Imagine you just won the lottery. Not the big prize of, say, ten million dollars, but a cool five million. Would you celebrate the incredible luck involved in winning unforeseen riches – or would you lament that you did not win the supersized, ultimate prize? The answer on the left is apparently the latter.
Rewind to almost exactly one year ago. The man you hate with a passion unseen before, even in the lowdown dirty game of politics, is set to inflict four more years on the nation. He is running on record low unemployment, persistently impressive economic growth, energy independence, new and improved trade deals, standing tough against China – and oh yeah, peace – that too.
And then, as if it was a gift to the left directly from whatever heaven they believe in (Jane Fonda even said so), a pandemic overtakes the nation, throwing a monkey wrench directly into the roaring economic engine and life itself. The deaths of tens of thousands justify a shutdown across the land, a virtual national airdrop of unsolicited mail-in ballots, and widespread liberalization of voting laws, resulting in unheard-of “turnout.” It allows you to keep under wraps the somnambulistic relic you begrudgingly settled on to run against the reviled president. It throws what looked like an almost certain Trump victory into political purgatory and ultimate defeat.
You have experienced luck on a scale that should have even atheists on their knees in thanksgiving. And you have slain the dragon.
But wait, that’s not all. Down 50 seats to 48 in the Senate – the equivalent of being down two runs in the bottom of the ninth – you eke out two last-minute victories in Georgia of all places – more than 60 days after the national election, and presto – you control the White House and all of Congress.
But we’re not done. A rogue band of Trumpists presents you with another gift of manna-like value, breaching the Capitol and laying in a fat pitch for you to hit out of the park. It empowers your media wing to depict Trump as every bit the odious force in politics they had been describing in vivid detail for years. It would validate voters’ wisdom in removing Trump from office before he can wreak further havoc in the land.
Mourning in America
Yes, leftists achieved every one of the goals – and so much more – which they set heading into the fateful year of 2020 – taking down Trump, disgracing his supporters, winning the Senate – scoring a trifecta they had to believe was almost impossible before the pandemic.
And yet, they are still not happy – not satisfied even. Is it possible they simply refuse to be content, even for a moment? Or are they actually incapable of satisfaction, not to mention joy? Or do they somehow believe they are not allowed to have good things? It seems only a historic landslide and electoral humiliation of Trump would satisfy the Trump-haters. But even in that, they likely would have continued in their misery anyway.
Any group of people not given to perpetual doom and gloom would celebrate their incredible good fortune and newfound control of their beloved Swamp and present to the nation a glowing vision of the future – an America built back better. They could effortlessly pull out the tried and true, like how they are humbled by the trust the voters have apparently placed in them and all that. And they could take yet another precious gift, vaccines handed to them by the Trump administration, and turn them into a cause for celebration – our long national nightmare is over.
Instead, they speak of existential crises involving the climate and black people, fire up the censorship machine, call for the forcible removal of two senators, and forge ahead this week with the most backward-looking of all initiatives: putting on trial, with a flagrantly partisan left-wing senator/judge, a president who no longer holds the job, even as they know they will fail.
They could be grateful and celebrate the victory. Instead, they complain and signal their dubious virtue. It is a testament to the mindset of the progressive left circa 2021 that all their wishes came true on Christmas Day, and yet they walk away angry and disappointed, as if it all amounted to a glorified lump of coal.
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Read more from Tim Donner.
