Trump Flipped the Opposition

Democrats had to wonder how long they’d get away with the socialism hooey.

Two analyses of the State of the Union speech are possible—one short, one long. The short version is that if the presidential figure who delivered this speech replaced Trump of Twitter , he’d be on his way to four more years. The chances of that happening are zero. So on to a longer speculation on the speech’s probable effects on Mr. Trump’s prospects for re-election.

Since the midterms, in which many suburban voters turned against the president, the Democrats’ solitary political strategy has been that Mr. Trump would self-destruct. Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump flipped the story line by putting the Democratic Party on the defensive.

“Tonight, we renew our resolve,” Mr. Trump announced, “that America will never be a socialist country.” With one line, he put the Democrats in check. Ever since the “socialism” wave began building inside the party’s ranks, professional Democrats had to wonder how long they’d be able to get away with this hooey.

Recall the response of Ben Jealous, the former NAACP head and Democratic candidate for Maryland governor, to a reporter who asked him last summer if he was a socialist: “Are you f—ing kidding me?” He lost anyway.

The Democrats’ leftward drift was going to be trouble enough for the party. But when its presidential candidates started to align with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram version of socialism, it was only a matter of time before someone called them out. The president just did. And more.

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