Republicans are trying something unusual this cycle: a full-scale convention in a midterm year, staged in Dallas and featuring President Trump to fire up the base ahead of what both sides agree will be an unusually consequential election. Democrats have decided to crash it. Whether that\u2019s a shrewd play or an unforced error depends entirely on what they show up and say \u2014 and the early signs suggest they haven\u2019t thought it through.<\/p>\n
The plan,\u00a0per reporting in The Hill, has two tracks. More than a dozen left-wing organizations intend to rally in downtown Dallas to pull attention away from the convention, and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is dispatching a four-member House delegation to \u201cunderscore the contrast between the two parties.\u201d One Texas Democratic operative was almost giddy about the opportunity, saying he was glad Republicans were coming and hoped the event got as much airtime as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know who we have to pay to thank the Republicans for doing this at this time, but I\u2019m happy they\u2019re coming. I hope it gets as much airtime as possible,\u201d said Matt Angle, founder of the Lone Star Project, a Texas-based Democratic PAC. \u201cIt gives Democrats another event to organize around and another opportunity to make the case in a convincing way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the problem with his enthusiasm: The contrast he and Jeffries want to draw is only a winner if the Democratic Party currently on offer is one that plays in Texas \u2014 and it isn\u2019t. A delegation arriving to spotlight the difference between the parties will be doing so at the precise moment the national conversation is fixated on the DSA\u2019s rising influence over the Democratic ranks, on candidates who\u2019ve flirted with open borders, and on a trans cultural agenda that polls badly across the Sun Belt. If you\u2019re underwater on exactly the issues the cameras will be trained on, more airtime isn\u2019t leverage. It\u2019s exposure.<\/p>\n
The individual counterprogramming is where it gets genuinely puzzling. Texas Senate candidate James Talarico plans to answer the convention with a statewide \u201cLove Thy Neighbor\u201d food drive. There is nothing wrong with a food drive. But as a piece of political strategy it\u2019s close to inert. A food drive mostly reaches and mobilizes voters already inclined to vote Democratic; it does nothing to pry loose the persuadable Texans a challenger actually needs to beat a statewide Republican. It\u2019s an event designed to feel virtuous rather than to move a single vote that wasn\u2019t already moving.<\/p>\n
The counterprogramming instinct isn\u2019t crazy on its face. A rival party staging a splashy event in your state is a real opportunity, and refusing to respond would look passive. Democrats are right that a contrast can be drawn. The trouble is\u2026the contrast<\/em>. Men in girls\u2019 sports, open borders, ditching oil and gas for wind and solar, repealing tax cuts (including taxes on tips and OT), opposing Trump on his cuts to prescription drug prices, embracing anti-Semitism and Nazi tattoos are not even close to being policy winners in red Texas.<\/p>\n A midterm convention is a bet by Republicans that energizing the base is worth the spectacle. Democrats are free to answer it, but if the answer is a protest crowd heavy on the party\u2019s least electable elements and a candidate handing out canned goods, the contrast voters absorb won\u2019t be the one Jeffries intends. Sometimes the smartest counterprogramming is to let the other side have its week \u2014 and to not remind a once-reliable swing state exactly why voters there stopped supporting you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Republicans are trying something unusual this cycle: a full-scale convention in a midterm year, staged in Dallas and featuring President Trump to fire up the base ahead of what both … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-4885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-breaking-news"],"yoast_head":"\n