OPINION:
Larry David didn’t even wait for Festivus before airing his grievances with Bill Maher.
The co-creator of “Seinfeld,” one of American television’s all-time classic sitcoms, the liberal Mr. David took to The New York Times to roast Mr. Maher, a lefty comedian and political commentator in his own right, for daring to have a meal with President Trump.
In his opinion piece, ridiculously titled “My Dinner With Adolf,” Mr. David unimaginatively likened Mr. Trump to one of history’s greatest monsters but only indicted himself and his fellow Democrats in the process. The Hitler shot is the laziest and weakest jab the left habitually throws at Mr. Trump, who has a daughter who converted to Judaism and grandchildren who are Jewish. On CNN, conservative contributor Scott Jennings correctly pointed out that Mr. David merely intended to intimidate the next liberal who might be tempted to meet with the president.
It is also true that Larry David built his hugely successful career on hyperbolizing his overreactions to normal things in society. He played a fictionalized version of himself in the popular HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which completed its 12-season run last year. The show featured Mr. David obsessing over everyday situations to the point where he often became a public menace and the object of scorn from other characters.
On “Seinfeld,” it is widely known that the character of George Costanza, often consumed by his inability to tolerate other people and the quirks of daily life, is largely based on Mr. David himself.
The truth is, if Mr. David is freaking out over one of his fellow Hollywood liberals breaking bread with Mr. Trump, then it probably means that normal people think it’s just fine. To Mr. David and the Democrats he channels, this was a betrayal of cosmic proportions, a violation of some unwritten code that says you can’t even talk to the other side without being excommunicated.
The Democratic position, as laid out by Mr. David, is like a “Seinfeld” script. Picture George discovering that Jerry had gone to Monk’s Cafe with Newman. Now, imagine Mr. David reacting to the Maher-Trump meeting.
“Bill Maher had DINNER with TRUMP?” you can hear him shriek, voice cracking.
“What’s next, Bill? You gonna play pinochle with Steve Bannon? You gonna binge-watch ‘The Apprentice’ while wearing MAGA hats?”
Mr. David’s apoplexy isn’t just about Mr. Maher; it’s the Democratic Party’s entire message today: so obsessed with ideological purity that it has forgotten how to function in normal society.
Yet Mr. David’s column is useful because it exposes and defines the Democrats as the George Costanza Party.
Like George, Democrats fixate on differences, seethe with resentment of others and choke on their own insecurities. They are unwilling to interact with people they may disagree with because their arguments don’t withstand scrutiny.
On the show, George once quit his job in a rage, only to return pretending nothing had happened. Democrats do the same: burning bridges with half the country and then wondering why they lose elections. They are the party of “serenity now,” shouting for calm while inwardly spiraling into insanity.
George was a master of self-sabotage, always one bad decision away from ruin, and Democrats are no different. They have spent years alienating working-class voters, doubling down on policies that sound great in Ivy League faculty lounges but are terrible in Midwestern diners. They lecture about “diversity” while enforcing ideological conformity. They cry “democracy” while cheering censorship. They chant “rule of law” but embrace illegal immigration.
Ever since Mr. Trump launched his first campaign for president in 2015, Democrats have been saying the same things about him that Mr. David just recycled in The Times. Every day for the past 10 years, they have tried to sell the American people on the idea that Mr. Trump is an evil figure of historic proportions. It has been their central message for an entire decade.
The result was that Mr. Trump was elected again with a stronger mandate than the first time. He won the Electoral College 312-226, won the popular vote and swept all seven battleground states. The Democratic strategy must be regarded as the greatest failure of political messaging in world history, and Mr. David just decided to do it some more.
One wonders why Mr. David failed to remember the episode in which George determined that everything he had done his entire life had failed because his instincts were always wrong. So, one day he decided to do exactly the opposite of what his impulses told him to do, and his fortunes improved.
Democrats keep acting like the old George Costanza we all know — shrill, paranoid and perpetually offended — and they will stay stuck in their own rerun, wondering why the audience keeps turning them off.
• Tim Murtaugh is a Washington Times columnist and founder of Line Drive Public Affairs. He served as a senior adviser on the 2024 Trump campaign and as communications director on the 2020 Trump campaign.
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