Taking on GOP Extremism
Can Democratic tough talk block Republicans' path to victory?
Arizona’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs made the decision last month not to debate Republican extremist and election denier Kari Lake. “How do you debate someone who refuses to accept the truth—who doesn’t live in facts?” Hobbs said. “All she’s going to do is shout over me, interrupt me and spew lies.”
Hobbs has taken plenty of heat for it from her rival, who’s exploited the decision by calling her a coward. Lake—the long-time Fox TV anchor who’s made a point of slapping at the media as her enemy—also threatened to defund Arizona PBS if elected after the station offered both candidates the opportunity for one-on-one interviews in lieu of debating.
For the record, I understand Hobbs’ choice—and I agree with it. Conducting a debate with an opponent who’s made it clear she will refuse to accept her election outcome if she loses should make it clear that “business as usual” is short-sighted and likely accelerates democracy’s downward spiral. Then again, Hobbs’ decision to avoid the direct confrontation may well be one of the reasons that the arrogantly confident, Trump-loving and camera-ready Lake ascends to the governor’s office at a time when strongman tactics play well among the always-aggrieved MAGA electorate.
But the debate performance Tuesday night from Florida Senate candidate and House Rep. Val Demings offered up a sterling example of how this one-on-one forum can reveal a candidate’s strengths—and demonstrate the readiness to speak truth to power. In this case, Demings’ confrontation of Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was notable for its ferocity, clarity and crackling intelligence. It’s why I want to linger on some key moments offering guidance for other Democrats who’ve chosen a more cautious approach to taking on incumbent opponents.
“How long will you watch people being gunned down in first grade, fourth grade, high school, college, church, synagogue, grocery store, movie theater, a mall and a nightclub and do nothing?” Demings asked in one of the most widely shared moments.
The three-term congresswoman’s words were authoritative, not just because of her fierce delivery, but her background as a former Orlando police chief who has witnessed up close the consequences of homicide. But with Demings—the daughter of a janitor and a maid and the youngest of seven children who was born in a two-room house in Jacksonville, Florida—her toughness was matched by her obvious compassion. “Of course the senator who has never run anything at all but his mouth would know nothing about helping people and being there for people when they are in trouble," Demings asserted.
She also did not hesitate in sharing her moral conviction and in her “mom voice”—she’s the mother of three and grandmother of five—her view of what Marco Rubio has become. “I am really disappointed in you, Marco Rubio, because I think there was a time when you did not lie in order to win,” she said. “I don’t know what happened to you.”
And what did she say on the critical issue of abortion after Rubio said he has only voted for abortion bills with exceptions? “What we know is that the senator supports no exceptions. He can make his mouth say anything today. He is good at that, by the way. What day is it and what is Marco Rubio saying?”
All that said, let’s be clear that Demings faces a tough challenge overcoming the two-term senator. He remains ahead in nearly every poll by several points. Without massive turnout, both Demings and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist will struggle to overcome the Republican advantage of incumbents Rubio and Ron DeSantis. It’s interesting to note that Demings chose not to mention Donald Trump even once.
That was quite different than the approach of Tim Ryan, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Ohio. In his second debate this week with Republican nominee J.D. Vance, Ryan emphasized his opponent’s backing for “the most extreme people in the country”—such as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—as well as Vance’s shift from calling Trump “America’s Hitler” to “kissing his ass.”
The two candidates remain in a statistical dead heat in a state which Trump carried by eight points, where the Republican would be expected to be the clear favorite. In his focus on Vance’s extremism and opportunism to lure the MAGA crowd, Ryan insists he’s the candidate for “the exhausted majority,” tired of “stupid fights.”
According to his pollster Molly Murphy, Ryan is demonstrating that he’s successfully competing to win because he “doesn’t get distracted by culture wedge-baiting.” But as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne noted, Vance sought to connect Ryan to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi nearly a dozen times Monday night. In this refurbished don’t-take-it attitude, the pro-worker, working class Ryan was not about to miss the opportunity to emphasize Vance’s background as a venture capitalist: “If you want to run against Nancy Pelosi, move back to San Francisco and run against Nancy Pelosi.”
In her 30-minute interview this week on Arizona PBS, Katie Hobbs reiterated that Lake’s continuous claim that Trump won the 2020 election “is disqualifying.” She also emphasized the existential nature of the danger: “She has made it her platform to dismantle our democracy and overturn the will of the voters for the former president that she is more beholden to than the people of Arizona.”
But at a time when the polls are tilting back toward the Republicans, with inflation and economy issues overtaking the previous hot-button issues of abortion and attacks on democracy, it’s up to Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to prove that women’s rights and saving democracy matter more than the price of gas. And it sure wouldn’t hurt if more journalists grasped what’s really at stake.
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To me, Lake, with her over confident stage walkon, pointing to people she might know, seems like an actor playing a part in a movie, a stage hand holding a board that says Take Six.
I see no reason for so called debates. Nothing accomplished, judged on appearance. People who listened to the Kennedy/Nixon debate on the radio thought Nixon won. We know what they will say if we have tuned in to TV hosts who pick up on the juiciest comments & run with them. Watchers then think that's the whole story , minds made up.All headlines, no depth.No wonder trump has fans. Government has become show business in America.
Ignore the polls. They're based on "likely voters". This is the year of "unlikely voters". Just vote. And get everyone else you know to the polls.