He’s called the “Ragin’ Cajun” for a reason.
Watching Democratic strategist James Carville’s recent expletive-filled rant, blasting “You little fâ-ing 26-year-olds!” in response to recent polling showing Trump’s healthy rise in support from young voters, I thought of King Saul’s reaction to the future King David’s mounting popularity, “an ugly mood” consuming Saul so that he “became quite beside himself, raving” (1 Samuel 18:10, quotations from The Message).
The cause of Saul’s inner torment? David’s skyrocketing popularity.
So, what’s alarming the crusty and crotchety Carville? Trump’s swelling advantage among 18 to 34-year-old potential voters, last week’s CNN poll showing the former president with an 11 point advantage over Biden, a swing in traditional voter sentiment in that age bracket mystifying and terrifying Carville.
Carville is not alone. Reading or listening to Democratic pundits offers a smorgasbord of crotchety-ness as Biden disillusionment seeps into previously secure voter blocks for Democrats, deepening and souring the leftist mood.
Surely Trump’s boisterous Harlem bodega welcome (about which I wrote in an exclusive for WND last week) and his subsequent early morning, peppy pre-trial welcome extended by normally Democrat-supporting workers at a New York City construction site, are troubling signs for the Biden administration and his virulently anti-Trump media apologists.
As a scholar of Hebrew and Semitic literature, I find the “ugly mood” focus of the Saul/David story in 1 Samuel 18 incredibly and delightfully insightful when read parallel to the 2024 political match-up of Biden/Trump.
The Saul/David story begins with a raucous rally reminiscent of a Trump-filled arena, women in “playful frolic” singing, “Saul kills by the thousand, David by the ten thousand!” (1 Samuel 18:7).
Taking the display of David enthusiasm as a personal insult, King Saul, in a Carville-like tantrum, launches a spear at David, thinking, “I’ll nail David to the wall.” The text contrasts Saul’s angst by describing David coolly, simply doing the same thing he did “day by day” (Hebrew = ke-yom be-yom”), playing the harp with his hand (1 Samuel 18:10).
Saul’s fiery stratagem failed, the text again contrasting the king’s hotheadedness with David’s calm, stating simply, “David ducked, and the spear missed. This happened twice” (1 Samuel 18:11).
Similarly, as Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice repeatedly stabs at pinning Trump to the wall with sham trials having nothing to do with justice and everything to do with election interference, Trump simply keeps on strumming the same notes, ke-yom be-yom (day by day), the poll numbers indicating that most Americans recognize the Biden administration’s actions for what they are, a Saul-like fit of rage that would be comical were it not so seriously damaging to democracy.
The result of King Saul’s rage was not to be David “pinned to the wall.” Instead, what was on that wall was the proverbial “handwriting” of fate.
The Message’s summary of this well-known biblical narrative reads very much like the current moment in the Biden/Trump contest as Trump carries into May a polling advantage both nationally and in the swing states: “Everything David did turned out well. Yes, GOD was with him. As Saul saw David becoming more successful, he himself grew more fearful. He could see the handwriting on the wall. But everyone else in Israel and Judah loved David. They loved watching him in action” (1 Samuel 18:14-16).
Love Trump or hate him, Americans obviously can’t turn away from “watching him in action.” Neither friends nor foes seem able to take their eyes off of him since he descended the golden escalator in 2015.
It must be acknowledged that one component of young voter disillusionment with Biden has nothing to do with affection for Donald Trump, but rather is due to the ongoing war in Gaza, and that Trump, were he president, would likely be similarly suffering in the polls of that age demographic. However, a clear and, in my mind, convincing case can be made that October 7 would not have happened in a Trump second term. What made October 7 possible was the Biden administration’s Iran policy emboldening the terror-supporting anti-Israel, anti-American regime.
Still, even with the Gaza war removed from the equation, the handwriting on the wall that is scaring the wits out of Carville and other Democratic pundits is not in paragraph form, but in spreadsheet form, filled with economic numbers driving young voters away from Biden.
Young people have taken a disastrous hit in the Biden years. Last week’s CNN poll reveals a starkly negative view of the Biden economy, with only 34% of Americans satisfied. One may be sure that the vast majority of that 34% are older Americans who have spent a lifetime working and saving, now feeling relatively secure as they enjoy, or soon face, retirement.
The young? Not so much. For that “fâ-ing 26-year-old” in Carville’s outburst, the picture is not as promising, inflation eating away at their personal financial outlook and making ke-yom be-yom (day to day) living more challenging.
I have a 26-year-old granddaughter. I feel sure Carville’s “You’re stupid!” scolding of 26-year-olds will not be successful in winning her support for Biden and four more years of wandering in the economic wilderness into which Bidenomics has led America.
Perhaps Carville needs to hear again the echo of his own voice from 1992, coining the magnificent campaign slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid!”
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