Midterm optics aren’t good for progressives
plans to crash into the U.S. illegally, then the concepts of a border, citizenship, sovereignty or even a country itself no longer exist.
A number of other events on the eve of the midterm elections also may have the opposite of the intended effect on voters.
The Supreme Court nomination hearings for Brett Kavanaugh ended up as scripted melodrama. Protesters disrupted the Senate on cue. They screamed from the gallery. Democratic senators staged a walkout. They filibustered and interrupted the proceedings.
Republican senators were confronted at their offices and on elevators. Protesters broke through police cordons and beat and scratched at the Supreme Court doors, apparently in vain efforts to break in and disrupt the swearing-in.
Did the ongoing chaos work to change public opinion in their direction? Perhaps not. Most Americans do not want frenzied shriekers scratching at doors on Capitol Hill. They are turned off by shouters popping up in Senate galleries. Few are comfortable with efforts to bully or intimidate senators rather than to persuade them.
In yet another misreading of the public, Sen. Elizabeth Warren produced the results of a DNA test to prove she had properly claimed advantageous minority status on the basis of her alleged Native American family history.
If Warren’s video emphasizing her DNA claims was intended to be persuasive, it sadly ended up confirming her farce.
On the eve of the midterms, progressives believe that these public spectacles showcasing feminist, immigrant and identity issues trump the booming economy and might galvanize independents and fencesitters to vote for liberal candidates.
Yet the caravan, the Kavanaugh hearings and the Warren fiasco remind voters of the very opposite of what was intended.
Every country requires a border and the rule of law. Due process cannot so easily be thrown out in a moment. There can be no Senate without safety and calm inside its halls. Powerful, privileged Washington officials should be the last to game a system designed to help the underprivileged.