If I had passed out from shock last November on election day and just woke up I would observe a booming economy and stock market, a strong dollar, a substantial tax cut, corporations repatriating billions of dollars, record low unemployment, the lowest black unemployment on record, a historic peace initiatives in Korea, ISIS crippled, new elections being held in Iraq, the American Embassy moved to Jerusalem, Syria’s chemical weapons program decimated, and a clear powerful voice for the U.S at the UN.

I would think this to be a solid record to support the party in power in the 2018 midterms.

I would have missed the ‘resistance’, the women marching in vagina suits, the calls for impeachment, the endless outrage, media walkbacks, Trump’s Twitter feed and outrageous comments, and the exposure of the left leaning media and entertainment industry as the surprising hotbed of misogyny.

Paul Krugman and his ilk’s prediction of financial, political, and diplomatic armageddon would seem the words of the eternal pessimists forever seeing ruin in the face of prosperity, blinded by partisanship and ideology. He would be the crazy ranting uncle you somehow feel obligated to invite every Thanksgiving.

The Democrats, however, discount all of this and remain focused on the media I would have missed. Feeling yet again robbed of a close victory they remain mired in excuses and scapegoats, rather than addressing why it was even close.

The midterm primaries indicate they have learned nothing from their close defeat.

In today’s WSJ Karl Rove writes A Grim Prognosis for Trump Derangement:

We’ll see. But running as a doctrinaire progressive with heavy-handed appeals to minorities, the young and unmarried women is a perilous strategy at best. Red states rarely turn blue without help from swing voters. Ms. Abrams, who owes the federal government $54,000 in back taxes, would need to carry each of her target groups by massive margins while boosting their share of the turnout to even have a chance.

These candidates’ rhetoric may weigh them down in the general election just as much as their policy agendas. Mr. Allred, for example, says the election is “not just Democrats vs. Republicans . . . it’s like common sense versus idiocy.” He argued Midwesterners who supported Donald Trump were “buying into . . . xenophobia” and worries Mr. Trump “will start a war to cover up whatever he is already being investigated for . . . a war that would end the world.” This may not be a winning strategy in George W. Bush’s home district, which incumbent Republican Rep. Pete Sessions won unopposed last time and Mitt Romney carried by 15 points in 2012.

Counting on a blue tsunami in November, Democratic candidates believe the key to success is being the angriest candidate running furthest to the left. That may work in some places. But Democrats are overestimating the chances that it will work in red and purple districts.

Mr. Trump has left the GOP vulnerable in the mid-terms, but Democrats’ Trump Derangement Syndrome is undermining their prospects. Elections are rarely won on a platform of contempt.

We are learning that support for Trump is growing.  He has received support from voters who share distaste for many of his tweets and comments. As one supporter in the blue-collar Midwest said to Salena Zito in her book The Great Revolt, they may not share his values, but they shared his concerns.

You do not have to outrun the tiger; you only need to outrun the other campers.  Voters can acknowledge Trump’s imperfections while still preferring his results to the political correctness, campus illiberalism, outrage, whining intolerance, contempt, and swamp mentality of the left.  As long as they blame others for Trump’s victory they will remain stuck on stupid.

Contempt and arrogance are anesthetics that dull the pain of stupidity.

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