In her efforts to become Joe Biden’s running mate, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth repeatedly made a fool of herself over the Fourth of July weekend. It was an embarrassing display showing how elected Democrats are putting their fingers to wind, and what they are finding is that their party is far more radical than they would like to admit.
Over the course of one interview, Duckworth falsely claimed that President Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech defended Confederate generals, said we should “listen to everybody” and “listen to the argument there” about removing statues of George Washington, and took a swipe at Mount Rushmore for being on what was once Native American land.
Of course, Duckworth didn’t seem to have an ill word for the monument back in 2015.
All dressd up as historic figures.I just coverd myself in Stars&Stripes.Next year I’m going as Mt.Rushmore! #Murica http://t.co/81LENocKij
— Tammy Duckworth (@TammyforIL) July 4, 2015
On paper, Duckworth is a good running mate for Biden. She’s a nonwhite woman, which has become the prerequisite for the party this year, and she’s a wounded veteran of the Iraq War. Up until this past weekend, she was also not likely to be seen as a member of the party’s more radical left wing, an advantage she would hold over Sen. Kamala Harris or Stacey Abrams. That Duckworth felt the need to pivot here to (probably insincere) anti-Washington, anti-Rushmore rhetoric shows what positions she thinks the Democratic Party values in making its promotions.
While some members of the media have played dumb about the efforts targeting the founders, others have leaned into it. New York Times columnist Charles Blow recently wrote a screed titled “Yes, Even George Washington.” And the paper decided to take the Fourth of July weekend to lament how racist Mount Rushmore was, along with all four presidents who are carved into the mountainside. Without a sense of irony, the Washington Post ran a piece targeting Washington, D.C., for renaming. (Perhaps the paper will soon refuse to call itself the Washington Post, much like it refuses to name the Washington Redskins.)
With statues of people such as Presidents Washington and Ulysses S. Grant being targeted in the streets and as the media cheer on violent mob actions, Duckworth is making the assumption that support for this crusade will help her land the nomination because that’s where she thinks her own party is. Biden managed one comment in support of the founders before vanishing into his basement once again. Other elected Democrats have thus far been unwilling to give forceful condemnations of statue vandals, regardless of the target.
This is not an effort by conservatives or the Republican Party to paint their opposition as radical. This is where elected Democrats such as Duckworth think their own party stands. This is where the media want the party to stand. That should tell you everything you need to know.
