Taylor’s Takes: Dems keep trying to rebuild their Death Star

Democrats are trying to rebrand. They are so desperate that donors are throwing in tens of millions of dollars to change the party’s image, as reported in The New York Times this week.

Many in the party feel the Democrats on display like AOC, Bernie Sanders, Jasmine Crockett, and freshly-ousted Vice President of the Democrat Party David Hogg are not only too progressive, they’re out of touch with the mainstream voter.

What on earth would give them that impression? It couldn’t possibly be the resounding defeat in 2024 at the hands of Donald Trump, could it?

So the Dems are endeavoring to reshape the image of the party. And one of the best places they have thought to start is with a podcaster.

The 2024 election was undoubtedly the podcast campaign. It was must-listen programming wherever Trump went. He appeared with Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, and Joe Rogan. I couldn’t care less if Trump sat for a 45-minute town hall-style meeting on Fox. The real entertainment and news was being made on these intimate, sometimes nearly three-hour long alternative shows.

 Meanwhile, Democrats tried to stage (literally) their own sideshows. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz released an unstimulating video of them “getting to know” each other (white guy tacos, anyone?). Kamala even spent $100,000 to turn a hotel room into a recreation of the Call Her Daddy podcast set in which to record a dim-witted back-and-forth.

None of it landed. The only traction those efforts received was when they were being dragged through the mud in the talk shows the next day.

Their failure in 2024 has only emboldened Dems like Rep. Crockett to act out more than ever before, breaking the united front Democrats were once famous for holding, and lashing out at anyone who tries to silence them.

That’s not landing well, either. In fact, it only becomes a throw-away line for Trump in a press conference.

So the Dems are taking a page out of the GOP’s playbook, kind of.

They want to find their own Joe Rogan.

There’s just one or two problems with that idea, though.

Rogan wasn’t found. He made his show what it is today virtually by himself. He began podcasting when people thought the format was a flash in the pan in the late 2000s. But he kept plugging, exploring his own varied interests through fascinating guests and introducing his listeners to new ideas and ways of thinking. He built his empire by catering to nobody but himself, not by reading on air the latest missive from Cory Booker.

The second problem, and the arguably larger one, is that a Democrat Joe Rogan doesn’t exist. Rogan, while not a Democrat or a Republican, has the brand of being physically strong, emotionally stable, and deeply-rooted in family values.

The Democrats don’t have anyone like that. It’s actually impossible to be a Democrat that vaguely resembles Joe Rogan. If a liberal had a whiff of any of Rogan’s traits, they’d be labeled as a MAGA supporter and deserted by their party.

The mantra of the Democrat Party is inclusivity, diversity, acceptance, and, frankly, non-traditional family values. You’ll never find a genuine person that isn’t mentally unwell who is willing to embrace every radical idea that floats their way to meet those standards. Again, it’s impossible to recreate what Joe Rogan has built in a liberal fashion.

Whether he likes it or not, Rogan is something of a mascot for proud, toxic masculinity. While he’s willing to listen to different ideas, he remains steadfast if he differs from them. That’s not what Democrats are looking for, even though they say it is.

They keep trying to change the face of the Party. They came close with Obama in 2008, but didn’t want to push the envelope, so for VP they selected old, white Joe Biden as a safety measure.

In 2016, they sought again for a re-brand. They nominated Hillary Clinton for President. But again, for her running mate, a safe, old, white guy was once again called upon.

In 2020, the most diverse field of Democrat candidates to date emerged. Who did they choose? Old White Guy. With the dependable Biden in place, Kamala Harris was chosen as veep just to add a little spice.

What a disaster that turned out to be.

And after Biden dropped out in 2024, who did Kamala select as her running mate? Old Weird White Guy. Tim Walz was pushed as a man’s man. He could change a spark plug, after all. He was an avid hunter, even though he couldn’t figure out how to load a shotgun. He threatened to kick the asses of the burliest of MAGA men. Surely this would secure the Oval Office for the Democrats.

What reeked more than the bland ground beef Walz puts in his tacos was his disingenuity.

The proverbial Death Star the Democrats kept rebuilding exploded once again.

And so here they are again, left with the skeleton of what they insisted would work as a powerful weapon to crush the Rebellion once and for all. Like a bad sequel, they’re pouring millions of dollars to create outrageous flair with little plot to hold it all together.

They’ll never find a Joe Rogan of their own. They’ll inevitably come back to some iteration of Old White Guy.

But we’ll be here, waiting for yet another chance to blow up the “new and improved” Death Star again.