The Democrats Try to Un-Crazy Themselves

Hunter S. Thompson wrote in his book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail:The "mood of the nation," in 1972, was so overwhelmingly vengeful, greedy, bigoted, and blindly reactionary that no presidential candidate who even faintly reminded "typical voters" of the fear & anxiety they'd felt during the constant "social upheavals" of the 1960s had any chance at all of beating Nixon last year--not even Ted Kennedy--because the pendulum "effect" that began with Nixon's slim victory in '68 was totally irreversible by 1972. After a decade of left-bent chaos, the Silent Majority was so deep in a behavorial sink that their only feeling for politics was a powerful sense of revulsion. All they wanted in the White House was a man who would leave them alone and do anything necessary to bring calmness back into their lives.”It’s hard to believe that the Democrats became so crazy that they made Trump seem like the normal one, the only person who could bring calm back into our lives.I felt happy the other day and thought, what is this strange feeling? It wasn’t so much that I was happy with all of what Trump was doing, but he did the one thing that had been keeping me up at night - his Executive Order to end “gender-affirming care” for minors.I’m not foolish enough to think that these big moves Trump and his team are making will bring about permanent change, but he’s shaking the tree, standing up to the most powerful forces in the country, and doing exactly what we, the voters, asked him to do.Trump isn’t the problem. It’s the crumbling empire that refuses to relinquish power and insists so many of its delusions and narratives must be adhered to, even now. Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren reminded us that they don’t really seem to care about how the election turned out. They didn’t even turn the page.They don’t seem to have gotten the message that they’re still considered too crazy to govern. It’s the exact kind of crazy that drove Nixon to a landslide victory and eventually put Reagan in power, keeping Democrats out of the White House for the next 12 years. As things look now, that’s exactly how it will play out.I sometimes peer into the crazy on TikTok. Women wearing red lipstick in silent protest. Young and old alike screeching and caterwauling at Trump supporters, pleading with them, mocking and dehumanizing them, then begging them to see Trump as the embodiment of all of the evil in the world. How frustrating it must be for them to know that the silent majority doesn’t agree.How frustrating it must be that they keep screaming racists, Nazis, fascists! And still be seen as the crazier side.With the election of DNC Chair Ken Martin and Vice Chair David Hogg, they seem to be sending a message to their voters that they’re done with the “woke” thing, and maybe now they can un-crazy themselves with two boring “white dudes.”The last time the Democrats tried to un-crazy themselves, it didn’t go so well. After losing every state except Massachusetts in 1972 and the even worse Jimmy Carter presidency, the Democrats settled on the idea that bland and boring middle manager types were better than chasing the dream.This “bland and boring” reset doesn’t undo the crazy but disguises it. Look to the future, they say. Gun control, they say. Bring the fight to the Republicans, they say. But they still can’t solve the problem because they are the problem.The star, their Great White Hope, their version of the “bro-whisperer” to bring in the young people is David Hogg, mass shooting survivor turned activist influencer.And he’s just Ken:The worst sign is that nothing much has changed except appearances. The party is still leaning into the establishment of old, which means they aren’t sending a message to voters that they are, in any way, prepared to deal with the mess they made over the past four years.What should worry the Democrats, not that they will pay any attention, is that there is no plan to clean house, which is what they’d need to do to have any real pitch to win back the voters they lost. They seem to be doing the bare minimum, admitting nothing, with Barack Obama still guiding the ship.They really do think they can sweep it all under the rug — hiding Joe Biden’s age, the Afghanistan withdrawal, the censorship machine, George Clooney op-ed, how Biden refused to leave, whatever they threatened him with, and the manufactured candidacy of Kamala Harris.How much better would it be for them if they admitted their party had become too corrupt to function? And too crazy to lead? But they won’t because that other America still exists inside the utopian bunker they’ve been hiding in all this time.In choosing David Hogg, the Democrats prove they have no plans to roll back the crazy, which, of course, I already knew. This goes deeper for them than politics. This is who they are. This is how they see the world.With Martin and Hogg (which sounds like a leather boot manufacturer) they’re sending a message to those of us who have defected from the party that nothing has changed. There were no lessons learned, no reckoning to be had.Says Adam B. Coleman:When I was a Democrat, we believed in classically liberal principles, like freedom of speech and fairness for all people, not just some people. They elevated serious and, dare I say, likable individuals within the party. At one point, The Democrats seemed like the "cool" party with aspirational and better ideas.But now, The Democrats are the party of dogma. There is nothing inquisitive or reflective about the party. They are verbal one-trick ponies, twisting their words to validate their end-goal ambition regardless if it works or not.I’ve seen tweets by people who are hoping their ongoing hysteria about Trump’s first ten days will send people like me running back into their arms. But the problem has never been Trump. The problem has always been them, what they did to this country, what they did to the party, what they did to themselves.Just like the silent majority ran from them back in 1972 and 1980, so too are we all still okay with Trump, even with the chaos, because he’s not them.It took me four years to realize that. But once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and there is no going back, at least not until they clean house and un-crazy themselves.So we’ll see bland candidates running for president as they attempt to tack to the center, but the crazy will follow them like toilet paper stuck to the bottom of their shoes.The “Mood of the Nation”The last time the Democrats scared America, I was just a kid. I grew up in Topanga Canyon around the same time as the Manson family lived there, not to mention it being a hotbed for old-time rock n’ rollers, surfers, and cults. Nothing scared me as much as Charles Manson, whose face stared out at us from the cover of magazines. Those crazy eyes, that “X” scar between his brows. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sashastone.substack.com/subscribe