Are the tantrums working?
Back in my younger days, I had my share of temper tantrums. My mother would stare at me and say, "Are you done yet? Okay...do what I told you when you're done screaming." Reality set in, and I did whatever I was supposed to do.
I'd love to see my mom greet some of these anti-Trump supporters screaming about this and that. My mother would say: "Are you done yet? Well, stop acting silly and vote so that you can make a real difference."
Over the last few weeks, the political terrain has been flooded by some of the silliest statements this side of reality. Yet are these anti-Trumpistas really moving the ball? Are they going to win back the House or Senate with this behavior? My guess is that-red state Democrats running for reelection in 2018 are whispering, "No."
We may soon know just how effective the anti-Trump street campaign has been, as John Kraushaar wrote about an upcoming special election in Georgia to replace Dr. Price, now in the Cabinet. It's a district Mr. Trump won by 2 points and Mr. Romney won by 20 in 2012. It may be an early test, as we see in the article:
On paper, this election should be a golden opportunity for Democrats to make political inroads.
The district is filled with the type of college-educated voters who have gravitated away from Trump – including independents who don't have strong partisan loyalties but tend to vote Republican.
Eleven Republicans will be fighting against each other on an all-party primary ballot, making it likely the eventual GOP standard-bearer will be wounded heading into an expected runoff. Trump's presidency has gotten off to a rocky start, giving any Democrat plenty of material to work with.
But the early Democratic favorite in the race is about as awkward a fit for this particular district as Democrats could find. Jon Ossoff, a self-described investigative filmmaker, is a 29-year-old Bernie Sanders backer and a former national security staffer for liberal Rep. Hank Johnson[.] ...
Ossoff fills the confrontational role to a tee.
In case his campaign message wasn't clear, his website is emblazoned with the headline: "Georgia: Stand Up To Trump."
Making the race about Trump is helping him raise his profile and bringing in loads of campaign cash.
But money isn't a substitute for a message that can win over Republicans who will find Ossoff's down-the-line liberal views as problematic as Trump's populism.
Democratic activists may be energized by Ossoff's broadsides against the president, but they will end up disappointed if he doesn't meld them with a centrist message designed to attract disaffected Republicans...
If Democrats can even run competitively in this district, it would be a sign that an unadulterated anti-Trump message can pay dividends.
But if the next Republican nominee performs like Price – who never won less than 62 percent of the vote in his seven campaigns – it will send a signal that simply being the opposition isn't enough to win back control of Congress.
"If you have an old white guy who's hard right-wing, pro-Trump, anti-Muslim, and anti-gay marriage running against a woman who comes across like Michelle Nunn, that's the dynamic that could be a problem for us," said one GOP strategist tracking the race.
"But you're not going to have that dynamic."
We remember that the GOP won governor's elections in New Jersey and Virginia in the fall of 2009. They were seen back then as signs that the Tea Party efforts were paying off in votes. Then came Scott Brown's victory in the special election to replace Senator Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts in January 2010.
My guess is that the GOP will hold on to the seat because Michelle Nunn is not running.
The left will probably react by saying they lost because they didn't scream loud enough or were too centrist.
One of these days, the Democrats will learn another one of my sweet mom's lessons of life: the problem with screaming is that nobody listens.
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