talking points. The official phrases for March 17th – 24th are going to be “Ignorance is strength,” “War is peace,” and “Trump is a fascist.”
Now go out and spread the word.
Robotically.
Hamas delenda est!
Martin Simpson 