OPINION:
Democrats, according to recent polls, face what could kindly be called an uphill election-time battle.
Kindly. More to truth, they’re facing a Chimborazo climb, so dubbed in recognition of the world’s highest peak — yes, higher even than Mount Everest.
It’ll be a doozy of a time, all right.
You know things are bad for the party when its members have to steal back a slogan from President Donald Trump and brandish it as one of their own election-year mantras.
As The Hill noted, “drain the swamp” was indeed uttered by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, after Democrats took back the House and Senate from Republicans. But it was Trump who made the message believable. It was Trump who sounded the swamp alarm during his successful campaign and who then used it to great political and public relations’ advantage in the months that followed.
Apparently, now that he’s proven the message’s worthiness — now that he’s gilded its edges in gold — the Democrats want it back.
Desperation, anyone? Yet they can’t even use it in proper truthful manner.
“President Trump has embraced the most egregious establishment Republican norms and appointed the most conflict-of-interest-ridden Cabinet in my lifetime,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “The swamp has never been more foul, or more fetid, than under this president.”
Well, one need only look to the criticisms Trump receives from members of his own party — from Sens. Jeff Flake and Rand Paul and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, to elitist GOPers like Mitt Romney and the entire Family Bush, as well as a whole bucket-full of conservatives in the media who still can’t stand the guy — to know Schumer’s statement about this president’s embrace of establishment is ridiculously untrue.
Fact is when Trump vowed to drain the swamp, he angered almost as many Republicans as left-leaners. Corruption knows no party.
If Dems only had to come up with a better party message, then maybe their election-time situation wouldn’t look so dreary.
But there’s this: “Reuters Poll Shows Republicans Now Leading Dems in Generic Ballot for First Times,” ran one headline from The Western Journal.
And this, a headline from CBS: “CBS News Nation Tracker poll: Americans give Trump credit for good economy, mixed on N.K.,” or North Korea.
How much credit?
Fully 68 percent credit Trump for the “very good,” “somewhat good,” and “good” economy this country is now experiencing.
If elections are determined by voters’ pockets — by how financially well off constituents are when they head to the ballot boxes — then it’s an eye-opening time for the left. Especially when Democrats’ signature policies, like gun control and Russia-Trump collusion, are heading down the toilet in rapid fashion.
“Poll: Majority of Americans say Mueller probe is politically motivated,” ran one Conservative Review headline in early May, about the lackluster support among voters for Robert Mueller’s continuing special counsel look at Russia-Trump election collusion.
CBS blared similarly with its own “More Americans now say Russia investigation is politically motivated” headline around the same time frame.
Then this, just this week, from Reuters: “Gun control support fades three months after Florida massacre.” Ruh-roh, there goes another platform.
Yet Democrats are certain they can drain the swamp? Honestly, it’s not looking too good for them, to put it mildly. Heck, by the time elections roll around, it’s not looking like a lot of Democrats will even be able to find the swamp, never mind drain it. Voters may very well keep them home.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.