Those of us whose politically memory goes back to pre–George W. Bush times may wonder what happened to the old political calculus.  The parties used to promise their bases unlikely things during primaries to leave no doubt whose side they were on.  Then, they would moderate their stances during general elections, which their bases understood to be necessary.

Once in office, Democrats would pull in the policy tug-of-war as much as they thought they could without slipping and exposing their true intention or facing an electoral backlash.  Republicans would try to slow the rate of radicalization while angling the rope toward something they thought would make the resistance less difficult in the future.

As government grew, the power and wealth available to politicians made the ground more slippery in the Democrats’ favor.  This gradual progress (from their perspective) placated the party’s base, who could continue to feel they were on the side of history and the future would remember them kindly.  Meanwhile, the Republican base could see its champions were battling the Democrats, the bureaucracy, the media, and most other elite institutions, and (being more-conservative) GOP voters didn’t want to risk putting somebody in office who might do something reckless like let go of the rope.

Then came President Obama and his “fundamental transformation of the United States of America.”  The tricks and maneuvers to push through ObamaCare, for one example, broke the old agreement, and the Republican base decided the game had to change.  The long trend of gradual losses was no longer acceptable; the People had to use the power of democracy to ensure a genuine change.  Next, Obama’s weaponization of the IRS against the Tea Parties severed conservatives’ innate reverence for government institutions.  The glee with which the mainstream media went along with our vilification put to rest long-standing debates about “media bias.”  And partisan Republicans’ obvious hesitance about embracing us and failure to pursue our objectives as enthusiastically as Democrats pursued progressives’ goals made safe resistance insufficient.

Through all this, the Democrats’ base believed even more strongly that its desires were destiny.  For them to lose any ground at all was “fascism.”  Other developments, like judicial redefinition of marriage to remove the opposite-sex feature, reinforced this feeling.  Progressives could simply will words to change their meanings, and the highest court in the land would impose their will as law.

Donald Trump won the presidency because Republican and many independent voters believed he would tug on the political rope more forcefully.  Truthfully, he might not have done so once in office, but out of fear that he would, Obama-led Democrats amplified the corruption they’d previously directed toward the Tea Party.  The Democrats simply couldn’t accept four years of feeling their feet slide in the D.C. dirt against the pull of their opposition.  Being who he is, President Trump turned around and fought the propaganda, corrupt prosecutions, and assassination attempts, and now he seems to have resolved that the flag in the middle of the tug-of-war rope must be moved back several yards, to where the old political ground is more firm and democracy can function.

A recent tweet thread by Jesse Kelly describes the circumstance we’re now observing as a result:

Now for why the [Democrats] language and history are escalating. Poll after poll of Democrat voters show they’re angry with their party. Know what they’re angry about? That Democrats aren’t fighting Trump hard enough.

So in a time when Democrats should try to appear normal to all the Normies, they’re turning the crazy UP instead of down. Because the voters they programmed now demand an all-in fight against the devil.

That’s why you see every Democrat from Gavin Newsom to some rando city councilman talk about “fighting Trump harder.” They’re all playing to the demonic base demanding more.

The Democrats’ base is no longer satisfied with an ebb and flow, even if it tends in their direction over time.  Just a year ago, they were changing reality simply by believing!  That can’t stop!

In Rhode Island, we’re seeing this effect in a very practical way.  All our elected officials are Democrats, and all of them have been enthusiastic anti-Trump pugilists.  Two weeks ago, Democrat Governor Daniel McKee responded snidely to the Trump Administration’s request for response regarding Rhode Island’s “sanctuary state” policies.  All of Southern New England and nearly the entire Northeast is behaving the same way, and this leaves us with no leverage whatsoever with the federal administration.

Perhaps this is beginning to dawn on the Ocean State’s governor:

Gov. Dan McKee is hoping to meet with President Trump one-on-one to lobby his administration to end its stop-work order halting the Revolution Wind offshore energy project, but so far the White House is showing no interest in the idea.

Why “one-on-one”?  Because in a closed room, McKee can assure Trump they all know the game they’re playing and imply they’ll both work together against our state’s radicals.  Rhode Island is so thoroughly stacked in the Democrats’ favor that the state has nothing of interest to President Trump.  What’s more, he’d be foolish to trust the integrity of Democrat officials not to do every corrupt thing they can to stab him in the back when given a chance.  He tried to play that wink-nod insider game, and he wound up with a bullet through his ear.

Rhode Island politicians built not only their own partisan strategy, but the state’s entire economy and future prospects on the politics of big-government manifest destiny.  They rely on the federal government to be able to force other people to pay for the projects that keep them in power.  What’s more, they rely on a federal playing field in which the players on both sides respect the challenge of managing the frothing extremism of the Democrat base.  Donald Trump doesn’t.  He doesn’t seem any longer to make a distinction between the crazies and the cynical politicians who play to them to stay in power.  (Good for him.)

Still, businessman that he is, Donald Trump wants to make deals.  Misunderstanding (or ignoring) the negotiation, McKee seems to think Trump is simply missing some information about Revolution Wind in its own terms.  What he ought to do is ease up on the sanctuary state illegal immigration policies, trim the most loose ends of Rhode Island’s mail ballot scheme, buck his extremists to make some cooperative noises in the national media, and pause the most-extreme progressive programs to shore up the general welfare of the state’s broader public.

In short, McKee and his fellow Ocean State Democrats should dust off the not-so-old political playbook and put their own skin in the game.  I suspect that if they’re first-movers in their party along these lines, the genuine, substantive changes wouldn’t have to be much more than show (because at the moment “show” has tangible value).  The fact they don’t appear willing to consider even those minimal steps should tell Rhode Islanders all we need to know about their corruption and their intentions.

Featured image by Justin Katz using DALL-E and Photoshop AI.