If you follow politics long enough, you tend to get cynical. Unless you are a true believer, you get to the point that you don’t trust members of either party to be interested in anything but their own election and holding onto or accruing more power.
So it is with the recent revelation that for all the Democratic Party’s condemnation of Donald Trump’s fueling of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, for all the voiced disgust about the lies he and his supporters have continuously peddled about the 2020 election being stolen, the Democrats have been investing in Republican candidates who are closely affiliated with Trump. And they’ve done this on at least one occasion so far to the detriment of a GOP congressman who knowingly risked his career to vote with the Democrats against the former president.
The Democratic strategy is this: By helping far-right Republicans win their primaries against more moderate candidates, it could strengthen the Democratic candidates’ odds in November by running against presumably more beatable Republicans.
There is no guarantee, however, that the strategy will work. There are already a few places where it looks as though it could backfire. But even if it works as planned, it stinks.
Consider the case of Rep. Peter Meijer. The congressman from Michigan was just one of 10 House Republicans to vote with the Democratic majority to impeach Donald Trump following the Capitol riot. How did the Democrats reward Meijer for showing some guts and risking Trump’s vengeance? The party put up $400,000 in ad money to help a far-right candidate and 2020 election denier, John Gibbs, beat Meijer in the GOP primary earlier this month.
Although that was the worst case so far of back-stabbing, it’s not the only instance of Democratic bankrolling of election deniers. Democratic money, according to The Washington Post, has already helped a trio of far-right candidates win primaries in governor’s races in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Democrats also tried the same in some key GOP races in California and Colorado but were unsuccessful.
The strategy, over which Democrats themselves are divided, has a twofold problem.
By all accounts, November is going to be very good for Republicans. The wave that may sweep them to majorities in both houses of Congress could carry GOP candidates of all ideological persuasions into office, including the election deniers whom Democrats supposedly abhor.
But the worst ramification is that it makes the Democrats seem terribly insincere, even as they push forward with House hearings that have documented the culpability of Trump in the Jan. 6 riot and his unprecedented effort to overturn a presidential election.
If Trump’s actions were such a grave threat to democracy, as Democrats have repeatedly said, how can they countenance their party putting money behind those who have run on defending Trump’s actions and parroting his lies?
It’s a strategy that is risky, lacks integrity and undermines Democratic efforts to claim the moral high ground. Shame on those who have stooped to this level of putting the pursuit of victory over the principles they profess.
