A Message To Democrats And Liberals: Don't Let Despondency Win
by Ben Cohen
In times of despair, it is often difficult to imagine a brighter future. In the Trump era of politics, that despair has the power to metastasize into something far more dangerous: despondency. As the non-stop lies, vicious racism, corruption and greed continues, conscientious Americans are perilously close to accepting this as the new normal. They no longer condemn the president, or complain about how awful he is. They simply turn of the news and accept that the country they thought they knew no longer exists.
We’ve been here before
In the 2000’s, a similar despondency set in. While rewriting the tax code for the ultra rich, gutting environmental regulation, and smashing the welfare state, George W. Bush also took the country into two disastrous, illegal wars on the basis of lies, and with no plan for how to get out. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, and the Bush Administration’s only response was to lie and tell the public that they weren’t seeing what they were seeing. America wasn’t losing the war as Iraq spiraled out of control and militants poured in to destabilize it. The United States military wasn’t torturing of prisoners of war, even as incontrovertible evidence of torture was being leaked to every news outlet on earth. America was winning, and anyone who doubted that was a traitor.
Conscientious Americans were horrified by all of this, and fought the administration tooth and nail. But despondency set in, particularly after John Kerry was defeated in 2004. Many on the left began to accept the reality created by Bush and his psychopathic Vice President, Dick Cheney — a new reality where America was a global pariah run by corrupt oligarchs and the military industrial complex. No one in 2005 could have envisioned a black liberal winning back the White House and passing (near) universal health care coverage. They believed America was, and would always be run by conservative white men — a sentiment that has come roaring back in the age of Donald Trump.
New Democrats, same problems?
While there are some talented Democrats running for President in 2020, they could be perilously close to scoring a colossal own goal. They are in danger of focusing obsessively on all the wrong issues, and are, as Matt Taibbi writes, “taking tweet-size bites out of one another’s hind parts in Heathers-style putdowns, or engaging in virtue-signaling contests, like they’re running for president of Woke Twitter.”
With the circular firing squad in full swing, despondency is again beginning to set in. But history shows us that just when things look like they couldn’t get any worse, the unexpected happens and the country puts itself back on the right track.
Don’t let despondency win
The dangers of blowing the 2020 election are very real, and the Democrats need to get their act together quickly. The virtue signaling and gender pronoun pandering has to end, and they must focus on issues that will get them elected (think healthcare, healthcare, healthcare).
But just as no one saw President Obama coming during the Bush years, we have no idea who is going to emerge from the Democratic primaries. Furthermore, we do not know what they might be capable of in a head to head with Trump. Giving way to despondency robs America of the hope it desperately needs to cling to.
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This overwhelmingly negative take on the Democratic primaries is fast becoming a much broader narrative: the Democrats are blowing it again and will be destroyed by Trump in 2020. It is easy to see why this is happening, and hard to stop it. Trump’s aim is to destroy the will of the opposition by making things so unbearable they simply give up. Karl Rove used a similar tactic during the Bush years, and to great effect. By constantly undermining and distorting reality, no one could figure out what was real anymore, and many gave up on politics altogether. Apathy benefits Republicans, and nothing creates apathy like convincing Americans that nothing they say or do matters.
The Democrats have won before, and they will win again
Those who covered the Democratic primaries of 2007 will remember a similar level of frustration with the nominees. Hillary Clinton was too much of a hawk, Barack Obama was too cerebral, and John Edwards spent too much time (and money) on his hair. Liberals believed they were going to lose to the Republicans again, and there was little they could do to stop them. There was at one point, speculation that Al Gore would dramatically enter the race and “save” the Democrats from another humiliating loss — a bizarre notion given Gore’s rather meek capitulation to Bush in 2000 after the Florida recount (not to mention his reputation for extreme wonkiness).
It turned out the Barack Obama was in fact, one of the successful Presidential candidates in American history and was re-elected comfortably in 2012.
Know Hope
President Obama ran on a message of hope, betting Americans would chose that over the virulent nationalism and xenophobia promoted by his opponents. It was a gamble that paid off and will pay off again, because hope is a potent weapons when things get unimaginably dark. As bad as things might be and as frustrating as the Democratic candidate are, they are all infinitely superior choices to Donald Trump. While they may not be creating huge amounts of confidence in their ability to win right now, an antidote to the madness of this president will likely emerge.
That is worth hoping for, and that is worth fighting for, so do not let despondency win. Ever.
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“Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives”
Just one of my peeves, perhaps, but I’ve never cared for the phrase “lost their life”. It makes it seem like it was something innocent bystanders simply misplaced, and that it was their fault for doing so.
They didn’t lose their lives. Their lives were taken from them.
When people are *killed* we should say so.