If Democrats seem to be in a rage, a panic, or a tantrum in the campaign’s final week, that’s because that was the plan all along.
The fever pitch of hysteria emanating from Democrats right now has some Republicans thinking that Democrats know they are losing and are desperate. Now, there’s something to that: The trends have been moving against Democrats lately, and there’s an edge of panic creeping into the sound of their leaders and spokespeople. But at least if you look at the public polling, Democrats are still (barely) ahead in the key battleground Senate races, and Donald Trump’s leads in the battleground states are mostly within the margin of error. If the polls are just a few points off-center — well within historic norms — it’s easy enough to see Kamala Harris winning, Democrats retaking the House, and Republicans winning just a one-seat margin in the Senate.
But the puzzle remains: If they are really trying to close the sale strategically in such a close election, why are their two closing messages (1) the dark night of fascism descending in America if Trump wins and (2) apocalyptic rhetoric about how every woman in America will die if we don’t have totally unrestricted abortion? Why is this campaign now being waged on The Man in the High Castle meets The Handmaid’s Tale?
I’ll tell you why: because the time for persuasion is over. Early voting has started. Election Day is in eight days. So much money has been spent saturation-bombing the airwaves, mailboxes, and text-message inboxes with campaign messages that the minds of swing voters now resemble the ground at Verdun this time in 1916. There are undecided voters still out there, sure. Some will decide; many won’t, and will stay home. But the odds of either party doing anything to persuade voters their way from here on are slim, and political professionals know it. This is the time for mobilization. It’s when campaigns narrow the lens to getting their own people out. So, it doesn’t really matter to the Democrats’ messaging at the moment whether they think they are cruising for a 1936-style blue tidal wave, a 1980-style red tsunami, or a razor-thin coin-toss election: They were always going to end this way, whipping their supporters into a frenzy and ignoring all messages that aren’t dialed all the way to eleven. If Democrats seem to be in a rage, a panic, or a tantrum in the campaign’s final week, that’s because that was the plan all along.