OPINION:
Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s recent Senate teaser, a silent pose paired with President Trump’s recycled insults, is more than a quirky political stunt (“Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett kicks off Texas Senate bid, seeking John Cornyn’s seat,” Web, Dec. 8). It’s a symptom of a deeper decay.
Our politics have devolved into a spectacle where ridicule is the primary language and contempt is mistaken for leadership. Democrats aren’t alone in this trend, but they have become especially comfortable wielding mockery as if it were a governing agenda. Ms. Crockett’s bid announcement video, which says nothing and proposes nothing, assumes voters want nothing more.
Democrats convinced themselves this strategy worked in 2020, when Joseph R. Biden largely avoided the spotlight and let surrogates and media pressure carry the anti-Trump message, but 2024 showed the limits of running on recycled outrage. Kamala Harris’ campaign leaned almost entirely on Trump hatred, and it simply didn’t land. Negativity, when used as a worldview rather than a tactic, eventually collapses under its own emptiness.
Both parties have forgotten the essential purpose of campaigning: to offer the public a reason to believe life might improve. Negative ads once served to sharpen contrast; now they have replaced vision altogether. We’re left with politics that generate heat, not light, and candidates who perform emotion instead of offering ideas.
When politicians give voters nothing but enemies to despise, they shouldn’t be shocked when voters tune out.
SCOTT THOMPSON
Bloomington, Indiana
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