Fighting back against magical thinking
When things look bleak for the Democrats – particularly a difficult election loss like the one we’ve just experienced, there’s usually a sense of urgency to DO SOMETHING – as if there’s a quick fix to whatever the current problem is at hand. Unfortunately, the media is well aware of this line of thinking and they tailor a lot of their storylines to go along with it.
This is how it’s easy to lose our own sense of proportion. Rather than getting angry at the Republicans who haven’t taken a popular position on any given issue in decades and never really get pressed by anyone to take stances that would be popular, readers get angry at the Democrats for not doing something that will avert the worst consequences of Republican policies.
The other problem is that talking to the media tends to give away your own strategy in the game – something that a narcissist like Donald Trump tends to be aware of – whenever his name is mentioned in print. One particular strategy that Democrats have employed lately is filling as many judicial vacancies as possible until the end of the year – at which time there will only be a small number of spots that would be filled under the subsequent Trump administration, and the appointments they make now are absolutely vital to fighting off a number of the plans Republicans hope to enact under Project 2025.
If you’re wondering why he’s going off the deep end more than usual lately, this is a big reason why – that and the fact that even with his brief stint in the White House, he’s still largely clueless of how politics work.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making