Less than 12 hours after a well-conceived, incredibly successful strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear ambition, the heretofore silent-on-the-issue Dems somehow found what they took to be an opening, and the yammering began.
You’d hope that just once, our legacy media and the Democrats would take a moment -- just a moment -- to be American instead of partisan. What did they want? What do they want? Would anything ever go beyond the naked agenda of getting power at any cost? As if governing America were no more than a football game, where the winning side cashes in. Damn the torpedoes -- and the consequences. Just win the election. The rest? Ah, we’ll tell the public what they want to hear later. First, let’s shut down DOGE or whatever else threatens their grip on narrative control.
Midnight Hammer was textbook brilliance -- even crediting Israel for groundwork. The operation echoed Top Gun: Maverick in its mission demands: extreme accuracy, intense coordination across armed services, all to take out a hardened nuclear facility buried deep underground.
And there was ingenuity beyond tech -- floating a two-week timeline, B-2s “headed to Guam” (seemingly at random), and somehow, no leaks. In Washington. From this cabinet. Surprise ensured fewer -- in this case, zero -- casualties on our side.
And yet, 12 hours later, the Sunday shows were already demanding “guarantees.”
“Can you say with 100% confidence?”
“Can you guarantee the targets were obliterated?”
“Can you say with certainty this won’t escalate?”
Guarantee? Ma’am, you can’t even guarantee your Starbucks order tomorrow -- never mind the outcome of a stealth airstrike in enemy territory.
These are the same people who never dared ask Biden if he knew what day it was. Not once did they ask anything tougher than, “How much do you hate Trump?” And I’m still not sure if Biden’s ceiling-shattering press secretary ever answered a single question from the only one even asking: Fox’s Peter Doocy. That administration wasn’t asked to guarantee lunch.
Now they’re clinging to what might go wrong. Lions and tigers and bears -- oh my! Their playbook’s worn thin: pretend confusion, feign chaos, and keep asking questions you already know the answer to. Trump says the same thing 100 times -- they act like they’ve never heard it. It’s the most transparent administration in modern history, and they act like they’re blindfolded in a closet.
From phantom “$800 billion Medicaid cuts,” to tariffs causing not just inflation but the next Great Depression, to the never-ending “dictator” drumbeat -- truth is the real casualty.
So let’s step back. What would Democrats have done? Aside from Fetterman -- who has quietly backed Trump on a few of these things -- they said nothing. Nothing on the legality of shutting down riots in L.A., or the anti-Semitism boiling over on college campuses. Their energy is reserved for sidestepping Trump. They’re already talking impeachment again. At this point, Trump barely notices.
Now imagine Gavin, or Kamala, or Jasmine handling this situation. Feel calmer?
Now that action was taken, they reflexively pivot to challenging the commander-in-chief’s authority to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran -- the same Iran that chants “Death to America” and refers to us as the Great Satan. And you get the sense they wish the strike had failed, just to strengthen their case to resume power.
Unfair? Let’s watch how they behave over the next few weeks. They’ll stir fear while accusing Republicans of doing just that -- just as they’ve done with the riots and violence plaguing U.S. cities. Their entire approach to elections is consultant-tested messaging, not conviction. Power -- not America -- is the prize.
They want to run a regime, not a republic. Like the Ayatollah -- just with better branding. Throw your opponent in jail. Or bankrupt him trying.
If that sounds unfair, well, there’s still plenty more of that coming -- if Republicans ever hope to catch up.
Somehow, I was motivated to watch Rocky movies this Sunday...
Rick McDowell is a writer of political philosophy, American history, and essays on the mind. His other thoughts can be found at https://americanperspective.today.
Image: AT via Magic Studio