OPINION:
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said former President Donald Trump’s impact on voters in his swing state is proving “astonishing.” Democrat strategist Ruy Teixeira, who accurately predicted his party’s political takeover in 2004, said the progressives’ days of influence have come to an end, due to their open border lunacy. And both the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, bastions for liberal readerships, have refused to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
The quiet message here is the strength of Trump over Harris.
“Trump has created a special kind of hold,” Fetterman said, The Hill reported. “[A]nd he’s remade the party and he has a special kid of place in Pennsylvania. And I think that only deepened after that first assassination attempt.”
The visual of Trump standing amid a sea of Secret Service agents with raised fist, bloodied ear, and lips that shouted, “Fight, fight, fight” is iconic — so much so that Democrats desperate to ding him felt the need to float the idea the whole assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged by the GOP. He appeared too strong, dontcha know.
Then came the second assassination attempt, and Democrats got really nervous — not about the violence from their side, mind you, but rather about the polls.
“[N]either attempt has derailed Trump, who remains, according to polls, locked in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris, and the failed [second] attempt will likely galvanize a Republican base that feels disenfranchised but remains zealous,” USA Today wrote in September.
Fast-forward to October and some polls now have Trump ahead; others, still tied with Harris; still more, and Harris has a slight lead. But survey after survey after survey show the principles of conservatives are winning big with voters who’ve traditionally gone Democrat.
Inflation, crime, national security and more inflation have sparked the likes of minorities and youth to give Trump a second look. Meanwhile, poll after poll after poll show that when it comes to certain core issues — again, inflation, crime, national security especially as it relates to border protection — it’s Trump who’s thought to carry the big stick and Harris the wispy, whimsy feather.
“It wasn’t so long ago progressives were riding high,” wrote Teixeira, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Progressive Policy Institute political analyst, on his Liberal Patriot blog.
He continued, saying progressives’ “radical views set the agenda and tone for the Democratic Party and, especially in cultural areas, were hegemonic in the nation’s discourse. … Defund the police and empty the jails? Sure! Abolish ICE and decriminalize the border? Absolutely! Get rid of fossil fuels and have a ‘Green New Deal’? Definitely! Demand trillions of dollars for a ‘transformational’ Build Back Better bill? We’re just getting started! Promote DEI and the struggle for ‘equity’ (not equal opportunity everywhere? It’s the only way to fight privilege! Insist that a new ideology around race and gender should be accepted by everyone? Of course, only a bigot would resist!”
But like always happens with Democrats, they went too far.
They condemned civilized society too much.
They elevated the illegal, the unsustainable, the criminal, the radical, the ridiculous too many times.
And the consequences began to build, to the point where society itself was being destroyed.
Idealism and naivete and wickedness began to meet reality and even well-being liberals started to see the errors of their ways.
It’s tough to lecture about the cause of diversity, equity and inclusion when taxpayers are being swindled by the DEI-scolding left to let in the illegals and give them housing and medical and food, and then told to ignore their own rising prices of food and fuel and the fact that gang members have taken by force a couple of apartment communities and thrown out the residents; err, make that the legal citizen residents.
People start to wonder.
“So how did that progressive moment start to fall apart …? Loosening restrictions on illegal immigration was a terrible idea and voters hate it,” Teixeira wrote.
Enter Trump.
Enter Trump with a proven White House record of restoring law and order to the border.
Enter Trump with an even stronger campaign message to oust the illegals and bring back law and order to U.S. borders again.
Compare that with Harris: “Harris visits border as she works to project tougher stance,” The Associated Press wrote on Sept. 27.
“Kamala Harris’ tough-on-migration pitch at the border,” NBC News wrote on that same day.
Ye olde border czar at it again.
Harris tries. Trump does. Harris projects. Trump is. Harris pitches. Trump stands principled.
Democrats realize their Marxist brand of lunacy isn’t selling well with voters. In quiet ways, they’re conceding Trump has what Americans want. They’re just not conceding the election, yet. But that will come Nov. 5.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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