Republicans Happily Watch Democrats Destroy Themselves

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Oct 28, 2021

Republicans, to paraphrase Machiavelli, don’t need to interfere while their opponents are so busily destroying themselves.

Democrats have been arguing about policy proposals that could make pre-K universal, lower the cost of child care, expand Medicare, create the nation’s first paid family and medical leave program and help the nation brace for the effects of climate change. In the meantime, Republicans have been able to sit back like Bierce’s caricature and complain about how the Democratic proposals cost too much money.

Never mind deficit’s growth by more than a trillion dollars under President Donald Trump.

Instead, Republican campaigns for the midterms and beyond have increasingly focused on cultural issues that excite the party’s base and more than a few swing voters with cultural issues, particularly “critical race theory” and supposed voter fraud that repeatedly proves to be nonexistent.

So is “critical race theory” in public schools, but that hasn’t stopped red state politicians from using the term to condemn just about any discussion of the nation’s fraught history with race and racism as unacceptably divisive.

What are embattled Democrats to do? First they need to recognize that there is a battle going on, whether they want to fight it at this time or not.

But I’m not surprised to hear sounds of disappointment, confusion and simple exhaustion coming from many Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents. They don’t have candidate Trump to kick around anymore — and unify them in their opposition.

For all the tense and passionate debates that have surrounded Biden’s agenda, how many Americans of either party know what’s in the legislation? As Democrats should have learned from their prolonged battle to pass the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, all the benefits of BBB have been poll-tested as popular among voters. But first, they have to know that’s what’s in the bill.

You have to say this for Trump — and I don’t say much for him — the man is an expert salesman. In civilian and political life he knows how to boil complex issues down into simple slogans that kick up your pulse rate, one way or another.

Whether we’re talking about BBB or ACA or a host of other current issues, the most important initials for a successful sales job, political or civilian, are the ones an old journalism teacher drilled into our brains: KISS — Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Or make Republicans even happier.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)