It’s no secret that political parties rely on a well-worn playbook for their daily operations. Leaders convene, a play is chosen, the ball is snapped.
During his weekly presser, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) ran a Democratic staple, the equivalent of a running back dive between the tackles. In response to questions about the cover-up of former President Joe Biden‘s declining health and cancer diagnosis, Jeffries accused Republicans of “peddling conspiracy theories” intended to make us look “backward at a time when they are actually taking healthcare away from the American people. No, as House Democrats, we are going to look forward.”
Oh, and of course, he called the controversy “entirely inappropriate.”
There was a time when the “conspiracy theory” charge was a potent counter to pesky questions.
No one wanted to be lumped in with the genuinely kooky tin-foil hatters of QAnon or Pizzagate. The more topics and personalities Democrats could fold into this unsavory category — with breathless assistance from their legacy media allies — the easier it was to operate unimpeded.
But as with football, certain plays lose their potency over time. Defenses catch on, “the game changes,” as they say. Teams that don’t adjust get left behind.
To be sure, Democrats have no hope of moving the ball down the field by charging the other side with “peddling conspiracy theories.” It’s a play that has lost all of its dynamism. And Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.
How many of the supposed “conspiracy theories” of the Trump era have proven to be true? Too many. There was a time when COVID-19‘s origin was an “entirely inappropriate” topic since only a “conspiracy theorist” would question the government line. The virus came from natural origins, we were told to wagging fingers — science said so. Talk of a lab leak had “racist roots,” New York Times science writer Apoorva Mandavilli said.
But when the natural origins narrative unraveled and the lab leak became the accepted explanation for the deadliest global event since World War II, Democrats and their allies ran the second part of Jeffries’s play from Monday: They told us that talking about it now amounted to “looking backward” at a time when we should be “looking forward.” Isn’t it convenient how the time to “look forward” is always when some egregious Democratic scandal breaks?
Other examples of “conspiracy theories” panning out are almost too numerous to catalog. But a short list might read that social media companies were colluding with the Biden government to censor legitimate speech, Hunter Biden’s laptop was not Russian disinformation, Trump did not collude with Russia, and vaccines did not stop the spread of COVID-19. And so on.
The Biden health cover-up is possibly the most egregious example, given its prominence during a heated campaign season. From 2022 on, the legacy media ridiculed reports of Biden’s cognitive decline ad nauseam. And in return for their undying loyalty, he made fools of them all. Let it be a lesson to journalists of all stripes: Exchanging integrity for access to power never pays.
DEMOCRATS SUGGEST ‘PAUSE’ ON BIDEN HEALTH TALK
For now, Democrats will need to draw up new plays to deflect questions and criticisms. Nobody buys the “conspiracy theory” defense anymore. Democrats used it and abused it, and now it no longer works.
It might be best to chuck the old playbook altogether at this point and start over at the chalkboard from scratch.