Engage The Enemy More Closely

Barack and Michelle Obama Lead The Charge.

There is a Royal Navy signal flag flown at the Battle of Trafalgar with a simple message: “Engage the Enemy More Closely.” It was Lord Horatio Nelson’s way of directing the outnumbered British fleet against the French and Spanish warships they faced that day to bring the fight to close quarters where the English advantage in weight of iron, experience, and morale could make the most difference.

Signal 16: Engage the Enemy More Closely

It worked. The victory at Trafalgar was “the completest thing” and turned the tide of the Anglo-French conflict.

What you saw last night at the Democratic convention engaged the enemy very closely, delivering broadsides against Donald Trump that were constant and brutal.

I felt an enormous sense of satisfaction and one my persistent, nagging messages to the Democrats was on full display: you must always, always, always keep Trump under fire. You must always keep him off-balance, off-target, and focused on the wrong message and mission. After dozens (hundreds?) of Democratic officeholders, donors, pollsters, and strategists telling me and others that the key was to stick to prescription drug prices or health care costs and leave the personal attack out of it, I felt vindicated to see Trump taking a massive ass-kicking at the hands of two of the most unlikely political figures: Barack and Michelle Obama.

The smooth felicity of Obama's 2008 victory and Michelle Obama's 2016 convention line in her speech that “when they go low, we go high” gave Democrats a feeling that they could win, and when big with policy, kindness, uplift, and dignity. How’s that working out for us?

As we say around the old watering hole, “Get the fuck out of here.”

This is always a silly fantasy and not particularly true in their campaigns. The perception that kindness and elevation were an antidote to the brutal style of American politics, that we could somehow short-circuit the scenery-chewing, shit-talking cruelty of Donald Trump by listening to our better angels on the campaign trail, was always a fallacy wrapped in an error and filled with creamy nougat.

There are no better angels in campaign in which Trump and Trumpism exist. There are no rewards for good behavior. American political life now requires the sharpened, two-handed battle ax instead of a “Namaste” throw pillow when it comes to engaging the enemy.

The joy and hope and enthusiasm for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket isn’t simply sunshine and kittens; it’s the sense of winning warriors who know the enemy is being routed before them. It’s part of driving to victory.

Last night, yielding, both the battle ax and exquisitely poisoned daggers, the Obamas ripped the living shit out of Donald Trump in ways that approached Lincoln Project standards of political brutality. They both played a role crafted to hammer Trump’s ego, to encourage his worst behavioral responses, and haunt whatever dreams are produced inside that greasy orange noggin.

I have the dubious distinction (which I love) of the producing the very first television, American political history containing a dick joke. (At his Tulsa rally in 2020, the voiceover said, “It was smaller than you expected, Donald. But you’ve heard that before.”)

Barack Obama, understanding the way Trump’s ego functions, used an accordion style hand gesture last night about Donald Trump’s obsession with crowd size. And by crowd size, I mean penis size, and by that I mean the roof came down with laughter.

I don’t want to hear a goddamn word that it was below the dignity of a former president to make a dick joke about Donald Trump, because Donald Trump is a walking dick joke on this country. The world may be less Marquis of Queensbury and more Brat summer now, but it was perfect speech moment and a perfect social media moment to engage Trump’s hypersensitive anger modules.

The clip is a reminder that regardless of you politics, Barack Obama knows how to deliver the big speeches:

Michelle Obama made it abundantly clear last night that when they go low. We’re waiting there in the darkness to kick their asses. There was a lot of huffing and tsking on right-wing social media last night calling her a hypocrite for this new, tougher tone and abandoning that WTGLWGH, as if they don’t revel in every Trump attack on the the most vulnerable.

Perhaps the most stunning attack on Donald Trump last night didn’t occur in Chicago, and didn’t involve a speech. It happened just up the road in Milwaukee in the Finserv Arena. The Harris-Walz rally held in the same building where Donald Trump received the nomination for Republican party a few weeks ago, but instead of cranky, red-hatted “Mass Deportation Now” signs, it was packed to the rafters with roaring, joyous, enthusiastic crowds.

Trump’s level of cope was off the charts last night, and that takes some doing. He truthed out dozens of races in which his endorsement was a part of MAGA candidates winning their primary races in Florida and tried to counterprogram with some Gen Z podcaster.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that President Biden’s valedictory speech was also a preview of the role he’ll play in “Engaging the Enemy More Closely.” Biden engaged in a point for point dismantling of Trump’s time in office, reminded Americans that the former President is a criminal who tried to overthrow the 2020 election, a sexual assaulter, and a an insult to our values. He’ll play his part in the coming months, as well.

Much more to come.