First, we find character assassination.  Near the beginning of Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to the top of the heap, we find a sneaky trick played in 2004 against his Republican senatorial opponent, Jack Ryan.  He got a crooked judge to unlawfully unseal the records of Ryan’s divorce.  Well, after all, it was in Illinois.  Much the same was tried against Pete Hegseth, but this time with disappointing results, as with the phony outrage over Elon Musk’s “Nazi” salute.  My, how the world has changed.

Another shopworn tool is pandering to identity.  In a socially fluid society such as America’s, identities ultimately tend to become blurred.  It is often said that the identity that is growing fastest is “mixed.”  When I come to “race” while filling out the Census form, I write in “human.”  Haven’t gotten the knock on the door...yet.

Fear has traditionally been one of the most useful tools in the box.  Fear of the unknown is particularly effective, since the unknowing audience can be easily tricked into taking the speaker’s word for describing the problem.  Take “climate change” for example.  Weather is typically chaotic, with various forces such as jet streams, ocean currents, high-pressure domes, and low-pressure cyclones constantly interacting to produce daily conditions, whatever they may be.  Climate history, however, is forbidden knowledge.  Ice ages and giant reptiles wandering all over the planet can only confuse the masses.

The mother of recent fear campaigns has to be the COVID “crisis.”  A virus that escaped from a test tube promptly unleashed a plethora of formerly closeted dictators.  Edicts were spewed left and right.  Twenty-second hand-washing, “social” distancing, and masking, just to name a few, somehow had the force of law.  Children, who were the least at risk, had their education and social development perhaps permanently retarded.  Why?  Because fear really works when it comes to controlling the behavior of even otherwise unruly individuals.

Herein lies the rub.  Being deceived over and over again — into higher taxes, devalued money, and increasingly dangerous local conditions — has begun to seriously influence the voting population.  Last year’s debacle has finally caused some within the Democrat universe to start making apt criticism.  None other than Rahm Emanuel, in nowhere else but the Washington Post, has laid out some serious issues.  Following is Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic.  This phenomenon can be described as being mugged by reality.

Now, I’m a free-market capitalist, and I strongly believe in the true benefits to the consuming public resulting from unfettered competition.  Though currently well on the right track, today’s Republicans still have the potential to wander off into God knows what without continuing and serious opposition — so they must maintain a credible edge.  In their persistent quest for the hearts and minds of the general public, they need to keep improving on the sharpness of their ideas and their ability to communicate them.  Being opposed by nothing more than today’s dimwit woke progs can only lead to functional atrophy.

Attracting valuable talent is also important.  Way back when the Dems got drubbed in the 2010 midterms, Dan Balz of the Washington Post announced that they no longer had a bench up from which new talent could rise.  Hence, we’ve seen nominations by default for Hillary, Biden, and Harris.

Things still look pretty bleak.  Pritzker?  Really?  Hair Gel Newsom?  He almost had a chance, at least for the nomination, until public-sector negligence was revealed by the recent catastrophic wildfires.  Then again, Obama came from out of nowhere as a first-term senator...but all he had to do was beat Captain Queeg...er, I mean Senator John McCain.

Thanks to Trump, the Republicans have a flourishing bevy of new talent.  Karoline Leavitt just had the most impressive debut as White House press spokesperson — ever — though she’s still way too young to seek the presidency.  J.D. Vance is nobody’s fool, nor is Kristi Noem, Marco Rubio, Kash Patel.  I could go on and on, but the point is made.

Image via Pxhere.