Worse than Trump?

Ok. I will admit it. Go ahead and gloat. Although he is a tad right of Richard Milhouse Nixon, I was hoping that Jon Ossoff would beat Alisha Kramer. Prompting Tim Ryan (D-OH) to blurt out: “Our brand is worse than Trump.” Well. Yea. So?

I will not lay into Rep. Ryan, as so many have, for thinking in terms of “brands.” Wake up. This is the 2010s. If you are looking for substance, you missed it by (oh, I don’t know) about a half century minus a year or two. Branding is everything. Substance is nothing.

What is remarkable — really worth noting — is that Mr. Ryan associates this misbranding with Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the house minority leader, who now, tragically, represents the center of the Democratic Party. Which means . . .

That Democrats should not be so quick to embrace the macroeconomic theory of Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, even Chicago and USC. Really? Or does it mean that Democrats should pull back from support for equal human rights for all classes of citizens? Mr. Ryan can you help us here?

But, of course, we know exactly what Mr. Ryan means. (No need to respond to this blog Mr. Ryan. I understand completely.) Mr. Ryan knows that political fortunes rise and fall as parties calibrate their messages to the culture industry’s carefully massaged nodes, out of which survey respondents develop their opinions. Short-sighted politicians — I am led to believe that Mr. Ryan has Ms. Pelosi in mind — allow their principles to fall out of step with the nodes conveyed by popular media.

An older generation — a generation that lived through two horrendous world wars — felt otherwise. They felt that this economic and human carnage might have been avoided had leaders led. (Let me wait a moment while Mr. Ryan shakes his head, which a thought has just clumsily entered.)

We press forward, Mr. Ryan, with human rights and with full access to the full array of health and education choices spread before us for all citizens in our land, because we recognize that only when they are performing at their best can they make the best decisions, politically, socially, culturally, and economically. You want mediocrity Mr. Ryan. I am sure that mediocrity has rewarded you richly. We want something else.

So, yes, the Democrat brand may be worse than Trump. But, no. You are mistaken. Ms. Pelosi is not our problem.

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