President Trump has presented the Left with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to define itself through opposition, and they’re blowing their moment rallying around political grifters and looney-tune social media warriors.
It’s like the Tea Party phenomenon, but without the electoral victories.
Trump’s stunning win over Hillary Clinton in November marked a significant setback for Democrats. His ascent to the White House represented a rejection of their brand of politics.
The Queens businessman is everything they say they oppose, and he won despite the frequent, unceasing warnings from their allies in the news media and entertainment industries.
What are Democrats doing in the wake of this stunning loss to a self-professed Republican populist?
Well, they’re not worrying too much about their electoral strategies. The Democratic National Committee has yet to conduct a post-mortem on Clinton’s disastrous White House bid.
They also don’t appear to be all that interested in rethinking their outreach efforts to white and working-class voters, who overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2016.
Democrats have instead spent a good deal of time since the Nov. 8 election staging rallies, participating in rallies, commenting on rallies, going on television, going on radio, and signaling on social media that they are displeased with the current administration.
Left-wing activists meanwhile have coalesced into an informal opposition group called the “Resistance,” whose unofficial leaders are social media warriors, failed political consultants, and shady politicians.
It’s the saddest, most ideologically inconsistent thing you’ve ever seen.
The Resistance says it opposes Trump because he is unethical. Yet, it reveres legislators like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., despite her own ethics scandals.
The Resistance says it opposes Trump because he profits off the little guy. Yet, it has elevated Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who made a killing off the subprime mortgage crisis after her husband placed 250 extremely well-timed stock transactions.
The Resistance says it stands for the oppressed and those beaten down by a justice system run amok. Yet, the Resistance has beatified Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who once went to bat for a prosecutor who falsified a confession.
The Resistance says it rejects Trump’s love of falsehoods and alternative facts. Yet, it has embraced the most embarrassing ragtag team of conspiracy theorists and fabulists this side of Alex Jones’ fallout shelter.
Scroll through the Twitter timelines of such characters as former British MP Louise Mensch, supposed ex-White House aide Claude Taylor, or Huffington Post columnist Seth Abramson, and you’ll find a smorgasbord of total nonsense, agitprop and weird anti-Trump fanfiction.
Yet, self-professed members of the Resistance greedily eat that trash up.
Democrats lost a winnable election last fall. If they want to reverse their fortunes, they need to own it and stop wasting so much time on purely symbolic acts and rhetoric. It would also serve them well to step away from social media for a little while.
Democrats are calling on their supporters to resist, but they are not following that up with any sort of significant party reforms. They haven’t even demonstrated that they learned anything from 2016.
Left-wing activists meanwhile are so desperate for leaders, that they’re flocking to anyone who’ll mock the president or promise to remove him from office. The criteria for leadership has become so warped that things like character, a record of success, a vision for victory and meaningful reform have taken a backseat to a person’s ability to dunk on the president on Twitter. When people like Rep. Waters and Louise Mensch are being elevated as heroes and unofficial leaders, you know there’s a problem.
Honestly, the Resistance deserves better than this. And Trump deserves better opposition.
