Editorial: Democrats can only blame themselves for current predicament

The Democratic Party should stop blaming others for the fact it is in the fight of its life – again – with Donald Trump, writes the editor.

US President Joe Biden and with Vice-President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris

The Democratic Party should stop blaming others for the fact it is in the fight of its life – again – with Donald Trump ahead of next week’s presidential election.

And, tragically, President Joe Biden’s move to label Trump backers as “garbage” shows the Democrats still do not understand what they are up against, eight years after former candidate Hillary Clinton mocked Trump supporters as “a basket of deplorables”.

President Biden tried yesterday to explain away his latest gaffe by saying he had only been referring to the single comedian who referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at the Trump rally in New York this week when Mr Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters …”

But the damage has been done. Because, just like the Clinton jibe in a speech to donors during the 2016 campaign, it plays into what Trump supporters believe the Democrats secretly think: that they are stupid, because they support a candidate who at least pretends to understand their concerns and promises to help.

This dismissive approach to the exactly half of the adult population who say they will be voting for Mr Trump next Tuesday has been further reinforced this election by the failure of the Democrats to admit that Trump is a threat, and so accept early enough that Mr Biden’s cognitive decline was accelerating to the point that he was not a viable candidate at this election.

That meant the Democrats failed to run a properly contested primary race, a process that sorts the wheat from the chaff in determining the lead candidate for the presidency.

Consequently, they have been left with no choice but to elevate Vice-President Kamala Harris – who failed in the primaries when she tried to contest them through 2019, suspending her campaign three months before the first caucus was held in February 2020.

And so now the Democrats have as their candidate for president a politician who could not even get to the starting line of the intra-party primaries. And they still wonder why their candidate is not head and shoulders above a Republican candidate who has previously won the presidency – blaming not their own incompetence in taking a Biden second term for granted, but the stupidity of half of the entire American voting population.

Democrats also often criticise Mr Trump for not saying anything of substance, or for making incoherent and inconsistent promises at his campaign rallies.

That is an absolutely truthful criticism, but then the central pitch to their own campaigns is too often a reheated version of exactly what Ms Harris said to 75,000 supporters outside the White House yesterday: “For too long, we have been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust. And it can be easy to forget a simple truth: it doesn’t have to be this way.”

And so effectively her pitch to all those Americans who have shown for a decade now that they feel ignored by those who inhabit the coastal bubble is that they should stop worrying and just “lock arms” (she really said that yesterday) and join her in singing Kumbaya.

None of this is to defend the truly bizarre and horrifically divisive tactics employed by Mr Trump in his own campaigns. As we have said before in this column, let us hope those tactics are never part of an Australian political campaign. But it is to point out the Democrats have become their own worst enemy.

Lecturing people about the need to “unite” at a time when they feel ignored by the rich and powerful is not going to work for any politician.

It is not for Australians to tell others how to vote, but we are sure many Americans would think they deserve better candidates for the presidency than these two.

INFLATION GENIE TAMED

News that inflation is now slowing to the point where an interest rate cut is on the cards in February will come as great relief to those many Australians who are doing it tough.

Inflation is not yet tamed, with the figure still at 3.5 per cent if the government’s power bill rebates are not included. But we are now seeing it fall consistently every quarter, and so hopes are high it will be back under 3 per cent in the new year – opening the door for the Reserve Bank to move.

But even if that does happen, the impact on Australian households of three years of soaring inflation will take a long time to settle.

It is not just lower interest rates that will help, but wages growth will also need to be sustained over coming years before a dollar buys what it did before this tough post-pandemic inflation spike.

That Woolworths has this week revealed Australians are spending less on groceries – despite higher prices – is just one indicator of the challenges households are facing.

With an election looming, it is in federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers’s interests to talk down the hurt.

But he will have to balance that with the equally important need to show compassion in the lead-up to the election that is likely in May.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Democrats can only blame themselves for current predicament