Unintentional Commentary on the Democratic Party

Sometimes a Halloween decoration is worth a thousand words.

This sight confronted me on my walk to work this morning:

A lot of people have said that the Democrats did not take their election loss very well, but this guy seems to have had a particularly hard time!

In all the post-mortem (poor or apt choice of words?) discussion of the 2025 election, the Democrats seem to have learned very little. More than half of the country is racist and misogynist… a woman could never win.. a black person could never win… except that Obama won twice! So a black woman could never win. Bad people care more about their grocery prices than they care about trans kids and illegal immigrants. Very, very bad! Orange Man bad. Republicans bad. It’s okay to shoot them. Or to shoot people who might be them.

Perhaps I oversimplify, but perhaps I don’t. When I scroll through my liberal to leftist friends’ on Facebook (I’m old, I use Facebook) I see these messages. They are not very effective talking points if you want to win over people who voted Republican. Calling people names rarely turns them into allies, and swing voters are not inspired by celebrations of murderers. One of my friends of over 20 years posted the picture of Luigi Mangione pumping his fist in the courtroom with a caption, “Well, I guess the movement has a poster now.” This is a bit shocking to those of us who believe that political differences should be settled at the ballot box and in the legislature, not by guns in the street. And by the way, I just read that Brian Thompson, the CEO who was murdered, was a Democrat.

Can the Democratic Party be saved? I’d like to see Governor Shapiro run, and I’d be interested to see if the Dems would be willing to wrangle the anti-Israel wing of the party to support a practicing Jew. By 2027 Mamadni’s bizarre experiment will have fallen flat on its face in a show that would be entertaining if it weren’t real, and if it didn’t put Jews in New York in real danger. Bernie and his vision of free everything for everyone are probably immortal, but perhaps more moderate people will be able to prevail.

It is frustrating for people like me who were Democrats our whole lives, who worked for Democratic candidates and causes, to get called names when we express any differing viewpoints. It’s like liberals believe that to be a nice, good person means you are a liberal, and if you’re not, you must be a bad person. Insert names here: fascist, etc. Rarely is the idea entertained that people might have different ideas about how to solve the same problems.

I was friends with many conservatives when I was in college, quite a few of whom are beloved subscribers! We had honest, vibrant discussions. Many have gone on to hold responsible positions in law, the courts and government, as well as in business. I trust their goodwill and good judgement any day over that of the liberals I see celebrating the death of Brian Thompson or Charlie Kirk.

Can good people come together for the benefit of the country? I honestly don’t know. The lines seem so deeply carved in, and hatred rather than just disagreement has set in. I think to myself, “This can’t go on,” but it does.

Meanwhile, I hope my skeleton friend gets to come inside for the winter and gets replaced by some happy decorations, maybe Christmas or Hanukkah. I think we’ve seen enough death and destruction for now.