Arguably Senator John McCain’s finest moment came in Minnesota, when he corrected a Minnesota woman who called Barack Obama an Arab, a shockingly widespread belief at the time among Republicans. With the audience chuckling, and an easy cheap-shot applause line tempting the candidate, McCain showed political discipline, courage and integrity when he famously corrected her. “No ma’am, he’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with…”
(By the way, it would have been much more admirable had Senator McCain added something like: “And ‘Arab’ should never be used as a criticism or slur, because most people of Arabic descent are decent family men and women, and many are American citizens who love this country every bit as much as we do.” That would have been even more courageous and constructive. But I digress.)
Very soon, I suspect Democratic presidential candidates will have their own McCain moment in front of them. For instance, eye-for-an-eye Democratic activists at rallies will surely echo and mock Trump supporters by chanting “lock him up.” Though that chant isn’t as racist or removed from reality as the “Arab” remark, it’s also ugly in its own way.
In that same moment, Trump shamelessly promoted ignorance, disinformation, and mob rule by leading the chant, because he is a petty, short-sighted and dishonest authoritarian. But Democrats should show swing voters that they are better than Trump and his sycophantic Trumpublicans, and should not further normalize Trump’s abhorrent behavior by aping it.
A primary problem with the Trump supporters’ “lock her up” chants was not just that Secretary Clinton hadn’t been found guilty of any jailable offense, or even charged with one. It also was that politicians should never be making incarceration decisions and declarations about political opponents, Putin-style. In our American democracy, those are decisions that should be reserved for the independent judicial branch of government, after due process has been completed.
So when the “lock him up” chants inevitably start at Democratic rallies, Democratic candidates and party leaders should immediately stop their crowds and gently but firmly say something like this:
“No my friends, that’s them. That’s not us. That’s not how it works in this great democracy of ours. Incarceration is for the judges and juries in the judicial branch to decide, not for us. But here is something that we can do, and must do. Vote them out! Vote them out! Vote them out!”
That will show swing voters — Independents, moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans — that Democrats are the adults in the room. It will show them that it’s not true that “both sides do it,” as moderates frequently assert. It will show them that Democrats are focused on democracy and not being an authoritarian lynch mob. It show them that Democrats are leaders not demagogues.
For a country suffering extreme Trump fatigue, those things will matter a great deal in the 2020 elections.
Barack Obama showed Democrats the way. At campaign rallies, his fired up supporters often started booing their opponents. But Obama firmly redirected his supporters in a more constructive democratic direction. “Don’t boo. Vote.”
In other words, Obama was a moral leader, not a demagogue. His wannabe successors will have a similar moral test in front of them in the upcoming campaign. They need to follow President Obama’s lead.
Agreed. We won’t win back our country by becoming like Trump.
Seems obvious to me, but it’s a controversial position among many of my fellow progressives. Many think we need to be “tougher” and out-Trump Trump.
How does one stand up to a bully? That’s a problem I had to deal with ever since I was in kindergarten. Never did figure it out. Democrats, including the haloed Mr. Obama, ought to have seen to the prosecution of Cheney, Bush, and their corrupt posse.
I think the reasons your so-called progressive acquaintances feel the times call for fighting back against the tyrant with the same tone of anger and intolerance as that s.o.b. has trafficked in are: They are tired of Democrats capitulating instead of holding firm. They notice that Trump’s tactics and style ARE successful. And, they would like to give a bully a taste of some of what he has been dishing out. There used to be some folk wisdom to the effect that bullies can “dish it out” but they don’t like to “take it.”
Lots of liberals still don’t comprehend the world-wide resurgence of fascism; and no one really knows what to do about the fact that truly anti-democratic (small “d”) forces have taken control of the U.S. government.
When Cohen, who knows Trump better than you or I, raised the point that Trump is unlikely to voluntarily step down–even after two terms–that is something to be more concerned about than whatever chanting or jeering happens at the transitory events staged by transitory and impotent flash-in-the-pan Democratic aspirants.
Well said; Thanks, your commentary is appreciated.
Additional reflections: McCain did act honorably in the incident you cite. But he fell in line when the demagogue triumphed. Then, when it was a real test of his patriotism and principles, Senator McCain failed, and put the partisan advantage of his prostituted party above the good of the nation and the entire planet. And how about Barack Obama? Playng Mr. Nice Guy just made him an obliging punching bag for the forces which Mrs. Clinton so accurately termed “a vast right-wing conspiracy,” and the pay-off of his cluelessness was to pave the way for Trump.
There was a time when liberals would slug back. Floyd B. Olson comes to mind. Harry Truman in 1948 comes to mind. “Fighting Bob” La Follette. No, it isn’t wise to “become like Trump.” Is any thoughtful progressive actually saying that? But it just might be helpful to insist that this regime is not normal, that its fuehrer is a sociopathic con-man who potentially wields more power, and who actually does command greater military forces, than any other person in human history; that this maniac has surrounded himself with racketeers, grafters, white supremacists, foreign agents, renegade (or simply plain old mad) “scientists,” and has built a fanatical following of millions of brainwashed and armed-to-the-teeth angry white people. If the Democrats don’t want to speak this truth, somebody should. If by some miracle, Trump is brought down, he certainly should be made an example of, or the threadbare pretense that “no one is above the law” will be seen as the fiction that it is, even by professors and pundits. Having got this far, the odds are that Trump will withstand all challenges, with the aid of the 90% of U.S. news media, including newspapers, owned by six corporate entities. He’ll reign until he tires of it (unlikely) or dies, naming his successor. Like the Roman Empire, the USA may retain the forms of a republic, but its government will be the sport of more-or-less insane megalomaniacs, subject to deposition by a praetorian guard of military contractors, official military forces, and mysterious espionage elements.
Oliver, when you “punch the bully back,” the reality isn’t that the bully cowers and goes away as the townspeople cheer, as we have been taught by so many clichéd popular media melodramas. The reality is that the world sees two kids fighting and both kids get punished for fighting.
And so it goes with swing voters. To effectively “punch the bully back,” we have to win the electoral college in 2020. If the swing voters who will determine the election outcome see both sides bellowing “lock him/her up” at each other, many will conclude that both parties have devolved into equally ridiculous lynch mobs. Too many will subsequently either sit out the election in disgust or feel like a vote for Trump, as distasteful as it may be to them, is no worse than a vote for the Democratic demagogue aping Trump antics. Either of those reactions means Trump is reelected and further empowered.
I’m not interested in masturbatory catharsis. I’m interested in winning the votes we need to get this guy out of power.
P.S. That Obama guy who allegedly “never figured out” how to respond to a bully? He won reelection twice and twice kept conservatives out of the White House. Maybe we should pay attention to his example more than Trump’s.
If a Democrat tries to take Trump head on and out-bully him, Trump will win and the Democrat will just look silly and stupid. I think you can ignore him to a certain extent, although in a one on one debate, some sort of response will be needed and I am unsure what that should be to be effective and to avoid getting into the sandbox with him. I think the other thing to focus on is who are the voters a Democrat is trying to reach? Trump’s base seems to respond well to his antics, but that group is probably a lost cause anyway. Aim higher and do what it takes to win over everyone else. It is possible to take his abuse and portray a strong and resilient image.
One of the things that makes a candidate like Kamala Harris interesting is that Trump’s racist and sexist behavior will be constantly on display and how the rest of the GOP responds will be enlightening. Although, most have capitulated already.
If what we are fighting for is the rule of law, we can not fight for it by ignoring it. We need to seek to apply the rule of law to the con man. Arguing that we should enact our own putsch before they enact their putsch is not how you fight for the rule of law.
The legal process is working away, and we need to support it and follow it. It is a slow process, and Trump is trying to erode support for it, but he is slowly being cornered.
I expect that he will rue the day that he was elected President, as I expect he will end up much poorer and less popular, a laughing stock, a punchline to a joke.