The days of “when they go low … we go high” are long gone. At this point, our discourse could devolve into “yo mama” jokes, and no one would blink.?(Getty Images)

Democratic Party messaging couldn’t be called punchy — until now.

This election season, Democrats are going for the jugular rhetorically with cries of “Stop Project 2025,” “Mind your own da—business,” and “We are not going back.” The left is now employing the visceral, simplistic, fear-inducing messaging strategy that Republicans had heretofore owned (re: Southern Strategy, Willie Horton, Monica Lewinsky).?

In the past, Democrats would flash facts and figures, wax poetic, or attempt to appeal to logic when selling the merits of liberal policy. Now, the coconut-emoji keyboard warriors, the wordsmiths at KamalaHQ and the Republicans-turned-Democrat-allies at The Lincoln Project are leaning into the messaging of zero-sum games and existential political threats.?

Democrat TV ads feature gutting stories about child assault victims and mothers killed by untreated miscarriages. Left-wing social media influencers are crafting harrowing tales of shadow governments waiting in the wings to replace lifelong civil servants with an army of sycophants ready to serve a “dictator on day one.” Democrats are painting themselves as watchmen atop the wall of America’s democracy, warning against a horde of authoritarian barbarians at the gate.?

Meanwhile, Republicans are accusing immigrants of kidnapping and eating family pets in Ohio.

Daily pundits, politicians and papers promote conversation about fraud and cheaters, adult film stars and Epstein Island, stolen valor and heel spurs, and other things so misogynistic and indecent I dare not mention.

The days of “when they go low … we go high” are long gone. At this point, our discourse could devolve into “yo mama” jokes, and no one would blink.?

The Democrats’ newfound rhetorical strategy could be deemed a necessary evolution in the survival of a political species. But as a political scientist and former journalist, I am deeply concerned about the democratically deleterious implications of our fever-pitched political discourse.

Wordplay warfare is effective. But is it worth the collateral damage to our social cohesion, norms of decency and ability to engage in constructive dialogue? I think not.

Both Democrats and Republicans would do well to holster their speech six-shooters after this election. Will they do it? Not likely.?