How do Democrats get past Trump? Confess and repent for their gaslighting. | Opinion
Democrats' path out of the political wilderness begins with two ancient but still wholly relevant disciplines: repentance and confession.
A galaxy of pixels has been burned attempting to diagnose Democrats' lack of a plan, a vision or even a coherent argument beyond "Arrgh!" as Hurricane Donald, category 10, rips through the federal fiefdom.
Allow me to add to that unholy chorus by suggesting that the Democrats' path out of the wilderness begins with two ancient but still wholly relevant disciplines: repentance and confession.
Why repentance? It can be defined as a decision to turn back or change course. It's an acknowledgment that the path you're on is taking you in the wrong direction. Synonyms include regret, remorse and self-reproach.
Repentance ought to be easy for Democrats in the aftermath of 2024. After all, they lost 31 states and 77.3 million votes in November to a convicted felon who was credibly accused of instigating an insurrection. If that's not a lightning bolt out of a blood-red sky, shouting, "Turn around!" nothing will save the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Obama from racing down its self-determined path to destruction.
Gavin Newsom tries to signal that he gets it
A few signs have emerged that a few Democrats finally get it. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, chief progressive in the Kingdom of Progressylvania, recently invited professional troll Charlie Kirk to be a guest on the governor's podcast.
What was that about? Newsom was trying to signal to the 93% of Americans who don't think Democrats are doing a great job that he isn't last year's model of a leftist. Gavin 2.0 is supposedly a new and improved progressive politician − one who isn't afraid to say aloud what most Americans already think.
So, there's a chance that Democrats will figure out how to get the repentance thing down sometime before JD Vance marches through Georgia to the White House in 2028.
I have much less hope, however, that Democrats will confess their many years of gaslighting, bullying, lies and irresponsibility.
Too harsh? I don't think so. Let's review a few recent transgressions, starting with the gaslighting over inflation in 2021.
Democrats need to admit they got it wrong
Remember when President Joe Biden insisted that the spike in the cost of essentials such as food, gas, cars, rent and Netflix was temporary? "Nothing to see, only a small fire. We've got it under control." Then the flames scorched Americans' bank accounts and credit card balances from Bar Harbor to San Diego.
I'd love to hear Democratic leaders admit that they got it wrong − to show that they finally understand how much pain they caused hundreds of millions of Americans by reacting much too late and with far less urgency than was necessary to confront the scourge of inflation.
Speaking of now-former President Biden, will top Democrats finally admit that they lied to Americans about the commander in chief's mental and physical health?
Journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson have written a soon-to-be-released book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." That's quite a title, especially the words "sin" and "cover-up."
I agree that it was a "sin" to hide from the American people that their commander in chief, the man with the codes to the nuclear football, had "good days and bad days" in terms of his cognitive and physical health. It also was dangerous and wrong to gaslight and bully anyone who was brave enough to say that "the emperor had no clothes."
Now they tell us the truth about COVID-19
It also was dangerous and wrong to hide from Americans the likely origins of COVID-19.
The New York Times − five years after the start of the pandemic − recently published an important article by Princeton professor Zeynep Tufekci documenting not only that the virus likely originated in and leaked out of a lab in China but also the American intelligentsia's deliberate efforts to conceal that information from the public.
Progressives and their many allies in the legacy news media spent years gaslighting and bullying anyone who said that COVID-19 might − might − have leaked out of a Chinese lab. In February 2020, shortly before the pandemic shutdown began in the United States, The Times published an article claiming that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas had promoted a "fringe theory" that the COVID-19 virus had leaked from a Chinese government lab.
Now The Times tells us that "we were badly misled about the event that changed our lives." Better late than never, I suppose. But how about those who badly misled us stepping forward to confess and take responsibility?
What would Democrats cut if they could reduce the deficit?
Let's look at one more area where Democrats are past due for repentance and confession.
The national debt now exceeds $36.6 trillion, and the Biden administration added an astounding 5% to that ugly total in the 2024 fiscal year alone.
Democrats continue to yelp in pain about President Donald Trump and chief slash-and-burn officer Elon Musk's raids on the federal bureaucracy. But what I've not heard from Democrats is any acknowledgment that running nearly $2 trillion a year in deficits in a time of peace and prosperity was woefully irresponsible.
Their silence is violence toward fiscal sanity.
On inflation, Biden's health, the pandemic and federal spending, Democrats willfully misled us, at best. Now, they want Americans to forgive them and forget their lies − and shrink back in horror as the headless horseman named Trump rides again.
Well, I won't forget. And I'm not willing to forgive until Democratic leaders confess their lies and repent their transgressions against the nation and the people they were supposed to serve.
Tim Swarens, deputy opinion editor at Paste BN, works from a bunker deep in the Midwestern wilderness. Don't follow him on X, Facebook, TikTok or Myspace.