“Serious creativity” lacking from the left
There isn’t a lot of outside-the-box thinking among Democrats. For all the Left’s attraction to novelty and appreciation for creativity, stepping outside their safe spaces is not something many established Democratic operatives do. They color inside the lines Republicans ignore.
Greg Sargent warns that should Donald Trump be indicted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office over his concealing hush-money payments to a porn star, Democrats seem unprepared to meet both the moment and the expected Republican backlash:
Democrats will have to marshal some serious creativity in response. The extraordinary move by House Republicans to insert themselves into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation of Trump provides Democrats with an opening to do just that.
This week, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other top Republicans sent a letter to Bragg demanding documents and testimony related to expectations that Bragg might charge Trump over a hush-money payment to a porn actress in 2016. The letter declared this an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority,” even though no charges have been filed.
But it’s not clear that Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chair, has thought this through. The course of action signaled by the letter — also signed by Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) — could go sideways for Republicans in unforeseen ways.
A smart, ah say, a smart Democrat might help those Republicans’ plans go sideways. But we might have to hope that happens on its own. Even if Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sees this move by Jordan, et al., as “the kind of political culture you find in authoritarian dictatorships.”
Republicans will treat whatever charges Trump faces — in New York, in Georgia, or in federal court over Jan. 6 — as illegitimate, just as they treat any election in which Democrats defeat them at the polls. This, despite the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office regularly indicting New Yorkers for falsifying business records.
“Not charging Trump might constitute special treatment,” Sargent believes.
Still, one inside-the-lines approach Democrats have proved good at is turning congressional hearings into effective counter-programming to Republican histrionics. Early GOP House majority efforts this year have already misfired.
House Republicans may not have the option of not voting on a criminal referral against Bragg should he dismiss their demand for documents and testimony, Sargent suggests, given the heat Trump allies are giving “Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) for offering merely qualified defenses of Trump.”
Democrats nationwide will need more than counter-messaging in congressional hearings to stay ahead of the wave of extremist propaganda (and potential violence) headed their way.
I’m with Sargent on how Democrats should respond (and likely won’t):
A Trump indictment will unleash months of information warfare around a numbingly complex matter never before litigated in the public arena. Democrats sometimes undervalue the importance of sheer creativity in politics, and as ugly as the GOP response has been, Republicans are responding to unprecedented circumstances with new innovations. Democrats must meet them on that battlefield.
Democrats remain risk averse in a time when same-old, same-old is not cutting it.
On a Zoom call Tuesday night, Democratic strategist Tom Bonier spoke to the problem Democrats face in a time when a growing number of voters in North Carolina and elsewhere are choosing to register as independents (unaffiliated in N.C.). Lack of party ID makes it more challenging for Democrats to identify and turn out possible supporters, especially left-leaning young ones. Problem identified. And the solution?
What’s required for 2024 is some creative, outside-the-box thinking and outside-the-lines tactics that risk-averse Democrats so far seem unwilling to entertain. The clock is ticking.