By Chris Satullo

In tennis, it’s called an “unforced error.” You attempt a shot of no-big-deal difficulty, in response to a mediocre groundstroke from your opponent, yet you whack the fuzzy little ball into the net or sail it far past the baseline.

Unforced errors are what separates the journeyman who’s slamming his car trunk and driving home after Round 2 from the champion who’s raising a trophy over his head at tournament’s end.

Electoral politics is another realm where unforced errors can make a huge difference – between swearing an oath on the Bible in January or being forced to discover what “spending more time with your family” really means.

That is why, given the cataclysmic stakes in this year’s presidential election, the sight of Democratic operatives committing unforced errors in January elicits exasperated face-palms from the politically savvy. 

What kind of errors? This kind:

After Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas and one of the few prominent Republicans to split publicly with Donald Trump, announced he was abandoning his quixotic bid for the Republican nomination, the Democratic National Committee’s Twitter account delivered this high-octane snark:

“This news comes as a shock to those of us who could’ve sworn he had already dropped out.”

That followed other unkind, over-the-top statements from the DNC when Hutchinson entered the race last year, seeking to help the GOP avert a foolhardy MAGA re-do.

Way to kick a guy – and a potential ally – when he’s down, DNC. Whose political handbook have you been studying, The Donald’s?

Joe Biden wasted no time letting the world know what he thought of the low blow. He had White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre quickly put out a statement expressing his admiration for Hutchinson, then told chief of staff Jeff Zients to call the Arkansan the next day to apologize personally. 

Still, some Democrats on social media just don’t get it. All they can see is the R beside Hutchinson’s name, which to them justifies whatever barbs or scorn the DNC cares to throw his way.

Yes, Hutchinson is conservative. Yes, he’s said critical things about Biden (a necessity if you’re trying to win GOP primary votes). And no, back when he was in Congress, he didn’t have a voting record the Sierra Club or NARAL would applaud.

But haven’t we seen the political and familial cost paid by any Republican who dares to tell the truth in public about Trump’s crimes, lies and thorough-going unfitness for office? Can’t we salute the bravery, even if we don’t agree with all the votes from days gone by? 

Don’t we understand that basic decency and bipartisan civility are key pieces of the Biden brand, that they play well with swing voters sick of Trump’s vicious antics?

And shouldn’t the DNC, of all groups, understand the stakes and the toss-up nature of November’s presidential vote? Don’t they recognize that any potential Trump vote that Biden can peel away is precious – whether it’s from a traditional Republican or from the kind of “no-one’s-the-boss-of-me” independent who most often ends up voting R?

This election really is not like any other in our lifetimes. It’s a potentially fatal mistake to view it as the usual D vs. R spat over differing policy priorities. This time, for the first time since 1860, the fateful alignment is “people who still believe in a constitutional democracy and a multiracial Union” vs. “people who don’t and are hankering to end it.”

For Biden to win, his coalition has to include a healthy helping of votes from people who vote blue for president only occasionally or nearly never.  These will be people motivated by a profound distaste for Trump’s vulgar and dangerous megalomania – and a belief that the Constitution they revere needs to be defended.

Hutchinson has been the rare Republican pol willing to decry Trump’s sins publicly and explain the perils of letting him get anywhere near power ever again. 

That he has solid credentials as a conservative does not make him an enemy, despite what some Democrats still stuck in 2012 seem to believe. It recommends him. 

People like Hutchinson – and the other old-guard patriotic Republicans who in recent years have fled Congress or the Trump administration in shame and disgust – might catch the ear of people who never watch MSNBC and really don’t care what Jamie Raskin or Chuck Schumer have to say. If the GOP’s Trump critics can consistently deliver the message that Trump is bad news, then maybe, just maybe, that news will finally sink in for a decisive minority of Republicans and red-ish independents.

Those persuadable voters are out there, by the way. The polling around the Iowa caucuses makes that clear. 

After Trump finished first in Monday’s sparsely-attended gatherings, many political journalists flocked to an incredibly dopey take about the Iowa results, using words convincing and landslide. Granted, Trump is going to be the GOP nominee – barring judicial or divine intervention – and a threat to win in November.  And, yes, if a contender in a truly open field were to get 51 percent, more than doubling up his closest competitors as Trump did, that would be impressive. But in this GOP, Trump is functioning as an incumbent seeking re-election. When incumbents get just around half the votes in early primary contests, that usually presages a four-alarm political fire c.f. Lyndon Johnson (New Hampshire, 1968), Gerald Ford (Iowa, 1976), Jimmy Carter (Iowa, 1980), George H.W. Bush (New Hampshire, 1992). Soon enough, no one’s playing Hail to the Chief for that kind of incumbent.

In fact, pre-caucus polling of Iowa Republicans by the Des Moines Register showed that one out of four “likely caucus-goers” said they would not vote for Trump in November, no way, no how. Eleven percent said they’d actually vote for Biden; 6 percent opted for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and 8 percent said they’d seek out another third-party candidate. If that sort of vote leakage plays out, Trump’s path to victory gets considerably narrower.

Maybe you don’t quite believe what these people from this deep-red state tell a pollster in January; maybe you think in the end they’ll backslide and vote Trump. OK, fine, that’s precisely why conservative voices such as Hutchinson – and Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, John Bolton, Mitt Romney, John Kelly etc. – are so vital. They are patriots who’ve seen the cataclysmic circus up close and survived to tell their fellow conservatives the hairy truth.

They can speak with credibility and authority to traditional Republican voters who dislike the MAGA cult – but still need emotional permission to reverse a lifetime voting habit and reject their party’s nominee. Such outspoken GOP insiders are rare birds these days. When you spot one, DNC, you don’t try to shoot that person down. You should praise and seek to amplify their song.

—

Chris Satullo, a civic engagement consultant, is a former editorial page editor/columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a former vice president/news at WHYY public media in Philadelphia