All Democrats had to do was seem normal and competent. It was too much to ask.

What voters really want is competence and normalcy. It’s not a big ask.

Both Republicans and Democrats refuse to meet them on this point, going all-in instead on the most ridiculous lineup of crackpot Muppets this side of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. But the Democrats’ story is the less-covered and more fascinating at this moment, looking back into the Biden era.

The Democratic Party saw and enjoyed in 2020 the electorate’s desperation for normalcy and competence. But instead of responding to demand, it has chosen to go in the opposite direction because it simply can’t rid itself of its mania for identity politics.

We were reminded of this last week by Karine Jean-Pierre, the former Biden administration mouthpiece who is out now with a new book. Her media tour is not going well, partly because, as per the norm, Jean-Pierre appears incapable of articulating herself.

Don’t take my word for it. This is how The New York Times characterizes the tour: “White House press secretaries are supposed to know how to talk to the press. But that has not been evident this week for Karine Jean-Pierre, whose publicity tour … has gone viral, and not in a good way.”

“Along the way,” the report continues, “she has struggled to answer questions. Exhibit A was an interview published on Monday with Isaac Chotiner of The New Yorker, which has been described as ‘an absolute train wreck’ (New York magazine) and ‘an excruciating case study in denial’ (Peter Meijer, a former Republican congressman from Michigan). Others termed it embarrassing and incoherent.”

“Embarrassing and incoherent” should have been the title of Jean-Pierre’s memoir, but instead she went with “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines.”

If you think the title is gobbledygook, wait until you discover the subhead isn’t even a reference to the Biden White House. The subhead actually refers to the Trump White House, where Jean-Pierre has no role and likely has few connections, if any.

That Jean-Pierre was able to ascend to the position of the official, public-facing spokeswoman of the Biden administration must be an embarrassment to all involved. Let us not lose focus, though: Her appointment was more than just a single lousy hiring decision. The elevation of such a grossly incompetent press secretary was part of a larger pattern of incompetence in former President Joe Biden’s White House.

It’s bad enough on its own, but worse when one remembers that Biden had campaigned on the promise to put the “adults back in charge” — a promise that played a significant role in his eventual capture of the White House. The Biden campaign positioned him as the smarter, more mature option. Voters responded with enthusiasm. 

But instead of the promised ruthless efficiency of capable professionals, the Biden administration ended up being a murderers’ row of badly unqualified dimwits and weirdos, many of whom were chosen just for how they look.

Among the Democratic Party’s greatest failings, none seems so self-destructive as its bearhug of identity politics. Even if Democrats understand what voters want, they have chained themselves to a worldview, mercilessly enforced by an increasingly radical base, that prioritizes immutable physical characteristics and sexual orientation over merit and qualifications.

Hence the nomination of an A.I. chatbot as vice president — the first black woman to hold the job! Hence the nomination of a one-time college-town mayor to run a continent’s worth of transportation infrastructure — a gay man! Hence the nomination of an attorney with no background in medicine to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — the first Latino! Hence the appointment of a spokeswoman who can’t speak — “queer and black,” as she never hesitates to remind everyone.

It was nothing short of a betrayal of all those voters who thought they were getting calm and steady in response to the chaotic first Trump term.

Biden won the 2020 Democratic primary on the promise that he wasn’t insane. He wouldn’t decriminalize illegal immigration, nor would he siphon taxpayer dollars to subsidize sex changes for illegal immigrants. The bar for competence and normalcy was set so low that Biden, an infamous midwit, was able to realize his 40-year-old goal of becoming president.

Then came the cruel bait-and-switch, which prevented the party from capitalizing on the opening Trump had created. Democrats have nothing to blame but their own obsession with identity, performative resistance, and virtue-signaling.

You want competent and normal? Sorry, but the best the party has to offer are the likes of Jean-Pierre and men in dresses.

Becket Adams is a longtime journalist and media critic in Washington.