It is OK for the left to admit mistakes. It is healthy. It is part of the process of regaining the majority.
One mistake was confusing the progress in the culture war with the centerpiece of politics. Bill Clinton's campaign understood something the current left forgot: "It's the economy, stupid."
A lot of voters oppose abortion and gay marriage and they are uncomfortable and unfamiliar with transgender people, and--at least currently--they have lost the culture war. But the left needs to have a bigger purpose than consolidating those cultural gains. And they do, sort of. But not publicly, front and center.
A lot of voters oppose abortion and gay marriage and they are uncomfortable and unfamiliar with transgender people, and--at least currently--they have lost the culture war. But the left needs to have a bigger purpose than consolidating those cultural gains. And they do, sort of. But not publicly, front and center.
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| This could have been Obama, but it wasn't |
It wasn't just Hillary's fault--even though her campaign themes focused on inclusion, not jobs, even in the face of plenty of evidence that Trump was winning the jobs message. Obama did not help. Barrack Obama wasn't seen as fighting for jobs. It did not become a Democratic issue.
Trump just got a big win with this story on Carrier. He showed himself to be "can do." It inoculates him from appointing a Goldman man as Treasury Secretary. Worse, for Democrats, but it was also a big loss for them. They could have acted but did not. Why didn't Obama make a big public attempt to save those jobs? If he had been rebuffed and criticized as a socialist, all the better for the politics of it. What could be better for Democrats than for Obama to have been seen as attacked by big business and the national Chamber of Commerce with their Republican ties? The optics would have been great--either way. Either the Democrat saves the jobs or he is rebuffed by Republicans. But he did not.
We elected a black president. Gay marriage has been normalized and is now--currently--a constitutional right. There is progress in the culture wars (although the election results suggest there will be retreat and possibly even reversal.) But $25/hour jobs were going offshore. It's the economy, stupid. Click Here. Trump saves 1000 Jobs
Guest poster author Thad Guyer makes an extended argument picking up on these same themes. Guyer's comments will be uncomfortable for many progressive readers who will consider him angry and pitiless. Progressive readers should not take comfort in the popular vote victory. The 2016 results showed that the progressive left has lost a critical part of a progressive coalition because their message no longer motivates working class white males for whom issues of reproductive rights and racial inclusion are not important--or are negatives.
Guest Comment by Thad Guyer
"The Left Loses Its Voice"
“The Russians are coming”, “fake news is undermining our democracy”, “electors have a right to ignore their voters”, “sanctuary cities stand at the ready to thwart deportation of criminals”, and “Trump wants to violate our constitutional right of flag burning”, our side’s newspapers proclaim. The sky is falling. We nee d to calm down.
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| Thad Guyer:Guest Post |
(2) A viral post by “Lawyers on the Left” touts the filing of lawsuits across the nation to strike down state laws requiring delegate loyalty to voters in the electoral college. See, DailyKos, “A lawyer in California just filed suit against the Electoral College as it violates equal protection”, https://goo.gl/kh1ppU, Nov 19, 2016). The November 29th post reads in part, “F _ _ k this peaceful transition of power”, and “let’s flood the federal courts this week”. Even assuming such lawsuits have legal merit, the sentiment that Democrats would be better off undermining the electoral system conveys a desperation and “anything goes” approach that can surely do one thing—undermine the left’s voice even further.
(3) Apart from Democratic values embracing immigrants and not terrorizing immigrant communities, the message that the left stands in unison with convicted immigrant criminals certainly resounds with most Americans—resounds very badly for us. With Democratic leaders from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles proclaiming that we most certainly will not let either the Obama or Trump administrations deport felons on the day of their release from jail sentences, well, who needs enemies? It’s a decidedly losing strategy to regain our majority.
(4) Finally, our left media is now ablaze with claims that Trump advocates violating the constitution in wanting to criminalize flag burning—something Senator Clinton voted for long after the Supreme Court articulated the 1st Amendment right to burn the flag.
(See, Newsweek, “Before Donald Trump Called for Flag-Burning Jail Time, Hillary Clinton Did”, https://goo.gl/43IXta, Nov. 29, 2016). Few left media articles mention Clinton’s vote. And while we’re told the Supreme Court memorialized this flag burning right, most articles hide that it was a 5-4 vote. You’d think a boogey man of the alt-right wrote this dissent in insisting flag burning is a criminal act: “The case has nothing to do with 'disagreeable ideas.' It involves disagreeable conduct that, in my opinion, diminishes the value of an important national asset". The dissenter? Liberal justice John Paul Stevens. (See, Texas v. Johnson, 1989, https://goo.gl/C0OwHI, Wikipedia). Its the same for Trump’s suggestion that citizenship revocation might be an appropriate penalty, a constitutional prohibition established on a mere 5-4 vote when no ultra-conservatives even served on the Court. (See, Afroyim v. Rusk, 1967, https://goo.gl/PP6M6P, Wikipedia).
Trump doesn’t need to “violate the Constitution”. He just needs a new 5-4 majority to overrule these tenuously established constitutional rights. And as we alienate our pitched voice from majority America, we bring Trump closer to the “achievements” we want to prevent.
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