CYNICISM CHARACTERIZES OUR DECLINING POLITICAL LIFE
BY
ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
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It is difficult to observe our declining political life. I remember when our politics worked, when Republicans and Democrats did not view themselves as “enemies,” but as fellow Americans engaged in a common political enterprise. They disagreed about a variety of policies, but also formed coalitions. Working together, they won the Cold War and embraced civil rights. No one who lost an election claimed to be the winner.
Today, the cynicism in both parties is threatening our political future. While our former president claims the 2020 election was “rigged,” not a single Republican Secretary of State agrees. Neither does his own Vice President or Attorney General. Still, Republican candidates in 2022 primaries are winning elections by embracing the notion that the 2020 election was dishonestly conducted. Even worse, perhaps, is that the Democratic Party is spending millions of dollars in support of the most extreme Republican candidates, thinking that they would be easier to defeat. Cynical Democrats also poured money into Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016, thinking he would be the easiest Republican for Hillary Clinton to defeat. We know where that led.
Democrats claim to be a party of principle. Why, then, are they accusing Donald Trump and his supporters of subverting democracy and, at the same time, contributing money to the Republican Party’s most extreme candidates? Democrats have spent nearly $19 million across eight states in primaries supporting the most far-right Republican candidates. In New Hampshire, the successful Republican candidate even accused New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Sununu of being sympathetic to the Chinese Communists. “What a sign of weakness,” Sununu said of Democrats meddling in the Republican primary. “I think it’s unethical, frankly. I think it should be banned, somehow, in the political system.”
Democratic Senate Majority leader Charles Schumer used his Senate Majority PAC to spend $3.2 million to enhance the campaign in New Hampshire of far-right Senate candidate Don Balduc. With Schumer’s help, Bolduc, an election denier, defeated his more moderate rival New Hampshire Senate president Chuck Morse.
Some Democrats are speaking out against the path being embraced by their party. “We are playing with fire,” said former House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt. “It is a red line. A candidate who is not for having elections anymore has got to be kept out of office. We have to protect the democracy. Democracy is a fragile thing.”
President Biden recently emphasized that voters should put their party identity aside to preserve democracy. “We’re all called, by duty and conscience , to confront extremists who will put their own pursuit of power above all else,” he said in a prime time address. “Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans: We must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy than the MAGA Republicans are to destroying American democracy.”
After the Biden speech, Democrats proceeded to spend millions of dollars to help those very MAGA Republicans win their primaries. When asked in a television interview whether the Democratic interference in Republican primaries contradicted what the president said in his speech, Vice President Harris declined to answer directly. All she would say is, “I’m not going to tell people how to run their campaigns,”
In Maryland, the Republican gubernatorial beneficiary of Democratic interference, Dan Cox, chartered buses to bring supporters to Washington on Jan, 6, 2021 and tweeted “Mike Pence is a traitor,” as the assault on the U.S. Capitol was taking place. After spending about $1.7 million to advance Cox’s message during the Republican primary, Democrats are now campaigning against what they say is his extreme record.
Democrats are pouring money into the campaigns of the most far right Republicans, even those with little chance of winning. In Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, the Democratic super PAC Patriot Majority spent about $300,000 promoting Jerome Bell, a Republican candidate who played down those who assaulted the U.S. Capitol, saying they “basically went on a guided tour of the Capitol.” Bell, who would go on to lose, spent only about $255,000 on his own campaign. Bell said he supported an election audit in all 50 states.
Rep. Dean Philips (D-MN) says, “I’m disgusted that hard-earned money intended to support Democrats is being used to support Trump-endorsed candidates, particularly the far-right opponent of one of the most honorable Republicans in Congress, Rep. Peter meijer of Michigan (who voted for Donald Trump’s impeachment).” Meijer was narrowly defeated in the Republican primary. The money contributed to his far-right opponent by Democrats is believed to have had a major impact.
Rep.Don Breyer (D-VA) laments that, “All of this undermines our message about keeping campaigns as ethical, honest and transparent as possible.” Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) says, “Right now, we’re in a fight for our democracy. What happens if they actually win? Then we inadvertently helped elect the people that will bring an end to the institutions we are trying to protect.”
With a combination of extremism and cynicism it is clear that our political life is in serious disarray. How Democrats can warn about threats to democracy and then promote the very people they identify as embodying the threat is difficult to understand. It is disappointing that they will not even defend what they have been doing.
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