Referring to the Bourbons when they returned to power, French statesman and diplomat Charles Talleyrand noted that 鈥渢hey had learned nothing and forgotten nothing.鈥�
America鈥檚 Democratic party appears determined to repeat that performance.
Driven by a determination to eradicate every last vestige of Donald Trump鈥檚 policies, they鈥檝e set about recreating exactly the conditions that got Trump elected in the first place.
The border has been reopened to floods of 鈥渦ndocumented鈥� immigrants. In April, 178,622 migrants entered the U.S. illegally, the highest number in 20 years.
And President Joe Biden has ordered that fines will no longer be imposed on immigrants who arrive illegally and are ordered by a judge to leave. The administration is even refunding fines paid during the Trump years.
Notably, it was the whole issue of porous borders and the large numbers of illegal immigrants entering the country that proved to be one of Trump鈥檚 most potent rallying points. Now that grievance is being reinvigorated.
The disastrous treaty with Iran, cancelled by Trump, is to be reopened, virtually ensuring that Iran becomes a nuclear state. That invites one of two calamities.
Either the region鈥檚 neighbouring countries, fearful of Iran鈥檚 attempts to cow and destabilize them, will themselves seek nuclear weapons. Or Israel will mount a military attack to wipe out the production facilities. Where does all that end?
Biden is also considering increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 28 per cent, arguing that the burden will fall only on the wealthy (Trump had reduced it from 35 per cent to 21.)
But the Congressional Budget Office (a non-partisan body) calculates that middle- and low-income workers will bear 25 per cent of the burden.
Again, tax cuts were one of Trump鈥檚 foremost policies, arguably responsible, along with slashing red tape, for the lowest unemployment rates among Black and Hispanic families since records were first kept.
There鈥檚 plenty more of the same, and certainly some of Trump鈥檚 schemes were ill-advised or scrambled.
But you have to separate the policy from the man 鈥� something the Democrats appear unable to do. And the danger is that in failing to draw this distinction, they restoke the simmering anger among working-class Americans that handed Trump the White House.
Look at the numbers. Since the Second World War, the party holding the presidency has lost, on average, 26 House seats in midterm elections, and four Senate seats.
Currently, the Senate is tied 50-50 and the Democrats lost 13 seats in the House of Representatives during the 2020 election, giving them a majority of just six, with five seats vacant.
If next year鈥檚 midterms run true to course, the Democrats will surrender both centres of power.
A wiser program would be to steer a middle course, keeping in mind that electorally, the country is basically split in two, with little room for theatrics on either side.
But such were Trump鈥檚 divisive strategies that there is no room left for wisdom.
The Democrats have forgotten none of the insults to the republic they now lead. And likewise they have learned nothing about the rust-belt anger that brought those insults into being.
