CNN’s Keilar Asks if Democrats Need to Do More Than Just Call Republicans ‘Extremists’

CNN’s Brianna Keilar wondered aloud on Wednesday whether labeling Republicans “extremist” is enough for Democrats — and whether they “do more than that.”

In an exchange with Democratic strategist and former Pete Buttigieg advisor Lis Smith, who just authored the book Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, a grim picture was painted in the scenario that Republicans gain more control in the midterm elections and 2024 presidential election.

“Democrats are labeling Republicans as extremists because Republicans have become a party of extremists, the lunatics have taken over the asylum. The people who are in the mainstream of the Republican Party today, 10 years ago would have been shunned by party leadership,” Smith said.

“Is that messaging calling Republicans extremists enough or do Democrats need to do more than that?” Keilar asked.

According to Smith, under Republican leadership, people will lose their voting rights, women won’t have healthcare, and children will live in constant fear.

“We need to explain what is an extremist and what does this mean for people. What it means is that women will not be able to make their own health care choices, that voters will not be able to pick their next president, that children will not have the freedom to go to school without the fear of being shot up. As graphic as that sounds, we need to lay out those stakes,” she said.

The Democrat explained away current crises Americans are facing like record inflation by claiming Republicans are not offering their own solutions to issues the administration seems to be struggling to get a handle on.

The exchange is a prime example of just how low political rhetoric has fallen. It’s not an issue exclusive to the left either. In Donald Trump’s speech to the America First Policy Institute in Washington D.C. this week, he spent the majority of the time talking about blood running through the streets, the country devolving into the Soviet Union, and floated suggestions like death penalties for those selling drugs and cops cars on every street corner.

There are important issues to discuss at the moment like inflation, crime rates, abortion rights, etc., but there is no discussion when each side simply points and screams, “lunatic!” Extremist rhetoric has only landed us in a more binary political world where people cling harder to their party affiliation. For instance, recent NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll found President Joe Biden sitting at a low 36 percent approval rating with respondents, but that number jumps to 75 percent among Democrats, and then slinks down to just five percent for Republicans.

The explosive revelations from the January 6 hearings have even done very little to sway opinions on Trump.

Though Americans may be seemingly more ride-or-die for their parties today, many are also unsatisfied with the heel digging. A New York Times/Siena College poll released this month found that more than half of Republicans are ready to move on from Trump in 2024, while more than 60 percent of Democrats are open to an alternate option to Biden, despite the pair’s approval ratings among their bases.

Watch above via CNN.

CORRECTION: This post has been updated to better reflect the comments of Brianna Keilar, who was not advocating for a stronger label than “extremist,” but rather, asking whether Democrats need to take action beyond rhetoric.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.