Swamp Rabbit and I were on the porch with the swamp cats, arguing whether it’s wise for the Democratic Party to engage in reality-TV “debates” that pit well-known presidential wanna-bes against a gang of lesser-knowns. And whether it’s wise for the wanna-bes to badmouth Barack Obama.

But then we saw a tweet that resonated the next day after shootings by lone gunmen, one in El Paso and the other in Dayton, that resulted in 31 deaths. The El Paso gunman had written a racist, Trump-friendly “manifesto” before embarking on his killing spree. Less is known about the Dayton gunman, other than the fact that he was fascinated by mass shootings and has been exposed like the other wacko to years of Trump’s venomous speeches and tweets.

“The Dems in the debates should keep it simple,” Swamp Rabbit said to the swamp cats, who had just eaten our leftovers. “They should say ‘Vote for me because I ain’t Trump. Because I ain’t a racist who encourages racist psycho killers.'”

The swamp cats didn’t respond. They were fairly new around here and didn’t even have names yet, but I’m sure they both agreed that the Democrats are going too deep too early on policy matters. They’re spending too much time jabbing at each other’s health care plans and tax proposals and other issues that will be worked out as the field of candidates narrows.

They should be reminding potential voters how important it is to link Trump’s white supremacist rhetoric to his Republican enablers in Congress. To the legislators who, instead of writing gun control laws, offer their “thoughts and prayers” to the families of shooting victims.

“Ain’t that right, you guys?” I said to the swamp cats, who still hadn’t moved.

“Them cats is useless,” Swamp Rabbit said. “Just like thoughts and prayers.”

“There you go,” I replied. “I’ll call the gray cat Thoughts and the black cat Prayers.”

He said, “They’re like them Congress critters. They don’t care what you call ’em, just don’t call ’em late for dinner.”