It’s not the economy, stupid
Unemployment and taxes are low and the stock market is high. That doesn’t mean Donald Trump should be reelected, but it does suggest he’ll be tough to beat. Yet beaten he must be, because the man is a no-question-about-it, shutdown-the-discussion national disgrace.
Trump has demeaned America by spreading hate and cynicism, diminishing its global leadership and huffing and puffing like a tin-pot tyrant. It is anything but “great again” to watch him making our country so soul-crushingly small-minded.
Yet he will not be beaten with lectures about the long-term downsides of regressive taxation, the unhealthy structure of health-care costs or the inadvisability of trade wars with China.
“When they go low, we go high,” Michelle Obama said. That was a noble sentiment, but it has the effect of making mainstream Dems too timid, which is ineffectual against the gang on the other side. You may as well preach healthy living to the drunks at the bar.
Into the void steps the radical leftist flank, making all the noise and dragging Dems down with a self-righteous and self-defeating brand of progressiveness. It may come from a good place, but it has veered toward divisive identity politics and intolerant “cancel culture” that repels ordinary people around the country even if they are not racists or fascists.
We face an opponent who is both more calculated and more primal, like a mixed martial artist using every tool at his disposal. The Republicans have perfected full-on, hell-bent dirty tricks that work well with an electorate that has grown so accustomed to skullduggery that in some quarters it is not only forgiven but almost demanded.
Our message to the Democrats is simple: Fear not the causing of offense where it is warranted; put high-minded and impractical plans on the back burner; and do it double-quick, because failure in November 2020 will be a tragedy for the country and the world.
Democrats need to be smart, not just right. They need a ticket and a narrative that will resonate with ordinary people in the three or four states that will determine the election without simultaneously alienating progressives. That balance won’t be easy, but it is possible.
The last time that Democrats beat a Republican incumbent, in 1992, the slogan was “It’s the economy, stupid.” It’s not about the economy today, but it’s precisely the time to drive home the unprecedented domestic threat to our way of life by hammering away at three traditional Republican bedrock issues.
National insecurity. The message is devastating: Trump cavorts with our enemies. In 2020, national security means fighting cyber threats from Russian strongman Vladimir Putin as well as nuclear threats from a vicious dictator like Kim Jung-Un of North Korea who dares aim missiles straight at us — while Trump absurdly kowtows to both.
Fiscal irresponsibility. Trump drove his own businesses into the ground and his spending habits as president will bankrupt the country if allowed to continue. Supporting Donald Trump means you’re borrowing money from your kids and though employment may be high the wages are unlivable.
Presidential immorality. The op-ed in Christianity Today calling for Trump’s removal from office shows there is hope for a reckoning on the right which can be encouraged by speaking the truth clearly: Trump is cruel, corrupt, contemptuous and unAmerican. The four living presidents should come together to condemn him.
Shake Trump’s base at its foundation. Appeal to Trump voters who are disillusioned, like veterans who lost limbs and comrades in Afghanistan and Iraq and are hurt by his disparaging words about those military campaigns.
Realize that Trump is not just an ordinary incumbent but a populist demagogue who will be as tough to unseat as his friends, elected tyrants Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Be angry about it. Shout about it in the streets. Get radical in the pursuit of decency.
Greenberg is president of the communications firm Thunder11 and author of “Primitive: Tapping the Primal Drive Powering the World’s Most Successful People.” Perry was Middle East editor of the Associated Press and chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.