No. of Recommendations: 3
But what about Josh Shapiro? He'd check a lot of sane boxes. The problem is, he wilted:
He was the obvious guy to occupy the empty sane lane. His state adores him. In many ways, he’s been competent, and competent governing is not exactly something many Democrats can put on their CVs. Plus, the rejection by Kamala Harris and her humiliating defeat handed him the argument that Democrats needed to do something different and, conveniently, he was different.
The Democrats might’ve swallowed the whole Jewish thing if they thought they had a winner. But instead of differentiating himself from the most extreme leftists, he’s chosen to cater to them. That’s stupid in several ways. The first is that it’s never going to work. They’re never going to accept him as one of their own. He was too moderate, too effective, and too Jewish. His only play was to distinguish himself by doubling down on his moderate image. He needed to be an alternative because he was never going to satisfy the weirdos, losers, and mutations of the progressive wing whose Doc Martens he’s inexplicably chosen to lick.
So, instead of establishing himself as someone normal people across the country can look at and think, “Yeah, he’s not going to do anything stupid or crazy like let criminals out of jail or castrate my kids,” he’s donned the figurative P-hat of the resistance, whining about Trump and pulling a Spanberger by governing left. He’s as down with trans kids as Texas U.S. Senate Democrat nominee James Talarico. Just look at what happened on the Fourth of July—he refused to allow Pennsylvania to have a booth on the Mall. It took Senators Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) (who is actually all alone in the young-and-normal lane of the Democrat Party) working together to make a booth happen. Shapiro shouldn’t have been petty; he should’ve been all over it as Mr. Post-Partisan Unity Guy instead of being just another Trump-hating jerk.
With the kicker
Neither he nor almost anybody else can see the obvious. If you’re going to make an impact, you have to distinguish yourself. You can never be left-wing enough to distinguish yourself. There’s always someone who will out-commie you. So, you have to go the other way, which will, incidentally, lead to better outcomes and good governance, which will, in turn, create a virtuous circle. But of course, the Democrat Party is against virtue.
It’s also full of cowards. You’ve got to be brave to stand up to the fanatics. Senator Fetterman is. He’s the honey badger of the Democrat Party because he doesn’t give a Schumer whose paws he steps on. But somebody else who hasn’t been collecting Social Security for two decades could come along and not antagonize the left while focusing on solid, competent governing and true compromise with normal people. That guy could do very, very well in a general election, but it will be tough in the primary, and he’ll have to fight. He’s going to get a lot of grief, so he’s got to have stones. Too bad testosterone is far from the Democrats’ favorite drug, except when injected into confused teenage girls.
And that is why the lonely normal lane is going to remain wide open for now even as the Democrats crowd into the gridlocked kook lane. Don’t look for a maverick in 2028. They’ll need another electoral humiliation or two before they’re desperate enough to try not being complete idiots.
