I cannot help but compare these two statements concerning Joe Biden by Republicans, and a comment on the Republicans by, ah, a Republican. Here’s those two on Biden:
“Joe Biden thinks he’s the heir apparent to Obama’s failed legacy, but let’s be frank — Obama can’t save his anemic presidential campaign,” said Trump campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso. “Make no mistake, since 2015, the political class and their partners in the media have consistently underestimated the connection between President Trump and everyday American families.”
Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump, said that highlighting Obama could remind some voters why they backed Trump in the first place. “He is somebody who is not viewed as a competent president vis-a-vis the economy, the military and foreign policy,” Nunberg said of Obama. “That said, it would be better if he was not on the scene. . . . Trump’s reelection campaign was always going to have to have the most popular politician campaigning against him.” [WaPo]
Pushing personal opinion as fact when it comes to the other party is one thing. Pushing, again, personal opinion as fact when it comes to your own party is quite a different thing:
Does that mean the Lincoln Project favors a Democratic takeover of the Senate? Yup. But that doesn’t mean, as Trumpites blare, that it’s gone over to the far left. Its members have stayed on the center right while the Republican Party has been taken over, as [Republican consultant Stuart Stevens] writes, by “paranoids, kooks, know-nothings, and bigots.” Even staunch conservatives such as former national security adviser John Bolton and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) are being excommunicated by the Trumpkins. [WaPo]
It doesn’t hurt, for me at least, that the paranoids, kooks, know-nothings, and bigots remark is congruent with what I and many others have been observing about the party, at least since the days of Gingrich, and I suspect Reagan’s days as well. The Republicans have been quite shrill for a long time. This is a consequence of the magical thinking rampant in the party.
Naturally, the Democrats must be careful not to become like the Republicans. Be raucous in your internal disagreements, my Dems, and walk away if a really wrong candidate has been nominated; only in this year should you ignore this advice. Always look for the most competent candidate, not the best ideologue.
