Premature Capitulation

Warning Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment

Premature Capitulation is common. There are treatments available.

Are you convinced that President Joe Biden is going to cost Democrats the White House, the US House, and the US Senate this November?

Do you wake up with existential dread that Donald Trump will be reelected this November and plunge America into a Heritage Foundation-scripted hellscape?

Are you a media organization convinced that if you don’t ‘get right’ with Trump between now and Election Day you’ll be shut out of the White House briefing room (or worse?)

Have you decided that, despite there being 111 days until November 5th that nothing can be done, therefore, it’s not even worth fighting for the Republic?

You may be suffering from Premature Capitulation.

Warning Signs

For some of you, PC may be a chronic condition, brought on every two years by the next most important election of our lives. At the end of every odd-numbered year, you’re convinced that your party (I’m looking at you Democrats) can’t possibly beat the mean old Republicans and it’s not worth the fight.

Then there are die-hard donors, activists, and operatives who try and avoid sucumbing to the daily tumult of any campaign involving Donald Trump, but are now lost. Not sure what to do, or how to proceed, you stop and stare.

You feel as you’ve lost the will to fight. Given all that’s happened, there is no possibility of victory, therefore, it’s best to resign ourselves to our fate and ask God’s grace to survive the next four years.

Symptoms

If you believe you’re suffering from Premature Capiluation, look for these symptoms:

• An urgent desire to provide blind quotes to reporters for process stories that only deepen and lengthen the Democratic Party’s internal tumult.

• Increasing instances of a severe, but common condition: Often Wrong, Never in Doubt. Given your role as a member of the Commentariat, you see it as crucial to your present and future existence to express your displeasure and disagreement with the current state of affairs so that you may say, “I told you so,” regardless of the outcome.

• Despite a lifetime of working on behalf of Democrats and Democratic causes, you’ve decided to seperate yourself from any and all actions that may assist said party in success this fall.

• As a member of the media, you avoid criticizing Donald Trump, even going so far as to cancel an episode of a popular program, to avoid MAGA’s ire and demonstrate that you, too, are willing to play ball.

• Despite having been a long-time member of the #NeveTrump movement, or at least a non-Trump Republican, you are now searching for paths back to ‘safer ground’ in anticipation of Donald Trump’s re-election this November.

Treatment

While Premature Capitulation can be humiliating, there are treatments available.*

*Awaiting FDA approval

I prescribe Dr. Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” for this malady.

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

This is EXACTLY what Trump, MAGA and authoritarian movements are counting on. When faced with setbacks, bad polling, and a bad environment, Republicans know that Democrats are likely to shrink from the fight. DON’T DO IT. Stiffen your spines.

Either you believe Donald Trump and his cronies are an existential threat to our way of life or you don’t. If you do, there is no excuse for not doing all you can to defend the Republic. If you don’t, get out of the way of those who are willing to do the work.

“Invicibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory, in the attack.”

At this moment, the Democratic Party is neither defending itself and its candidates nor is it adequately taking the fight directly to Donald Trump. Make a decision, for God’s sake. Only when we’ve sorted our own issues within the pro-democracy movement will we be able to fully turn our attention to our opponents.

MAGA is consolidating in Milwaukee as we speak. They will do whatever they believe is necessary to win every one of the next 111 days. We cannot and must not allow them free rein in this time.

I wrote previously that 99.99999% of us will have no bearing on the decision President Joe Biden makes. There are those of us out there ready, willing, and able to take the fight to Trump; we have done it before and are doing so again. If you don’t want the trouble, give us the tools so that we may prosecute the campaign against him.

“If your opponent is choleric temper, irritate him.”

Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson wrote yesterday that the Democrat’s best advantage is that they’re still running against Donald Trump. If Trump were 15% more ‘normal’ he’d be up 15 or 20 points in key states. Even after the debate and the attempt on his life, he’s still barely outside the margin of error.

Trump is the definition of ‘choleric.’ I’ve said previously, and we’ve demonstrated over the past four years, it is essential to stay directly in Donald Trump’s face. Remind him of who and what he is, what a disaster he was as a president, the insane things he’s said and done, and you will push him off balance. He is the only president in American history to whom you can communicate directly. (Buy time on Fox News in Bedminster and Mar-A-Lago and he’ll see it.)

Mar-A-Lago is counting on Democrats being unwilling to throw punches at Trump directly in light of Saturday’s events. Again, this is what they’re counting on. MAGA will not miss an opportunity to punch holes in Joe Biden or Democratic candidates.

“Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.”

On November 6th, each of us will wake up to a new reality in America. Eight years ago, too many of us were blind to what was happening in America. To be blind again is malpractice to our values, our children, and our nation.

I speak to grassroots activists and leaders on a daily basis. They span the the political, the demographic, and the geographic spectrums. To a person they are concerned, yes, but far from bent or broken.

I can only hope that my friends and colleagues in Washington, DC, at the donor tables, and in the green rooms understand that as they play their Game of Thrones, American patriots are out there every day, regsitering voters, sharing information, and recruiting more volunteers to the cause. They don’t do it so you can gleam behind klieg lights: They do it for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Is victory guaranteed this November? Of course not. Is it likely? Too soon to say. But to give up before the battle is even joined is a betrayal to all the tenets that we claim to hold dear. There is too much at stake, and too much opportunity, to give up now.

If you choose to let your case of Premature Capitluation become chronic and debilitating, please do it in silence. The rest of us have a campaign to win.