Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, First Lady Michelle Obama said about Republicans, “when they go low, we go high.” That was after more than seven years of Republicans going ever lower and lower, both in their rhetoric and their actions. Some of these many Republican low points include falsely and repeatedly questioning President Barack Obama‘s citizenship (i.e. “birtherism”), and denying President Obama a hearing for his U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.

Eight years later, it appears Democrats finally have had enough of Republicans’ low behavior. The fantastically enthusiastic response of Democratic voters to the 2024 presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz demonstrate that the party’s base wants leaders who not only are smart and competent, but who are also willing to go on offense against Donald Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance, and the Republican Party.

First of all, in supporting Vice President Harris, Democrats are getting someone with a background as a tough prosecutor. Thus, the theme of The Prosecutor vs. The Convicted Felon (meaning of course Donald Trump, already convicted of 34 felonies and facing more prosecutions) is a natural one that will surely be used over and over.

Moreover, by choosing Tim Walz as her running mate, Vice President Harris doubled down on taking the fight to the Republicans. Indeed, that became obvious even before Harris announced Walz as her running mate, as Walz coined the term “weird” to describe Trump and Vance back on July 23. This “weird” meme has really taken off, and in his first appearance with Harris, in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Walz went one better, saying that Trump and Vance were both “creepy, and yes, just weird as hell.” In his speech, Walz even alluded to Vance’s problems with couches (those unfamiliar with the subject can easily look it up). This shows that Walz is savvy when it comes to new media, such as Tik Tok, that he says his Gen Z kids use.

Democrats: more Batman, less Bruce Wayne

There are two things that Democrats keep doing lately which are not helpful to President Joe Biden or the Democratic Party’s chances in the 2024 elections. Both of them have to do with conceding too much to Republicans. First, we see a lot of variations of “Biden is old, but Trump is ______” (crazy, a Nazi, a felon, etc.) from Democrats. While the descriptions of Trump are true, the part that often gets left out is that Donald Trump is also old. He’s nearly the same age as Biden. Moreover, Trump has displayed more signs of physical and cognitive impairment than Biden, from struggling with ramps and water bottles, to forgetting family members’ and opponents’ names, and others. Therefore, the “Biden is old but Trump …” statements are too weak.

Second, we see Democrats repeating mainstream “news” media memes that, we should all know by now, skew Republican. An example of this has occurred this week. The stock markets are hitting new records, in large part because inflation has been tamed on President Biden’s watch, and the business and banking communities are expecting the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates sooner than later as a result. However, a number of financial news articles, such as this one from Reuters on Tuesday have added a third reason:

increasing expectations of a second Trump presidency in the wake of a failed assassination attempt raised hopes of a looser regulatory environment.

That is a crazy premise for a news report. While plenty of folks across the political spectrum wish Trump a speedy recovery, why would a failed assassination attempt “increas[e] expectations of a second Trump presidency”? On the contrary, according to Newsweek, “Donald Trump Does Not Get Post-Shooting Poll Boost.” Indeed, after a two-week media frenzy, President Biden is going into November’s election in an even stronger position, weathering the storm against him and now more likely to win than Trump, according to fivethirtyeight.com. Biden, not Trump, is therefore the Comeback Kid at the moment, and Democrats should never concede that Trump has a better chance to win, especially for the sole reason of being shot at.