Where do the Democrats turn now?

After the assassination attempt and calls all around to lower the temperature, can Democrats really go back to calling Trump a fascist and a existential threat to our country?

Let's just say that the high stakes rhetoric will need to be at least paused for a while at the Presidential level. But it certainly begs the question as to what strategy would the Democrats really engage in in lieu of the Trump is a fascist threat to Democracy. There are certainly some who want to push the idea that Joe Biden has had a successful and consequential Presidency, but will that work?

This weekend I was at a little street fair and stopped by the DNC booth. The discussion being had was more about whether or not Biden should drop out, as the attempt on Trump's life had not yet taken place. When it was asked outright whether Biden would be the candidate some November, there were literally two different people who spoke at the same time. Both started with the words "I certainly hope" and then one ended with "so" and the other said "not". Then they looked at each other with puzzlement and a bit of disgust for the other's opinion. But that is the world right now for Democrats.

Anyways the person behind the booth started to talk about how Joe Biden might have gotten more done than any other President in his lifetime. The person appeared to be 60 or so, so he would have had the same experience as me. I would find it puzzling that someone would think that Biden was more successful than Clinton or Obama as Democratic Presidents, but then you have to wonder if that is just the politics of the situation coming out. The person talked about how good the economy was, and how Biden doesn't get credit for this or that. But at the end of the day, those are not accomplishments if the vast majority of Americans don't see them as such. I added my two cents to the discussion by pointing out that consumer confidence and direction of the country polling suggests that the general public saw things as being better under Trump than under Biden, which of course went over like a fart in church in that setting. But there were people who shook their head in agreement, even if they don't believe it to be fair.

The problem for these "Paul Krugman" types is that they want to massage numbers or cherry pick numbers that they believe proves their point. Most of the successes they cite are directly related to taking the lows of Covid and comparing them with the post Covid economy. Some require long winded explanations that involve multiple pieces of information morphed together to show some form of success. Others require them to repeat lies, such as the idea that inflation or border crossings are historically low, or that salaries are increasing so much faster than everything else. If those things were true, then people would be feeling them. But we are not, and government numbers on things like real or disposable incomes still shows American well behind where they were prior to Covid under Trump.

So to quote a couple of anonymous Democratic leaders:

"We are so beyond f---ed" and "the presidential contest ended Saturday night"

Call me skeptical. But I cannot imagine Democrats in general staying cordial for very long. Ocasio-Cortez is already back to using fascism to describe Trump and his policies, and no doubt others will quickly go back to it. But whether or not you can run Presidential ads at this point or give Presidential campaign speeches that push that sort of rhetoric anymore is a different question. They will certainly lose if they have to campaign on comparing records. They will "almost" certainly lose even if they go back to the old rhetoric. How desperate will they become?