The day of, or the day after Pete Rose died, I donned my old Cincinnati Reds hat and wore it about town. One of my errands on this day, was to gas up the truck, fill up the gas cans, and get some replacement propane for the grill.
I noticed as I was patrolling around the Speedway parking lot, an older woman, who I thought was giving me the stink eye. I could tell she was upset, but discounted her being upset at me, as clearly, I wasn’t doing anything to make anyone upset.
When I was filling the gas can, I saw her come up to me out of the corner of my eye, and turned to her, saw the angry face of an angry woman, and asked if there was something that I could do for her. “No”, she said, “I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else. Nice hat.”
I accepted the case of mistaken identity, as she said. It was also a nice hat, and I’ve had it for years, it was the Cincy hat whose design had not changed since my youth, all red with a white letter C.
It occurred to me after a bit of confusion and thought, that my old Reds hat was, well- red, and another kind of red hat that was being worn about in those days; may have been the source of her anger. Plainly, one that had a few more letters on it than the simple Cincinnati “C”, maybe starting with an “M”? There was an election going on, one that impassioned people and divided lines, and clearly made some angry.
As I write this now, I wonder what would have happened had I been wearing a red hat that started with an “M”. Surely, I was going to get a piece of her mind on how much a scumbag I was, at the very least. Maybe- even snatched it off my head? Any possibility of something more aggressive than that? Surely not. I was twice her size, look like a scary man, and know how to be scary when the time is appropriate for such things.
If I was wearing the other red hat, what did she expect? Does she realize that accosting a scary looking fellow with a red hat twice her size in the Speedway parking lot can be fairly dangerous? Did she think that if I was a MAGA man, that I would recoil, and accept her position, and reject all things Republican on the spot? She was operating on passion, not reason, and had not even considered the end game. I think this is typical, actually too typical for the liberals among us; lashing out passionately, without the first thought to what happens next, or ultimately.
The End Game. Also called by those of us with higher education degrees in strategy as the “desired end state.” The problem with the left, at this moment, is that they have no idea what that is. They are looking for one, I think, but other than the yelling at the right, or the snatching of hats, or the lashing out passionately, I could not tell you what that is.
The entire nation needs the left to get one. A plan that drives to an end state and arrives fairly quickly. The Democrats, the progressives, the traditional left, is causing us all real danger as a nation, left and right, without a goal, and I do not think I am being too dramatic when I think the future of our country depends upon them arriving at a legitimate one.
Clearly, organized opposition, either left or right, to a sitting president and administration, left or right, is necessary to achieve the political balance that we need as a nation. It will keep us towards the middle, left or right, and this is what we need. Without credible opposition, the right will likely gorge itself, way too much for its own good, or the good of the nation.
My favorite book of all time is It Can’t Happen Here, written by Sinclair Lewis, in the 1930s. An excellent piece, that describes this unbalancing, and its harmful effects to the nation. It is reasonable, although literary slide into dictatorship, that mirrors the rise of the fascists, again in the 1930s.
Excellent read. The Liberal opposition were the protagonists in the novel and showed me the value of this balance. The left must do better.
That stated, my End Game- as a moderate, registered Republican, is to give some advice to my friends on the left, on how to balance their approach to be a more credible and worthy opposition. Believe me, this sounds as strange to you as it does to me, but we do need as a nation for the liberal factions to be viable and correct enough times to offer resistance. If the left is not a legitimate opposition party, and offer legitimate resistance- then we as a nation suffer equally, left and right.
The first thing that I will do here, is to remind my gentle readers of a political theory that I have spoken about often, and that I call “the rule of 31”. Again stated, if 20% of our population is die hard MAGA, and another 20% is die hard Anti-MAGA, then the side that gets the remaining 31% of the population, not die hards at all- is the one that gets their way. The rule of 31 means that everything is politically possible as long as 31% of the populace agrees. It is literally how this last election was decided, 51/49. Mr. Trump was not elected by MAGAs, he was elected by moderates.
So, my first piece of advice. A cogent, well thought out, reasonable, non-yelling resistance position must be focused on these mathematics and upon the moderates, and not preaching to your core 20%. In other words, liberals must focus on the issues that are 51/49, appeal to the moderates with that calculus, and ditch those issues that are 80/20.
Aren’t there a few of those 80/20 issues that instantly come to mind? Those that the die-hard liberals are fighting now, with passion, and no hint of compromise? Like, little boys playing ball and showering with little girls, clearly an 80/20 issue. 
Sorry, but if this is the hill the left chooses to die upon, then they will die indeed. A few others are like this as well, that ought to border on the obvious, but sadly, do not.
Anti-Semitism, 80/20. Billions spent overseas, 80/20. Waste Fraud and Abuse, 80/20. Law and Order, Border and Immigration Enforcement, Education and Parental Rights, Energy and Economy, all of these are 80/20 issues and the Left is solidly, almost rabidly – standing behind the 20.
My next piece of advice is to moderate your narrative. The left has been less than truthful in the telling of their story. At least in the case of the usurping of Mr. Biden, the poor man- but in committing that sin the remainder of their narrative is suspect, and viewed as not legitimate by the moderates.
Mr. Newson has condoned the riots, that we see in the City of Angels, placed the blame on the police, Guard, etc.- as “overreach”. The narrative that these LA rioting is “largely peaceful”, does not register to the moderates as truthful when it is spoken in front of a vehicle that is on fire. Duh. I Would ask once again “what is your end game, Sir?”
Lastly, the left needs to use its diplomatic skills, and not rely on the military aspect of power. Democrats do not understand force, or violence, either in threat or in practice.
Talking tough is not a skill used very well. Mr. Walz the other day said that the Democrats need to get “mean”- and no one in the audience knows what he is talking about there. One must ask themselves if rants rife with F-bombs are reaching the moderates as legitimate. Little hint here, it is not.
If the toughest that the democrats can conjure is Mr. Waltz, or Mr. Newsom, or one of the elderly matrons of the party, it comes off as desperate and ineffective. Toxic masculinity has been so purged from the liberal main speak, that it has also purged effective masculinity. Like, tough masculinity.
As poor as they are at tough talk, they are even worse with violence. Democrats simply do not understand it. They will call for it, use terrible derogatory terms and believe that it will influence their audience just the right amount, while maintaining the ability to keep their shoes clean. This also doesn’t work.
Saying that Mr. Trump during the election was a legitimate threat to democracy, Hitler, etc.- well……that got the man’s ear shot off. That cooled the talk for about a week, and then it was right back.
If appealing to the craziest gives a crazy end game, then how are we/ they surprised at this? Do the moderates see this as well? Why, yes, yes we do, and speaking for the group, we are turned off by it.
This nation needs an opposition party, that has its business together. Try, as I might look for it, I cannot find anything that looks like they can put two words together other than what the right is doing is wrong. This void is what elected Mr. Trump- MAGA did not- Republicans did not- the liberals are the ones that dropped that ball, turned off the moderates, and had this man elected.
If we cannot get a legitimate, together, alternative opposition option, we as a nation have no hope of reaching any sort of dialog or compromise. With the current administration, what we have- likely more of the same, likely more aggressive in the future, is what we have. So, my dear liberal friends, get with it, or live with it.