If you want to win an election, whatever you do, don’t follow the lead of the Democratic Party at Trump’s joint address to Congress, and in the two days after that stellar event. 

Consider this: Trump won the election in November with a majority of votes in terms of both raw votes and the electoral college.  He won the raw majority by just 1.62 percent – his electoral vote margin was significantly larger, as Trump carried a huge majority of counties and a significant margin of states, including all seven of the “swing states.” 

But after his joint address, the equivalent of a State of the Union address, his approval hovered around 80 percent on some issues – such as banning transgender boys and men from competing in girls' and women’s sports. 

In overall approval, polls had him at from the high-sixties to mid-seventies, after less than two months in office.

Clearly, the Democrats seriously misjudged their response to the president – at the event and in the two days afterwards.  They have also seriously misjudged America’s swift shift toward supporting Trump, his policies and his accomplishments, even after less than two months as president.
 
One thing President Trump can always be counted on to deliver is an over-the-top, dynamic, scathingly humorous, dramatically practical, and common-sense talk – which he did the other night. 

However, the Democrats can’t be counted on to do anything in particular to stand against him.  Especially anything right.  So, on Tuesday night, when the President delivered the longest such talk in American presidential history – 143 minutes, according to some sources – the Democrats were anything but predictable.

In the process, they also shot themselves in the foot.  Again.  They seem to have become adept at self-inflicted wounds.

First, Rep. Al Green, the marginalized Texas Democrat whose claim to fame is that he carries a cane – not to help him walk, but to give him a cudgel to wave when he’s on camera. 

This bloviating buffoon reliably made a fool of himself before being ejected from the floor of the House for his refusal to show even a modicum of decorum while the president gave his opening remarks. 

Green claimed he was standing in support of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as if Trump had threatened these. 

As a recipient of two out of three of those, I know that Trump’s promised to exempt Social Security payments from taxation – in effect enhances the dollar value of Social Security by around 25-30 percent. 

He’s also pledged to sustain Medicare and Medicaid, except in cases of profound fraud. 

As a career-long professional in the health care business, I can validate that both are rife with corruption that can be eliminated without denying legitimate care to anyone eligible for those programs.

Predictably – though this is one prediction I admit I missed – the next day the far-Left critics began lambasting the other Democrats for not walking out as a group when Green was booted from the room.  Sometimes, even the far Left in Congress can’t live down to the expectations of the most progressive of their followers.

Green wasn’t the only Progressicrat Congress-critter to walk out, but the others left in fits and starts, not in response to anything in particular, and not in sufficient number to make a point that Americans watching the talk would understand. 

However, the Democrat members were consistent in two things. 

First, a large minority of their gaggle held up little black-and-white signs – akin to the hand fans that used to be passed out in Southern churches in the days before air conditioning – but their scattered messages made it clear that they were not particularly keen on what they wanted to say.  

One message: “This is Not Normal” was true, though it seemed to apply more to the Democrats’ antics than to Trump’s talk.  Others said, “Musk Steals,” as if the richest man on Earth needs to steal.  One group said, “Save Medicaid” – a bit late, as Trump had already said he was not going to cut Medicaid, except in cases of massive fraud and abuse.  Another said, “Protect Veterans,” another “duh” moment, as Trump made protecting veterans a key plank in his election victory.  Most seemed to have “false” on one side, so they could reply to anything Trump said without having to dig into details.

You’ve gotta love this, but ahead of Trump’s talk, their party leadership all but begged them to not walk out and to not hold up stupid signs. 

We’ve all seen the impact of that faux pas. 

In what has to have been one of the sharpest predictions of Trump’s second term, one of the talking heads at Fox predicted that these hand-signs could be turned into devastating memes – and even before the talk was over, those memes began populating X, and starting on Wednesday and running into Thursday, Greg Gutfeld used them extensively, and effectively.

Regardless of how lamely the sign-fiasco played out, the Democrats were organized in their decision to stay seated during the president’s talk.  Sure, I can see them failing to rouse themselves when he made a partisan political point – and why not?  But they’ve been nothing but lambasted for sitting while the Republicans paid tribute to the families of dead young girls, victims of illegal alien rapists and murderers, and for a 13-year-old cancer survivor whose “make a wish” is to survive to become a police officer.  Even many of their own supporters realized that this was a major mistake, one that will haunt them far beyond next week.

Now a word about one of the very few Democrats who spoke out against these antics.  I’m speaking of course about Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.  For a while, I thought – in the aftermath of his recovery from a serious brain trauma – he was moving away from the far Left and toward the center.  But at best, this move has been intermittent and unreliable.  Last week, this Senator – ignoring the fact that 80 percent of Americans supported this legislation – chose to vote in lockstep with all 44 other Democrat Senators in opposition to Trump’s effort to ban transgender men and boys from competing against women and girls in organized athletic activities.

In the aftermath of the visual disaster of the Democrats sitting on their hands, Fetterman came out publicly to condemn them. 

However, if he’d felt that way, why didn’t he stand on his own, rather than sit with the rest? 

Was it only after it made them all look bad that he chose to “take a stand?”  I’m afraid so. 

Do not bet the mortgage on the idea that Fetterman has become a reliable replacement for the former Sen. Joe Manchin from West Virginia, the moderate who – in his last two years in the Senate, resigned from the Democrat party and presented himself as an independent.

Getting back to the “Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys” message that inspired this article, consider the two lame-brained stunts the Democrats have pulled since Trump’s talk.  First, a large number of Democrat elected leaders – I counted 45, but there could have been more, following Senator Cory Booker’s lead in repeating an identical talking point: “Sh*t That Ain’t True.” 

Now there’s a message for the ages. 

These identical videos were mashed up, showing a kind of “1984”-like lockstep of Big Brother messages. 

These are our leaders?  

Then, a day later, a number of Democratic Congresswomen demonstrated their inability to even mime away in trying to mock Trump’s punching dance steps he uses in campaign rallies – but not in the joint address to Congress. 

These women made a mockery of themselves in ways that are more scatological than humorous, let alone intimidating. 

I’m glad I didn’t contribute to that party to help them get their message out there.

Bottom line.  If you want to help your favorite candidate’s next election, advise him or her to avoid anything that is even remotely like what the Democrats have been doing in the wake of Trump’s insanely successful speech.

Ned Barnett is a long-time political consultant who has worked – state level, heading up Media and Strategy – on three Presidential campaigns. He’s worked messaging and strategy for Congressional, Senatorial and Gubernatorial races, and has worked on numerous state and local campaigns.  He also managed strategy and media for Tea Party Express in Nevada and nationally, and has had as a client the parent organization for CPAC.  Later this year, he plans to come out with his long-awaited book, How To Win an Election Campaign, which will be his 43rd published book.  He can be reached at nedbarnett51@gmail.com or 702-561-1167.
 

Image: PixaHive // CCO public domain