In his “Third Law of Motion” (1687), Isaac Newton observed that every action has an equal, opposite reaction.
In some cases, this produces a self-fulfilling prophecy. For more than a decade now, we’ve been hearing from the right and in particular the far right about the “radical left,” the “lunatic left,” the Democratic Socialists, the Communists, Antifa and all the other boogeymen who are going to destroy our country.
Be careful what you wish for. You might not only get it. You may very well create it.
In President Donald J. Trump’s first term, the Democrats, led by then Congressional minority leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, took a fairly establishment path to opposition. In Trump 2.0, that is no longer the case, as the party considers whether a traditional — that is, more moderate — approach or a more progressive and aggressive, even angrier, stance is the right choice.
The answer seems to depend on the candidate and the place. Adam Hamilton — pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the United States, who is running to represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate; James Talarico, the member of the Texas House of Representatives running to represent his state in the Senate; and Iowa auditor Rob Sand, running for governor in that state, have all presented themselves as thoughtful candidates looking to address the needs of their constituents. They are certainly to the right of Democratic Socialists like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are nonetheless focused on many of the same issues.
Hamilton, Talarico and Sand are also certainly to the right of Abdul El-Sayed, the former public health official running to represent Michigan in the Senate on the Democratic ticket. El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan, the rise of Mamdani and recent news from AOC, as Ocasio-Cortez is frequently called, suggest that Democratic Socialism is ascendant and that, if you are a Republican, the country is about to go over a left-wing clift.
But El-Sayed won in part due to the large Muslim population in Michigan, Mamdani has proved that while you may campaign in socialist poetry, you have to govern in moderate prose and AOC’s announcement that she is freezing her eggs suggests a run for higher office. Their prominence says more about their individual ambitions, charisma and talents — Mamdani is the most gifted politician/speaker I’ve seen this side of former President Barack Obama — than the fate of Democratic Socialism, which has failed elsewhere.
Graham Platner seemed to be the angry man the Dems were seeking to combat the eternally “concerned” Sen. Susan Collins in Maine until it turned out he was just plain angry, with women troubles to boot. And then there was the hapless Francesca Hong, the Wisconsin assemblywoman who lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in a bid for the Democratic nomination for governor of that state.
If Platner represented a seeming trend, Hong was a throwback who failed to get the cultural memo. The cancel queen was all about getting rid of the colonial holiday of Thanksgiving and the capitalist one of Valentine’s Day as if that would help women and minorities. Once again, she demonstrated the stereotypical left-wing failure to understand that in the words of architect and Frank Lloyd Wright mentor Louis Sullivan “form follows function.” Let the substance determine the style, not the style the substance.
Instead, Hong — whose clueless concession speech didn’t quite suggest Pericles in Athens, Alexander the Great before Gaugamela or Winston Churchill on the eve of World War II — has played right into MAGA hands with her take on wokeness, which the savvy AOC has pronounced dead.
Plus, the Valentine’s reference gave off embittered spinster vibes when both the holiday and the word “spinster” have been reclaimed by female empowerment. Do we really need a politician who doesn’t understand that the cultural winds have shifted?
People want their leaders to attack food, gas, housing and health-care costs, not holidays that bring them what little joy they have.
Practicality, not party labels, is going to determined who wins the midterms.