Andy Puzder, Donald Trump’s nominee for Labor Secretary, is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which operates Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. When attempting to foist his garbage food on the public, Puzder’s company has often employed racy—if not outright sexist—advertising. (Here’s an example.)
Democrats and their allies in the media have decided to make a political issue of CKE Restaurants’ tasteless marketing of its tasteless food. Think Progress, Vox, Salon, and sundry other organs of the Democrats have highlighted it. It’s clear that these ads will be an issue—perhaps the issue—at Puzder’s confirmation hearing.
But if Democrats and others who oppose Puzder foreground his retrograde sexual attitudes at the expense of other subjects, they run the risk of repeating the way they flubbed the presidential campaign. Consider, in the waning days of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was charging through the Midwest, promising manufacturing jobs, renegotiated trade deals, and a border wall. Hillary Clinton, for her part, was highlighting that Trump had said mean things about a Miss Universe candidate some twenty years ago. And behold, Clinton’s “blue wall” crumbled on election night.
What makes the Democrats’ strategy particularly bizarre is that Puzder is target-rich on the issues. He opposes the minimum wage—catnip to Democrats, one would think—and has sung the praises of automation. Notably, Puzder will also draw significant criticism from the right. In the words of National Review‘s Mark Krikorian, Puzder is “one of the nation’s most outspoken business voices for Gang of Eight-style immigration policies. He didn’t just sign an open letter once as a favor to a friend; he’s been a high-profile champion of amnesty and huge increases in immigration and guestworkers.”
If the Democrats scream about Puzder’s off color television advertising and give him a pass on the subjects that the Labor secretary actually as a say on, it will show utterly conclusively that they’ve learned nothing from their defeat last month.
