Is Dean Phillips the uniter we need?

The day before the New Hampshire Primary, Dean Phillips did something few Beltway Democrats have done. Phillips visited a Trump rally. According to Phillips, it was a cathartic experience. Rather than just accepting the MSM's characterizations that Trump supporters were Nazis as Gospel fact, Phillips walked across the street and visited with the Trump voters waiting in line before a Trump rally.

Instead of finding Nazis as Trump voters, Phillips found something quite different. According to Phillips, "They were the most hospitable, thoughtful, kind people I've interacted with in a long time. Yesterday at the polls, I said hello to everybody holding signs. Biden signs, Williamson signs, my signs. Trump signs, Haley signs. People were so decent and I would call it ‘anger-tainment.’ ‘Anger-tainment’ would have us believe we are so much more divided than we are."

Phillips isn’t the only lefty who attended a Trump rally and was surprised by Trump's supporters. Dr. Karlyn Borosenko attended a Trump rally in Manchester, NH, on Jan. 15, 2020. After the rally, Dr. Borosenko wrote this article. Check this out:

But when I witnessed the amount of hate coming from the left in this small, niche knitting community, I started to question everything. I started making a proactive effort to break my echo chamber by listening to voices I thought I would disagree with. I wanted to understand their perspective, believing it would confirm that they were filled with hate for anyone who wasn’t like them.

That turned out not to be the case. The more voices outside the left that I listened to, the more I realized that these were not bad people. They were not racists, nazis, or white supremacists. We had differences of opinions on social and economic issues, but a difference of opinion does not make your opponent inherently evil. And they could justify their opinions using arguments, rather than the shouting and ranting I saw coming from my side of the aisle.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Check out Phillips' interview on CNN:

Calling Democrats "delusional" is more than a little unusual. Phillips is part of the Problem Solvers Caucus in the House. Thus far, I haven't seen PSC solve any problems so I'm a little skeptical.

Back to Dr. Borosenko

So, I headed over an hour and a half before the doors were scheduled to open—which was four hours before Trump was set to take the stage—and the line already stretched a mile away from the entrance to the arena. As I waited, I chatted with the folks around me. And contrary to all the fears expressed, they were so nice. I was not harassed or intimidated, and I was never in fear of my safety even for a moment. These were average, everyday people. They were veterans, schoolteachers, and small business owners who had come from all over the place for the thrill of attending this rally. They were upbeat and excited. In chatting, I even let it slip that I was a Democrat. The reaction: "Good for you! Welcome!"

Dean Phillips is onto something. If Joe Biden decided to actually start listening, that'd change the complexion of the race virtually immediately. Unfortunately for our nation, he isn't capable of that type of mental dexterity.

It's looking like 2024 is entirely different than 2020. In 2020, inflation was essentially nonexistent and illegal border crossings were at a 45-year low. In 2024, people run out of money before they run out of bills because prices are expensive and still going up. The necessities cost much more, too.

Finally, illegal border crossings have jumped from 458,000 in FY2020 to 2,475,000 in FY2023. It's worth noting that FY2021 set the record for illegal border crossings with 1,750,000. FY2022 shattered that record with 2,350,000 illegal border crossings.

Dean Phillips isn't a CEO-type leader but he isn't crazy, either. Still, I'd prefer Minnesota voters replace him with someone like Kendall Qualls.