Journalists aren't normally the people who tell Democrats they need to be calmer and more pragmatic. They're often the ones prodding the Democrats to shriek about Trump bringing the end of democracy. It doesn't matter that the Democrats spent the entire 2024 election cycle pushing "autocracy" as an issue -- and then losing in a democracy.
On Sunday's Meet the Press, Boston Globe senior opinion writer Kimberly Atkins Stohr was one of those leftist agitators, using the tariff turbulence as another opportunity to cry Tyranny:
WELKER: Yeah, well, and of course the Fed chair did say he believes these tariffs could ultimately raise inflation. Kimberly, do you think Democrats, they have an opening here, but are they using it effectively?
KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: I wish more Democrats in a united way would speak the way that Senator Booker did. You have a lot of Democrats -- and I understand the desire to talk about policy and to talk about strategy. None of that is happening here. We are seeing, just during the course of this show, things are changing minute by minute as to what is going on. This isn't a strategy. And it is so dangerous. I mean, I believe Ray Dalio when he says that we could be heading toward a depression. And I know Democrats get a lot of heat from Republicans about being too alarmist, and talk about democracy being in peril too much. If we are in a position like we were in the 1930s, do you think talking about that too much is a problem? A collapsed economy is an open door to autocracy, and that is what Democrats should be shouting from the mountaintops.
WELKER: Yeah, he said it could be worse than a recession.
Kimberly Atkins Stohr, of @BostonGlobe: “I wish more Democrats, in a united way, would speak the way Senator Booker did....If we are in the position like we were in the 1930s, do you think talking about that too much is a problem? A collapsed economy is an open door to autocracy… pic.twitter.com/CmVNbFtber
— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) April 13, 2025
This Globester is probably still bitter that the voters re-elected Trump, when last September she thumped the tub to take out Trump on the PBS News Hour, talking about the prospect of Republicans being swayed by the Cheneys backing Kamala Harris: "If they don't like what Trump stands for and what he wants, there's a way in this election to do something different and try to eliminate him from the political arena entirely."
In that same September 6 chat, Atkins Stohr endorsed PBS host Geoff Bennett complaining about Trump's gaffes: "If the Democratic Party had a family talk about the cognitive abilities of Joe Biden, then it's a long past time that the Republican Party confront the same thing about Donald Trump, because something's going on there." Meanwhile, Kamala was "speaking in complete sentences and paragraphs about her vision for the American future." No gaffes there?
Speaking of "democracy," Atkins Stohr firmly supporting keeping President Cognitive Decline in the race on PBS on July 5, about two weeks before Biden was forced out:
We are past the primaries. The voters have already had their say. It would have to be the nominee to make that decision. And it seems that he has. So now Democrats really don't have a choice. Mark Warner, donors, other people don't pick the Democratic nominee for president. The people and the process do. And they have already done that.
So I think, at this point, I agree that this is a crucial moment in time and that the threat of democracy that looms with a potential return to the White House of Donald Trump is something that cannot be ignored. I think, the more Democrats continue to fight and quibble and play this game about replacing the president, when there's no — not even an heir apparent, the weaker they are.
