The DNC crowd: Getty

During the final few nights of the Democratic National Convention, the politically-minded users of Twitter dot com noticed a phenomenon: Republican commentators openly lamenting that their party’s convention had been surpassed in the category of “patriotic fuckfest” by the Democratic party they had at one point successfully branded as only for anti-war pants-pissers.

Vox explainered the shift after Barack Obama’s speech, and Talking Points Memo has a good round up from last night. The sentiment was expressed by people such as...

The editor of the conservative National Review:

Dick Cheney’s ex-press secretary:

Ted Cruz’s ex-spokesperson:

The Washington Post’s insane conservative woman:

Et cetera.

Democrats don’t seem too troubled by having this mantle fall in their laps. The convention crowd inside the arena last night seemed plenty riled up, drowning out the dying anti-war gasps of Bernie delegates with thunderous chants of “U-S-A,” as directed by the Clinton campaign itself.

But perhaps it is bad when your convention doubles as Viagra for old Bush administration fanatics/employees. This is not the type of company the Democratic party has tended or wanted to keep, nor should it. The Bush administration is recognized by the broad left as a purely shameful period in this country’s history. That those who worked inside it, or celebrated said work from the outside, have even positive twinges of feeling about the direction of Democratic party should be openly alarming.

Being gifted the opportunity to dress the party up in Bush era rhetoric may win Clinton some votes. But it’s pretty easy to see why “welcoming” dissatisfied faux-discerning conservatives into the party on the basis of “loving America” could push the Clinton administration—and by extension, the Democratic party—down a path it does not need to go, namely one in which full-throated patriotism is used as justification for the sort of needless war that costs the country billions of dollars. One such war—the one in Iraq—cost Clinton the Democratic nomination the first time around, and was used as a cudgel by Donald Trump in cleaning out the Republican party.

On the other hand, I guess shit like this is pretty funny?