The Party of Permanent Apoplexy Allows a Non-Coastal In

The Party of Outrage
Democrats can barely keep up with their problems with Trump, raising some to wonder if their perpetual opposition is undermining a more focused message.

With nothing to offer but "hair on fire", screaming outrage, the Coastal Leftists allow a mid-lander into their midst. The problem is that being a mid-lander is no viewglass into the middle lands of the USA.

"Third-term Rep. Cheri Bustos, who was tapped by Pelosi to steer party messaging, represents a northwestern Illinois district full of blue-collar voters who narrowly voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton. Part of her elevation in the caucus is to bring a Midwestern sensibility to a party whose leadership is dominated by coastal legislators."

But as it happens, Bustos' hair is also on fire.

The rare sane approach gets lost in the shrill, deafening and constant braying.
[...]

"Craig Crawford, who advised former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's short-lived presidential bid, says it is foolish for the party to participate in a tit for tat with Trump, who has left many a vocal opponent in the political graveyard.

"I'd leave him out of the message and appeal to his base with a meaningful jobs plan," Crawford says. "Don't take his bait. Braying donkeys only make noise. Democrats should present a shadow government agenda that gives working class Americans jobs and hope. Democrats should learn something from their futile efforts of the Reagan years, attacking the man instead of winning back his voter base with a positive message."

But that argument falls on the other extreme side of the ledger. For many Democrats, it would be irresponsible and immoral to simply give Trump a pass or tamp down their disapproval for political purposes. And if they fell on their swords – for instance, tamping down their invective on the wall to focus on the foreign ban – their base would be apoplectic.

The liberal wing of the party is showing itself to be as active and animated as it has since the Vietnam War, producing crowds that are garnering comparisons to the 2010 tea party movement that ushered in the Republican control of Congress.

One left-wing group, Campaign for America's Future, is pressuring Democrats in Congress to resist the notion of trying to work with Trump even where they see some daylight. Instead they are seeking even more pressure – through weekly Tuesday protests – to make it clear "the Trump agenda is not normal," according to a recent statement on its website.

After Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said he believed Gorsuch deserved a hearing and an eventual vote, the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee emailed its 1 million members to rebuke him.

"There is zero appetite among the public for weakness from Democratic politicians," said Stephanie Taylor, the committee's co-founder.

Party strategists are still wrestling with how to harness all of this energy – and there's a realization, or at least an assumption, that eventually Trump will settle into a relatively more conventional posture, which will then present the party with a challenge of how to maintain the power of the initial opposition that flourished.

"I don't think this pace of outrage will sustain itself for four years," Murphy says. "It's natural for us to be more oppositional in the early days because the policy is coming fast and furious."

That doesn't eliminate the challenge in the near-term though. As Republicans on all levels begin to label the opposition as "obstructionists" and "crybabies," Democrats are huddling about how to weigh expressing their genuine principles while conducting smart politics. Given Trump's previous political success, there isn't a unified, obvious answer."

The Left has moved the Donks clear off the map of rationality. If there are enough rationals remaining in the nation, the Left will solidify them into a conservative bloc, and will have lost all momentum for a very long time.

The shrieking shows that Trump is right on the money, every day for two weeks now.