Why don’t Democrats don’t think it makes much difference who the president is? Because they are content to have our government run by anonymous White House aides and administrative state bureaucrats. What do they need a president for? To issue Pride Month proclamations and appoint liberal judges. But anyone can do that. Thus, there is no obligation to talk about the fact that the president might as well be a waxwork effigy. And as for foreign policy, they are embarrassed by American power and don’t want the U.S. to play a strong role in the world. So a weak president is fine there, too.

All of this flows from the fact that the Democrats are the party of the status quo. They are happy with the way things are in Washington–which is, in a nutshell, government by people no one voted for. Republicans, conversely, are the party of change. To Republicans, it matters who the president is. We need someone who is competent and energetic, and above all able to battle the bureaucracy to bring about change in a conservative direction. And if you want America to play a positive role in the world, you need a functioning president, too.