The Democrats' 'All Trick, No Treat' Strategy

Authored by Thaddeus G. McCotter via American Greatness,

The gloaming deepened on a Halloween in the early 1970s. A restless gaggle of youths just turned teens pondered making a final stab at trick-or-treating. The problem? They had no costumes, having earlier laughed at how such garb was for little kids, not for them. But now, uncool or not, those costumed kids were getting free candy. They were not.

Amid the enveloping darkness, Jack-o'-lanterns flickered and costumed children tittered and flitted from door to door. Time was expiring. What to do?

One youth, his face etched with angst, hesitantly floated a trial balloon in the gloaming. "Let's just knock doors like this."

The gaggle eyed one another's black T-shirts, jeans, and boots. The bald suggestion hung in the air until -

Shrugs. Swiftly, pillowcases were pilfered from their unwitting parents and the gaggle's quest for treats sans costumes commenced.

It didn't go well. The adults who actually answered their doors to the gaggle were less than impressed by these youths' brazen attempt to get candy. Their glares and questions were always the same. "Where are your costumes?"

The youths' response, too, was constant: "We're late 20th-century teenagers." Almost invariably, it went over like a lead balloon (or, given it was the late 1970s, more like a Led Zeppelin). Needless to say, no free treat was forthcoming.

There was, however, a singular exception to the rule. One elderly man, upon opening his door, did let out a low whistle at the restless gaggle's "gumption." But this backhanded compliment was all he tendered before he yanked his candy bucket back behind his less-than-politely closed door.

The lesson of this Halloween horror story? Sometimes you need to wear a costume to get what you want.

Today, this lesson forms the basis of the Democrats' general election strategy.

In their primaries, many successful Democrat candidates won by appealing to their party's extreme, America-loathing, socialist wing. It was an authentic approach, for they were making a legitimate appeal to like-minded left-wing extremists. Being and articulating exactly who they are, these radical candidates received what they sought from their fellow travelers - the Democrat Party's nomination.

Yet, while a necessary step, the nomination was not the ultimate destination. Thus, on the cusp of the general election, these far-left, extremist Democrats in competitive seats resembled the gaggle of restless youths from that Halloween back in the 1970s.

Were these Democrats to wage general election campaigns by remaining true to their radical selves, some citizens may well begrudgingly admire their gumption for admitting they are "21st-century Bolsheviks" and, in some socialist circles, reward them with a vote or two. But the bulk of voters would find these radical Democrats unpalatable. As a result, these extremists would not get the treat they sought - namely, enough votes to win the general election.

Their cynical solution? The Democrats' "all trick, no treat" political strategy.

Armed with millions in billionaires' chump change (and heaven knows what other funding sources), these Democrat extremists conveniently doff their hidebound socialist ideology, wrap themselves in the American flag, and tuck their hammer and sickle beneath it. Ta-da! These hardcore leftists are now the costumed "moderates" knocking on your door begging for your vote.

But before you reward them for temporarily cloaking their radicalism, recall the recent past when they tricked enough citizens into treating them with their vote.

How quickly these alleged moderates ripped off their masks and revealed themselves in word and deed.

These radical Democrats passed trillions of dollars in spending bills that enriched their political cronies and spurred rampant inflation; opened wide the border for millions of illegal entries; imposed the illiberal, inherently divisive diversity, equity, and inclusion identitarian ideology; weaponized the police powers and intelligence agencies of the state against those who dissented from their radical policies, including concerned parents and devout Catholics, among others; and waged their postmodernist war against objective truth, particularly Judeo-Christian principles and Western civilization generally.

It's all a trick. And there is no treat - well, at least not for you.

Ironically, like the restless gaggle of youth who have no other option, it is the GOP whose nominees are trick-or-treating sans costume. They are who and what they claim to be: protectors and promoters of the permanent things of faith, family, community, and country.

No wonder the other part of the Democrats' "all trick, no treat" campaign strategy is their deceitful ads trying to garb these GOP candidates in threadbare falsehoods equally as outrageous as the "moderate" costumes they cloak themselves in.

In fact, ironically reverting to the garb of the 1970s gaggle of youths, these far-left Democrats wear costumes of black T-shirts, jeans, boots, and sundry other "blue-collar" garb to court working voters, of whom they have, at best, an abstract understanding. All the while they calumniate their Republican opponents and ignore how their own party's failures have caused the very problems they decry.

As for answers, however, they do have them. But you won't hear them until they have tricked their way back into office and treated themselves to the levers of power over your life.

Only then will these radical Democrats once more rip off their "moderate" Captain America masks and reveal that their radical plans were already put forward during their primaries, when they were being themselves and talking to their fellow Democrat extremists.

Those in the public square who expect a costume in exchange for a treat will doubtless be displeased and not disposed to cast them a vote.

But for those in the public square who seek authenticity and sanity in their elected officials, one hopes they both admire the GOP candidates' gumption and reward them with a vote.