Dems Stinkin’ Thinkin’ & Monty Python

I grew up in Chicago & once dutifully nodded at the city’s Democratic Machine BS, but as WSJ’s Gerard Baker notes, “In the Midterms, Democrats [Today] Occupy the Left Bank of Denial” even an Arafat wouldn’t occupy …

I’m sorry. But, Mr. Gerard is spot on in concluding: “From inflation to crime, [Democrats] refuse to acknowledge the problems they helped create. Voters are noticing.” The columnist tries to make sense of the Ostrich/Head in Sand strategy this way: “Democrats hope that historical denial – the refusal by a disturbingly large number of Republican candidates to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 election result – will prompt enough voters to shy away from the GOP, deprive it of a Senate majority.”

The problem with that stinking thinking, however? Says Baker: “But, the other form of denialism looks likely in the end to prove more toxic and potent for voters: The rejection by Democrats of the present economic and social reality of the country and their role in bringing it about. In politics, as in business, it’s never a good idea to tell people that what they see before them isn’t real. It is tempting, but always a mistake to insist that the very evident flaws of the thing they have only recently bought from you are illusory and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.” Think of the Monty Python sketch, he suggests, about the dead parrot a customer returns to a pet shop which denies the finely plumed Norwegian Blue was fit as a fiddle when sold, even though it didn’t blink, caw or move let alone fly when taken out the door.

Davd Soul