THEIR STARMAKER MACHINERY, AND OURS

Here's the cover of the latest issue of New York magazine:

Look! It's the Democrats' big star of ... 2018!

Meanwhile, here's a story at the Daily Beast:

According to four longtime Republican operatives working at senior levels on a variety of competitive GOP primaries across the nation, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene’s endorsement in competitive 2022 Republican House and Senate primaries is not only considered as welcome, but also as one that should be actively courted—particularly in races where the nominee is likely to be decided by which candidate most animates the ultra-Trumpist grassroots.

“It is stunning,” one of these sources said. “Her popularity among much of the base and what she brings to a campaign right now is not nothing. Actually, it can be good for the candidate, and I don’t know if I would have predicted that a year ago.”

... “If you can’t get Donald Trump, you are going to want to have MTG in your back pocket,” another one of the four operatives, who professed zero personal admiration for Greene, conceded, in discussing the most desired 2022 endorsements today.

... Since taking office in January 2021, Greene has raised over $7 million, making her one of the most prolific fundraisers in the entire House.

She's a star. Madison Cawthorn and Lauren Boebert are stars. I can't name a single person on our side who's become a star in the thirteen months since Joe Biden became president.

No, wait, I can name three: Liz Cheney, Kyrsten Sinema, and Joe Manchin. They're not newcomers, but the last year has made them famous.

Cheney sides with Democrats on Donald Trump and the conduct of U.S. elections, but she's a right-wing Republican otherwise. Democrats and the so-called liberal media have made her famous at a time when hardly anyone in America can name the Democratic chair of the January 6 committee, much less any of its Democratic members.

Sinema and Manchin are famous, of course, because they blocked much of the Biden administration's agenda. And AOC is famous in part because she's critical of Democrats as well as Republicans.

It's easy to become famous as a Democrat-basher because Democrats ask for it. Democrats have no self-respect. Here's the president planning to fill an upcoming Supreme Court vacancy:

Biden’s strategy session with the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee came as the White House has also reached out to an array of Republican senators in recent days, hoping to minimizing the partisan bloodletting that has characterized Supreme Court nomination fights in recent years....

“I think we’ll get a vote from Republican side for the following reason: I’m not looking to make an ideological choice here,” Biden said.

The WH counsel called Romney this afternoon to talk SCOTUS -- following up on a call Biden had with him earlier this week. Romney told me he conveyed that he would like a candidate who could receive bipartisan support.

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 10, 2022

If you keep telling people that your decisions as a Democrat are invalid unless they get Republican buy-in, it should be no surprise when voters tell pollsters that they prefer the party you repeatedly praise. Here's the generic-ballot polling for the House in 2022, with Republicans in red:

Take the "Kick Me" sign off your backs, say "We're right and they're wrong," and maybe you'll get out of this tailspin.