Baseball and a political boost

OPINION:

Donald Trump may have been beatable — and by “may have,” I mean if the left had started a sound campaign that included reasonable progressive policies three years ago, instead of behaving like spoiled children ever since they lost the 2016 election.

Game 5 of the World Series proved to myself and any thoughtful observer that not only have they lost complete control of the political game, but they just can’t stop themselves from falling into every trap President Trump sets for them.

Any sane Democratic political consultant would have screamed in horror when the president announced that he was going to attend the game — not because he was showing up to be adored by fans, but because it is clear that he showed up with the intention to be booed.

Why would I say that? The numbers — and, no, not polling numbers that can skew any way that the pollster wants to make them — fund-raising numbers. Since the Democrats’ closed-door “impeachment probe” began, the RNC and the Trump campaign have set record fund-raising numbers. In Quarter three alone, they raised $125 million or nearly double what President Obama raised in the same quarter of 2011.

These numbers show that Democrats aren’t just motivating Republicans, they’re incensing them — and in response the GOP isn’t just screaming at their TVs at home, they’re mobilizing, bigly. This makes perfect sense, after all, it’s the same narrative that got Mr. Trump elected in 2016. The Outsider vs. The Establishment Swamp.

Even though Mr. Trump won in 2016 and has signed historic executive orders and passed major legislation, he is still the outsider. Rather than arguing over policy by traditional means like debate, Democrats have clung to the concept that they can overturn the 2016 election with impeachment over and over again, which solidifies the narrative that Donald Trump, although he is the most powerful leader in the world, is truly the outsider upsetting the system, standing against the establishment.

When you take the numbers and narrative into account, it would make perfect sense that the president would want to drop into the World Series at Nats Park. What better place to put The Outsider vs. Establishment narrative on full display for all the Republicans to see than there. His mere presence would trigger the elite members of the Washington community who paid on the low end nearly $1,000 to stand inside the stadium. And the leftists took the bait, hook, line and sinker.

When Mr. Trump was announced and shown on the screen, the leftists began a roar of boos in the crowd — then for bonus social media points, they cheered “Lock Him Up.” Perfect.

The Internet was ablaze with leftists screaming that they had finally shown “Drumpf.” Surely their outrage at this outsider who dared to come to their established town sport would teach him a lesson, right? Wrong. What it did was create the perfect fund-raising opportunity for the GOP.

All of the president’s supporters around the nation saw their figurehead, the outsider get booed by the establishment — and they know the swamp establishment hates each and every one of them and their MAGA hats just as much. President Trump’s mission was accomplished.

For bonus points, Joe Scarborough went on his show the next morning to criticize the leftists who chanted “Lock him up!” He chastised them for going low, and his disappointment in his own people shows just how middle-of-the-road Democrats and independents feel. His point? You can’t have it both ways. If you’re outraged that Mr. Trump rallies chant “Lock her up!” about Hillary, you can’t yourselves do the same exact thing.

To middle-of-the-road Democrats and independent voters, the establishment swamp looked like outraged clowns, similar to the now over-memed woman(?) screaming “No!” at the 2016 inauguration. Whiny babies who can’t move on and have nothing reasonable to present as an alternative to Mr. Trump.

And like Joe Scarborough, who clearly doesn’t like Mr. Trump, they watched the game and said to themselves, “I may not be on Trump’s team, but I’m definitely not on that obnoxious crowd’s team either.” And after watching impeachment nonsense, insane hyperbole and absolute lies coming from Washington, they lose the motivation to vote for anyone.

Where Democrats once may have had a reasonable chance against this president, that time has come and gone. Instead of presenting sound alternative policies, they flail and boo and scream “lock him up” like whiny spoiled children who were denied dessert and need to be sent to bed early. And they do so, just the way President Donald J. Trump and the RNC knows they will.

• Tim Young is a political comedian and author of “I Hate Democrats/I Hate Republicans” (Post Hill Press).