They’ll play the victim even if you don’t
One of Cliff Schecter’s tweets caught my attention last night and pointed to a sharp, stiletto-edged reply by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to a Donald Trump whine about the Jan. 6 hearings.
USA Today opinion columnist Michael J. Stern had observed:
Here’s another from Swalwell from the day before:
Schecter replied, “This times a million/billion/kajillion. As I keep saying, Swalwell, as well as Ruben Gallego, Katie Porter and a few others have learned how to do this. Let them take the lead on messaging and rapid response.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a flair for it as well. Chalk it up to bartender experience.
Stop being outraged and hit back. It’s the only thing the authoritarian cult understands and the kind of fight people need to see from Democrats. Politeness these days comes across as weakness or fecklessness. On those occasions when Democrats hit back, Republicans will play the victim. They’ll play the victim even if you don’t.
“Victimhood is extremely important for all autocrats,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of “Strongmen: “Mussolini to the Present, told Michael Kruse in April. “They always have to be the biggest victim.”
The extremist right and the rest of us do not just exist in parallel universes. We play by different rules. It is baffling to this day the reflex among many Democrats to view inoffensiveness and moderation as the key to winning votes and avoiding attacks from the right.
For God’s sake, Democrats trying to look bipartisan are praising doormat Mike Pence for not helping Donald Trump overthrow our democracy on Jan. 6. Former Republican consultant Stuart Stevens is done being polite.
During the 2010 senatorial primary in North Carolina, Democrat Cal Cunningham said to my face that the DSCC told him his Bronze Star would trump anything the right wing could throw at him. My first thought was, “And you believed them?” My second was, “Does John Kerry ring a bell?”
At the Democratic State Executive Committee meeting in Durham Saturday, one delegate rolled her eyes at Senate candidate Cheri Beasley’s TV ads as the bland products of talentless consultants. “She’s going to lose.”
In the age of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, in state in which over a third of voters are registered unaffiliated and (by my estimate) 58% voted for Trump in 2020, Beasley is running against Trump-endorsed Rep. Ted “Monster Truck” Budd. Voters in a mid-term won’t turn out for bland and inoffensive.
Democrats promise voters that when they get to Washington they are going to fight for them … without showing them any before elections they lose.
“Show me!” cried Eliza Doolitlle to foppish Freddy Eynsford-Hill.
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