The Narrative Must Always Be Preserved

“Democrats own that."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the GOP primary defeat of Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican who voted to impeach President Trump.

“The DCCC needs to be ashamed of themselves," he says. pic.twitter.com/7Pul80RvJM

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 3, 2022

Well, except:

Can we stop pretending that trying to support weaker candidates in the opposition's primaries is anything new? Campaigns once did that all the time, in addition to financing straw candidates or throwing support behind someone with the same surname as the guy you want to beat.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 3, 2022

And besides:

.@JVLast: “The problem isn’t that Democrats tricked Republican voters into choosing John Gibbs. The problem is that Republican voters want John Gibbs. And Peter Meijer can’t bring himself to say that.” https://t.co/CeOFrnGOtw

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) August 3, 2022

Let’s start with the DCCC: They ran ads explaining to Michigan voters what sort of crazy person Meijer’s opponent was. These were not positive ads. They accurately described Gibbs’s nuttiness.

These ads were purely negative. But also the DCCC knew what they were doing. They were helping Gibbs by raising his name ID with voters who would see the negatives as positives—by voters who want crazy. These DCCC ad buys were, as I wrote at the time, foolish, dishonorable, and dangerous.

But also, they are not the whole story. They are, in fact, only a very small part of the story.

Change the facts, change the outcome.

Yes, he voted to impeach Donald Trump when the evidence clearly warranted impeachment. That’s not nothing. In fact, it’s a really big something. Good for him.

On the other hand, Meijer has spent the last year-plus running away from impeachment and just kind of hoping that his voters would forget about it.

He took no preemptive action to defend himself against the most salient issue for Republican primary voters. He did not aggressively defend himself. He did not make his affirmative case for impeachment. He simply went into turtle guard and hoped for the best.

All while he kept blaming Democrats for the world’s problems.

I'll spare you the details, but feel free to read the article in toto.  No paywall involved. 

Meijer and his apologists are insisting that his own voters lack agency and that they would have made “the right choice” if only Democrats hadn’t told the voters who and what John Gibbs is.

And like I said up top: We are not children. Raising Gibbs’s name ID probably did help the guy.

But at the end of the day, the problem isn’t that Democrats tricked Republican voters into choosing John Gibbs.

The problem is that Republican voters want John Gibbs.

And Peter Meijer can’t bring himself to say that.

Because, basically, that's where the GOP is.  Did the Democrats create that?  I think not.

"Moreover, Republicans admire their party more than they did before Trump’s takeover. For much of 2015 and 2016, only 50 to 60 percent of Republicans viewed their own party favorably. Now, after some ups and downs, that number is up to 75 percent," wrote Byler.

Now let's talk about Dems in disarray, shall we?