No Clear, Vehement Message to the World That They Will Reverse Trump’s Course
I keep seeing stories in leading news services about how Trump has started a new era in international relations and the old era is dead. Really? Is this a new “era” and the old standards are gone? Or is this just a blip we’ll have to correct?
Of course that’s a question that depends on future leadership. Who will voters choose to control Congress or the White House next time, or will there be another attempt, possibly successful, to overthrow an election? But wouldn’t you think Democrats would want to have a clear, united message that if they regain one or both chambers of Congress they’ll do all within that power to reverse the international damage Trump has done?
Likewise if they win the next presidency? Wouldn’t you think the Democratic party and leaders would have formed themselves into a bullhorn pointed at Europe shouting, “Hang in there! We don’t really want to weaken NATO, or take over Greenland, or let Putin take what he wants of Ukraine, or attack any more of our Latin American neighbors. This is just a temporary insanity. Give us a chance to get past this crazy person and we’ll get all of this back to normal”?
I’m sure if you asked individual notable elected Democrats or leaders of the party organization they would agree with the idea. In fact it’s not hard to find scattered statements to that effect. So where is the clear, united, powerful message to the world? Why haven’t they used their own bully pulpit (always smaller than a president’s but still) and made effective use of news and media to make it an undoubted, “everyone knows it” understanding. And not just an assumed understanding but a clearly spelled out objective?
In the “everyone knows” category everyone knows what Democrats generally, and Democratic leaders, think of the crazy moves Trump has made, and the ones he is likely to make. But without some unified way to make that message overt it feels shaky. It doesn’t inspire confidence that it’s an objective that will be accomplished. That may be why news media report a “new era” as a done and apparently permanent change rather than a temporary aberration.
No big political party is perfectly unified but there are certain general themes almost all the members can lean into. The actual national organizations of the party are about helping candidates get elected, not about setting or stating policy. When it’s not presidential election season there is no single primary voice of the party. Still, the leaders and elected officials could find a way to be unified enough and to send a coordinated message to the world that if back in power they will undo the craziness of international relations. The lack of such a coordinated message becomes its own message, prompting that lack of confidence that they are up to, and focused on, achieving that change.
If Democrats want to succeed at changing these policies, one step toward that is simple and clear. Find a way to have a unified voice, and say so.
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