If David Hogg is Successful Republicans Should Pick Up a Bunch of Seats
When I was a kid, I used to love a situation comedy called the Addams Family. It was about an odd family that appeared to be fairly well off and had some roots in high society. Well, I was a political junkie even as a kid, so my favorite episode naturally was when Gomez Addams, the patriarch of the family, decided to get involved in local politics. He said his family had a long history of political activism, and he was determined to keep up the family tradition by volunteering for a local candidate.
In his basement Gomez had memorabilia from campaigns that his ancestors worked on, which was passed down from generation to generation no doubt. Unsurprisingly his ancestors worked for all of the great losers in history. His basement walls were covered with old campaign posters, he had a Henry Clay poster, he had Stephen A. Douglas, William Jennings Bryan, Al Smith and Alf Landon, Wendell Wilkie and Tom Dewey. The sitcom was produced in the 1970’s, had it been produced in the 1990’s Gomez would also have had a Mike Dukakis poster.
His shapely wife, Morticia, asked him about the ancestor who worked on the Stephen A. Douglas Presidential campaign. Gomez told her that the ancestor actually preferred Lincoln, but ironically “it was Lincoln who talked him into backing Douglas.” Lincoln explained to the ancestor, “While I appreciate your support, I think you’d be happier working for Douglas.” Obviously, the point of the joke was that Lincoln didn’t want Gomez’s ancestor anywhere near his campaign. He knew that his type of help would only cost him votes. Perhaps even the election.
Well, on Sunday I watched Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman (They say Chair) David Hogg on one of the political shows, and before that interview was over, I thought of that Addams Family episode. I realized that Democrats must know how Lincoln felt. He wanted to get rid of Gomez’s ancestor, probably as much as Democrats today want to get away from David Hogg. And furthermore, I bet Democrats are kicking themselves that several years ago they didn’t launch an all-out effort to convince Hogg to become a Republican.
David Hogg is 25 years old, he looks like a young Bashar al-Assad, and he shares a last name with the late J.D. Hogg of Hazzard County Georgia. Hogg gained a little notoriety because he was a student at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School, in Florida during a deadly school shooting in 2018. The media liked him because he pushed their anti-gun agenda. The trauma made Hogg hate guns. In fact, he hates them so much that not only has he made the decision not to buy one, he also won’t let you have one either. And if you do have one you should probably give it up. From gun control Hogg has moved into left wing politics.
But now Democrats are starting to get annoyed with him. His boyish charm is starting to fade. What specifically has upset a number of Democrats is that Hogg, the DNC Vice Chairman is moonlighting by raising money to primary incumbent Democrats, who he claims are “Doing nothing”. The problem is that by doing so he is using money, which could be used to attack Republicans and diverting it to going after Democrats already in office. Veteran campaign strategist James Carville calls Hogg’s actions “insane.” And for good measure Carville also described Hogg as a “little twerp.”
The purpose of the DNC and RNC is to reelect their incumbents and elect challengers. It has nothing to do with ideology, if they have an R or D by their name the national party helps them. As far as candidate vetting, that is left to the district and state parties. They decide if a candidate is sufficiently conservative or sufficiently progressive. The national Party then kicks in financial support in races that are competitive.
Hogg really can’t do both, work for the DNC, and through his PAC, Leaders We Deserve, work against DNC backed candidates. It’s almost like a person who decides to work part time for the DNC and part time for the RNC. Perhaps the PTSD from the school shooting damaged his brain, but I do think Hogg has a certain Greta Thunberg like cluelessness; I don’t think he sees the conflict or problem.
Sure, whenever a Party loses power they consider what went wrong, and how to come back. And there are at least two camps, one says we need to move to the center and the other says, as David Hogg does, “We didn’t go far enough to the left”, but David Hogg is in the “we didn’t go far enough left” camp because like Greta Thunberg he can’t see reality. Whenever he pontificates, he reminds me of Greta Thunberg and her claim that we have eleven years left on Earth.
Some more examples of his cluelessness, I noticed that in Hogg’s interview over the weekend that he gave some glib answers, yet they really didn’t make any sense. For example, in responding to Carville’s criticism that his idea of running against some Democrats and supporting others was “insane”, Hogg said in response that Carville’s opinion doesn’t matter because he “hasn’t won an election in the last 25 years.” Well, I don’t think Carville has managed a campaign in 25 years. But Carville did manage several big wins, that can’t be denied, whether those wins came before or after Hogg was born is irrelevant. I think for Hogg the world didn’t really begin until he was born.
Hogg cites age and the need for younger candidates yet doesn’t give any evidence of a connection with age and winning. Kamala Harris is almost young enough to be Trump’s daughter, yet she lost big, how did youth help her? Hogg says that Democrats need people in Congress who are “doing things”. Well, doing what? Pushing for Medicare for all, open borders, boys in girls’ sports, green energy, demanding the return of deported illegal aliens, probably, but all of those are losing issues. I would think that if voters were given a choice between a Democrat Congressman doing nothing and a Democrat promising to do bad things nine times out of ten, they would pick the one doing nothing. In effect, through his PAC Hogg wants to primary incumbent do-nothing Democrats and replace them with do unpopular things Democrats, which risks losing seats in the general election. If he is successful Republicans will probably gain some seats.
In the interview Hogg acknowledged that the Democrats approval rating is around 29 percent yet offered nothing new. In fact, he continues the same old message. He mentioned false narratives about Trump cutting social security and his inflationary tariffs. And Hogg brought up the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That’s right he brought it up! The clueless Hogg doesn’t realize that the American people want to deport illegal aliens.
Hogg tried to couch it in his concern for “Due Process.” Well, I do think all Americans, not illegal aliens, deserve to have their day in court, but Garcia has received at least 3 days in court, at taxpayers’ expense, and Hogg wants Democrats to stand on the idea that the US Government should fly him back for a fourth day in court. That is a real losing issue to bring up.
Well, just like in that joke, Lincoln decided his best bet to win the election was to keep Gomez Addams’ ancestor away from his campaign. Democrats need to find a way to make David Hogg disappear, but sadly, for Democrats, Hogg can’t be deported.
David Shephard is the author of two books. Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale.
Norton’s Choice:An Inside Politics Exposé: Shephard, David: 9781892538802: Amazon.com: Books
