Would Democrats help Trump to defeat a Republican they fear more? It sure looks like it

The Democratic Party and their friends in national media have that crazy look in their eyes, and I’m not sure how to describe it.

Eager? Elated?

Not quite.

The word is tempted, as in eyes filled with temptation and guilty pleasure.

Surely nothing in this world would entice liberals to repeat their 2015 dalliance with the most vulgar man on Planet Earth?

After two impeachments, an attack on the U.S. Capitol and a long season of denying elections, the Democrats and their media string section are not about to normalize Donald Trump, are they?

Well, it’s starting to look that way.

You can't pay for this much free publicity

In 2015, Democrats were cheering for Trump to win the Republican Primary. “I am a person of faith – and the Donald’s entry into this race can only be attributed to the fact that the good Lord is a Democrat,” Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, told the Washington Post.

The mostly left-wing media had a torrid love affair with Trump. He was stabbing and slashing journalists, celebrities and his fellow Republicans, calling the latter names such as “Low Energy Jeb,” “Lyin’ Lyin’ Ted” and “Little Marco” Rubio.

He was stoking violent behavior at campaign rallies and calling immigrants drug dealers and “rapists,” while assuming “some are good people.”

He was unhinged and unpredictable and, above all, great television.

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Studies at the time showed that Trump was clocking 327 minutes of nightly broadcast network news coverage to Hillary Clinton’s 121 minutes and Bernie Sanders’ 20 minutes.

By March 2016, The New York Times was reporting that Trump had gotten nearly $2 billion of media attention, “about twice the all-in price of the most expensive presidential campaigns in history.”

His haul in free publicity was twice the estimated $746 million that Hillary Clinton took in.

Is it any wonder that Donald Trump won?

Television loved Trump. It had made him a celebrity superstar on NBC’s “The Apprentice.”

Now it simply moved the Trump Show to the 2016 presidential election.

In the immortal words of the playwright “Paddy” Chayefsky, Trump had become “television incarnate: Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life (was) reduced to the common rubble of banality."

Ratings soared. Revenues skyrocketed. Then Trump did the unthinkable.

He won.

He beat the Democrats, took the White House and left all those network news anchors looking into the Election Night gloam with their long faces and thousand-yard stares. All their scripts were on fire. This was supposed to be Hillary’s coronation.

The BBC’s media critic lamented, “We now have an unpredictable and telegenic president, whom the cameras and ratings will follow wherever he goes.”

You know the rest of the story.

Democrats think Trump can help them win

The rest of the story was bloody hell for the American left. The Democratic Party came out of it bruised and burned.

Having learned their lesson, liberals would never again encourage Donald Trump with primary pom-pom lines and saturation coverage.

Would they?

Well, apparently, Democrats would.

“Democrats Meddle Again in a G.O.P. Primary, This Time Down-Ballot,” reads the Feb. 14 New York Times headline.

After spending millions of dollars to promote radical MAGA candidates in Republican gubernatorial and congressional campaigns last year, Democrats are back with the same strategy in a Wisconsin GOP primary for state Senate.

They’re doing it because it worked. Trump-endorsed and Democrat-boosted candidates won primaries and then lost general elections to Democrats in 2022. Now the question is, will the Democrats scale up that project for the 2024 presidential election?

Will they prop up Trump to help him defeat a Republican they fear even more?

So, DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump?

The temptation is high, because they believe someone worse than Trump is waiting in the GOP wings.

“(Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis offers Trumpism without Trump, promises to Make America Great Again without saying the words, and wallows in the culture-war cruelties that propelled Trump into office in 2016,” writes Brynn Tannehill in The New Republic.

“DeSantis seems relatively sane and intelligent compared to Trump” and “the public seems to assume that DeSantis would be a better president than Trump. This is a horrible mistake.”

Tannehill then says in words what the Democrats who support MAGA candidates say in dollars: Trump isn’t all that dangerous.

“The damage Trump was able to do was limited by his lack of discipline, ignorance of how the system worked, laziness, and lack of motivation. He is simply a narcissist who likes feeling rich, powerful, and important. DeSantis, however, is none of these things. He is not lazy. He has discipline, motivation, and an intimate knowledge of how to use the system to get what he wants.”

“DeSantis is pursuing one of the most aggressively authoritarian agendas in the country.”

Even Biden may view Trump as a 'wingman'

In his State of the Union speech, Joe Biden signaled he has stopped worrying about Trump and has started throwing punches at DeSantis.

When he claimed Republicans want to cut Medicare and Social Security, he was essentially attacking DeSantis’ record in Congress. As a congressman representing Florida, DeSantis had jumped on Paul Ryan’s entitlement-reform bandwagon.

Later in a speech in Florida, Biden promised to be a “nightmare” to any Republican who would threaten to cut entitlements.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly A. Strassel noticed:

“In this Mr. Biden has a fascinating wingman – Donald Trump himself. Mr. Trump’s opposition to entitlement reform isn’t new, but he’s now doubling down – seeing it as a way to distinguish himself in a primary field and to hobble Mr. DeSantis or others.”

Roger Stone, Trump’s one-man goon squad, got in the action and tweeted, “DeSantis voted in 2013, 2014, and 2015 on three resolutions that called for raising the retirement age to 70 and cutting Social Security and Medicaid benefits for millions of earners. His general Election candidacy would be DOA.”

The left gloms on to Trump's 'Meatball Ron'

When The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported that Trump was field testing a new nickname for his Republican rival DeSantis, calling him “Meatball Ron,” the American left exulted.

The Morning Joe team announced that Trump had re-discovered his fastball.

“I mean, this is all childish and immature and ridiculous, let’s put that out there to start,” said MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire to Joe Scarborough. “But in the category of childish, immature and ridiculous things? Good nickname. This one has a chance to stick.”

Rev. Al Sharpton came on the show and said DeSantis isn’t ready for national politics and then sort of praised Trump: “As grotesque as Donald Trump was, he knew how to play that big stage.”

How long before the press restores Trump?

Late-night host Stephen Colbert got in the action, giving Trump props for his new DeSantis nickname. “’Meatball Ron.’ Oooh, I do not like how much I love that.” He then sang Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” with meatball lyrics.

New York Magazine was delirious. “‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ is a low-energy nickname, but ‘Meatball Ron’ has everything a great Trumpian nickname needs.”

Meanwhile, Big Tech, another echo chamber for American liberalism, has begun to normalize Trump. Facebook and Instagram have restored Trump’s pages on their platforms after a two-year absence.

As Trump proves useful as a battle axe to swing at Ron DeSantis, how long before CNN and MSNBC and CBS and others start restoring Trump to their platforms?

Think of the news value. Think of the ratings. Think of the revenues and the happy shareholders.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Democrats wouldn't help Trump to defeat DeSantis, would they?