I enjoy going on Fox News as a Progressive Democrat. Preaching to the choir never appealed to me. I’d much rather try to change someone’s mind. That just might have happened this morning when I appeared on America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, along with my long-time friend, colleague, and former Bush White House staffer, Brad Blakeman.
The segment started with clips from President Trump’s speech last night before the Heritage Foundation in which he exclaimed that “we’re going to bring back Merry Christmas,” a not-so-subtle reference to the old saw that there’s a War on Christmas going on in this country and that real, red-blooded, God-fearing Americans need to stand up to save the integrity of the day Christ was born. The Fox segment, as far as I could tell, was another attempt to bring back this narrative, throwing in for good measure complaints about Christopher Columbus statues being vandalized or taken down, and the omnipresent subject of NFL players taking a knee during the National Anthem. To be clear, not only do I reject the notion that there’s a War on Christmas, but as a Jewish kid growing up in Wisconsin, I became convinced at an early age that if there is such a war, Christmas is winning. I also think the Columbus and NFL stories are transparent attempts by Trump to stoke his base and divide the country.
Fox, I thought to myself, wants me to take my assigned role in the culture wars and criticize “America.” I didn’t take the bait.
Instead, when Mr. Hemmer asked for my comment, I pointed out that Trump was speaking at the Heritage Foundation about tax reform. Fox News itself, I said, had just reported that Republicans are divided over how best to proceed with tax reform— do the budget deficit hawks win by securing budget-neutral or deficit-neutral tax reform (i.e, pay for tax cuts with painful budget cuts)? Or will the deficit-be-damned tax whackers win? Trump so far has failed to secure a consensus within his own party, I pointed out, so of course the only thing he can get a room full of conservatives to cheer about is... defending Christmas. It was red meat for the base, once again. No real progress on tax reform.
At this point, rather than devolve into yet another yammer-fest over who’s more American than whom, Mr. Blakeman and I actually had a conversation about tax reform, with him explaining why tax reform is needed and me responding. I couldn’t help but smile. We had left behind the subject of Christmas, Columbus, and kneeling for the far more consequential topic of tax reform.
So for all my fellow Progressives out there, I implore you: when asked to say, “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays,” don’t start arguing about it. Pivot. Ask your conservative friends and relatives (and you have them), how many jobs will it create if I change my seasonal greeting? How much growth? How many new businesses? And if you change the subject to economic policy, you will have succeeded.