The Gaslight Election Won’t Work

 Whatever they claim, one electoral maxim is beginning to bite the Democrats in their proverbial nether regions: voters want to vote for something.

By Thaddeus G. McCotter

October 16, 2020

I recently chatted with a veteran political observer who asked my opinion on a matter confounding him. Apparently, this observer had conversed with an equally politically savvy person, and the pair had shared a puzzlement over the dearth of audiences at former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign appearances. They were further befuddled by the media treating this as if it were perfectly normal. Ultimately, both deemed the 2020 presidential election the oddest not only in their lifetimes, but in all of American history. They felt something was missing, but couldn’t divine what.

I opined that the Democrats are running a “gaslight election.” What was missing from the Democratic Party was a real candidate and issues. In the past, these have been requisite for waging a campaign for the White House. Today, though, the Democrats, quite deliberately, have turned the 2020 presidential election from a contest into a referendum.

This explains the Democratic Party power brokers’ selection of Biden to serve as a “safe” face for the party, one that needs to do little more than read platitudes from his teleprompter. 

Biden is not driving and has not driven the campaign. He and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), are both along for the opaque windowed limousine ride. Biden-Harris are nothing but a Democratic generic ballot: “Who would you vote for today, President Trump or a Democrat?”

Yet, the American electorate is still accustomed to being respected enough that a party is expected to provide a real candidate and positions on issues. 

Consequently, in conjunction with their elitist left-wing pillars of support—namely the media, academia, tech, and other corporate titans—Democrats are gaslighting voters. Their goal is to conceal the Democrats’ absence of a real candidate and issues; confuse the majority of voters who believe they are better off than they were four years ago—you know, when Biden was vice president—to the point that they question their conclusions. 

The Democrats want to incite voters to hate Donald Trump’s personality; and, in a referendum election, they believe this will convince these voters to vote against their own interests. 

Of course, to keep this election a referendum, the Democrats can’t let Biden or issues affect your vote. Offering little more than free stuff, fear, and hate, the Democrats want you to vote based upon the president’s personality, not his policies—let alone his proven accomplishments. Hiding both their candidate and their issues from the voters ought to be disqualifying among self-respecting voters. 

Enter the Democrats’ fellow travelers and Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers, such as the elitist media. There is a reason the first presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace’s covering for Biden resonated with so many viewers. So too, the media’s refusal to press Biden for an answer on court packing and, worse, the AP’s Orwellian redefinition of “court packing.” 

Such media bias that abets the Left is emblematic of the gaslight election. They want you to think this is perfectly normal. The voter who inquires about the Democrats’ platform or the candidate’s “lid” is immediately deemed deplorable and “part of the problem.” 

After over four years of the Democrats’ and the media’s investing their inexhaustible hatred and incessant lying about President Trump and Republicans, their strategy remains: “The only thing on the ballot is President Trump—whether you like it or not.” And if you like President Trump, you know what the Left brands you.

Other than the general threat the gaslight election poses to the health of the body politic, there is a specific threat to the Democrats’ electoral chances. “Nonsense,” some might be tempted to say. The vast majority of the polls all show Biden with a large—and we are told, insurmountable—lead. But never, ever judge the Democrats by what they say; judge them by what they do, and protect yourself accordingly.

Why are the Democrats trying to extend the deadline for absentee and mail-in ballots to be considered valid after election day? Indeed, why is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) fiddling about with the 25th Amendment? 

Whatever they claim, one electoral maxim is beginning to bite the Democrats in their proverbial nether regions: voters want to vote for something. 

This something can be a candidate; this something can be an issue; but this something cannot be nothing. This is especially true for independents, who can’t stand either party. Hence Biden’s ads where he recites vacuous platitudes, as if he’s running to be America’s life coach. 

But voters see through this; and, unable to suspend their disbelief during the Democrats’ Gaslight Election, voters cast a pox upon both political houses by not voting—including Democrats. Ergo, the Democrats’ attempts to prolong the election; and Pelosi’s 2020 version of Peter Strzok’s “insurance policy.” As even Democrats are being turned off by their party’s gaslight election, the Left needs more time to drag them to the polls one way or another.

In a healthy sign for the republic, while TDS Democrats argue all you need is hate and a gaslight election, the rest of America expects a hell of a lot more in a presidential contest—starting with a presidential candidate who is draining the swamp; has proven accomplishments; and will keep America’s comeback on track.

And we will vote accordingly.

             About Thaddeus G. McCotter

The Hon. Thaddeus McCotter is the former chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee, current itinerant guitarist, American Greatness contributor, and Monday co-host of the "John Batchelor Show."