Eddie Scarry of the Federalist places a current high-profile Democrat’s actions in historical context.
At the core of The Atlantic’s unnecessarily long profile on loud Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett is the argument that, “when the Republicans go low, the Democrats should meet them there.” …
… The notion that Democrats have for too long shown excessive restraint or pitched themselves to voters with a naive intellectualism while being punched in the mouth by brute Republicans is a hysterical myth, one that only persists because the media that helped create it continue to perpetuate it. …
… Jasmine Crockett’s approach to politics isn’t new. Democrats have always been vulgar little deviants of no shame. But the difference between pre-Trump and now is that before, Democrats were largely able to rely on the media to do the work of viciously smearing their opponents for them, thus keeping their own hands clean and maintaining a veil of decency.
As vile as he was, you had to respect the late Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, if for nothing other than his tendency to openly express his contempt for his opposition, lying about it with reckless abandon (which was of course excused and tolerated by the media when they weren’t busying themselves mocking a Republican’s interracial family). But virtually every other Democrat got to play “norms and values,” hiding behind the Washington press, well shielded from any real scrutiny.
Trump changed that. Unlike most Republicans, the president isn’t afraid to do to Democrats what they’ve so successfully done to others and hidden from themselves. He’s not afraid to call them what they are and, best of all, have fun while he does it.
If Jasmine Crockett is a change for Democrats, it’s only in that she’s among the first to accept that she can’t hide what her party has been all along.
