Yesterday's post brought this scoffing comment:
Hilarious. The premise of "chaos" is a Republican talking point just like "woke".
The "illegal alien problem" would be solved overnight with a few CEO prosecutions. Of course the economy would collapse, but at least you could shrug off the obvious racism, so much for that.
In the meantime Trump raids the Treasury and sets up himself and his kids as royalty, but never mind. "The Immigrants!!"
I love this comment mocking my post. So I am just succumbing to Republican talking points, and "illegal alien problem" belongs in scare quotes.
It makes the point of why it is so hard for Democrats to get out of the rut that they are in.Yes, they are in a rut.
I hear the resistance in some of my readers' minds. But Democrats are popular in cities! They came within a single percent of winning! If only Jill Stein had butted out! Trump is losing popularity! The midterms will be great!
I look at it differently. Democrats are competitive only because Republicans have attached themselves to a vile, openly dishonest, self-serving felon, who was convicted of sexual assault, who was overheard on tape bragging about grabbing women by the p----- , who has something to hide as regards Epstein, who flouts every Christian virtue, who is holding businesses and law firms up to extortion for personal gain, who is openly defying Congress and the courts, and who incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol to overthrow an election. And Democrats are almost, but not quite, competitive with that disgusting mess of a man and president. That is a very low achievement.
Trump is president and the House and Senate are Republican because voters in wide swaths of the country find Democrats so unacceptable that they prefer a tireless antagonist of Democrats. They deny and minimize Trump's bad behavior to do anything other than vote for a Democrat.
"Wow. That was harsh," I hear readers thinking. Aren't Democrats getting popular again? Alas, no.
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| Real Clear Politics |
Republicans have a problem. They are stuck with Trump and with the deep stain that Trump has put onto their party. Sentor Lindsey Graham (R. SC) predicted the future in 2016. He said Trump campaigns "on xenophobia, race-baiting, religious bigotry – that cannot be Republican conservatism.” Trump will kill the Republican Party, he said, and "we'll deserve it." Eventually Republican politicians and voters will try to wash their history and say that they had always opposed Trump. That will take a while.
Good news for Democrats, though. Democrats can fix what is wrong and do so promptly. As I began writing yesterday:
--- Stop defending and minimizing a deeply flawed immigration policy that allowed nine million unregulated people to enter the country in indefinite legal limbo. But isn't immigration just a "Republican talking point," as the commenter said. Yes. It is a talking point because the vast majority of Americans, including people of Hispanic and Asian heritage, found Biden's approach objectionable.
--- Stop defending the national Democratic Party. The DNC connived with the Biden campaign to forbid a competitive Democratic primary for president in 2024. They cosseted Biden and hid him from the public. That approach denied new spokespeople -- Klobuchar, Shapiro, Booker, Newsom and a dozen others -- a chance to reshape the Democratic message into a party of change, not one of geriatric status quo helplessness. Democratic candidates for federal office should speak the simple truth, that they are the Democratic Party, and they disown the national DNC. Democrats think it. Why not say it?
--- Stop defending the ACA and the status quo in healthcare as anything other than a work in progress toward something new and better. The current system is indefensible. It is massively expensive, it leaves some Americans without healthcare, and its insurance premiums are burdensome. It makes billionaires out of people who operate companies whose profits come from denying claims. The fact that some Americans consider Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, a folk hero, is both appalling and a heads up. It is politically safe to move on from Obamacare. Present a Medicare for All proposal and then sell it as better and cheaper.
--- Stop pushing identity essentialism. Trump has given Democrats an opportunity. Trump demonstrates that certain people -- his friends, people who pay him financial tribute, even criminals who act on his behalf -- get special treatment. People hate that, so let that be the Trump and Republican brand. The crony brand. Americans like the idea of equality and fairness and everyone getting what they deserve by merit. Democrats bought into the idea that our country was so flawed in its history that the people and institutions that play the role of referees and gatekeepers need to evaluate everyone against a measure of presumed former disadvantage, and give them preference. It turns out that the vast majority of Americans think that is unfair, even people who are potentially the beneficiaries of it. Besides, everyone knows someone whose potential disadvantage is greater than theirs, so everyone is suspicious that a system of favoritism disadvantages them. Stop supporting identity favoritism. Now playing favorites is Trump's deal.
I expect some readers to disagree. I am suggesting that Democrats break free of group-think policy ruts. Some people will cling to familiar positions and consider change to be "backsliding" or compromising with the devil, or MAGA. No. it is getting real. It is getting back in sync with Americans.
It is time for a new generation of Democratic leaders and spokespeople to redefine what it means to be a "good Democrat." Democrats are supposedly the party of "progress." Progress means change, change that will lead to electoral victories.
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Wish you were 50 Peter and could run for office. There must be someone out there who thinks like you do, but the trick is finding them and getting them before the public.
ReplyDeleteWhat you say is true. I would just hate to see Democrats think that to get more competitive we need to be more brutal. I’d rather cling naively to the notion that government is about establishing justice, tranquility, promoting the general welfare and all that.
ReplyDeleteOne reason party leaders are getting heat is baked into Democratic ideology.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats do try in principle to govern for everyone, one hears it in almost every campaign speech. Republicans don't. Without Democrats, historically and in the present moment, this country would be poorer, sicker and less free.
Let's not forget that Republicans brought us Trump, he is they. Stay the course.
Trump has 3 more years in office, then he's gone forever. Democrats now get to feel how Republicans felt counting-down Biden's term. Rather than focus on Trump, Democrats should focus internally on who their best candidate is. Democrats are so disorganized, they couldn't tell you who their party leader is. Democrats don't have a Big Dog. Rather, they are governed by a lot of yapping Chihuahuas. 2028 isn't looking good for Democrats.
ReplyDeleteI am on the DNC's mailing list. I refuse to contribute to their requests for several reasons. The most important reason is that the DNC lacks a 50 State plan. The DNC does not fund Democrats in solidly "republican" States. All I hear is the phrase "What's wrong with Kansas?" or some variation beyond the urban cores of "blue" States. But does the DNC make any attempt to learn why its brand is so repulsive? NO. Peter's blog today makes a valiant attempt to shake up the status quo of self-defeating behavior and make the party truly representative of American society.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the identity essentialism paragraph? First off, Democrats are increasingly associated with the rather un-American elevation of the importance of group over individual. Second, with maligning, even demonizing America, past and present, compared with other nations (excepting Western Europe). Comparative wealth, influence and power are--ipso facto--ill-gotten gains, or at least undeserved. This overlaps with the immigration issue. Who are WE to deny entry and support to the world's less-fortunate, goes the argument. "Abolish ICE" follows in the foolish and widely unpopular, wrecking path of "Defund the Police".
ReplyDeleteBottom line is that most Americans of any stripe retain in the 2020s the common sense to know that they are per capita among the most fortunate people in the history of the planet. Maybe it's okay to CALL America Great Again--at least "great" in many respects? Glass mostly full, and potable, not virtually empty, and swill? Or, to adapt Churchill, America is the worst nation...except for all the other ones? By no means, in this lifelong Republican's view, anyway, is Trump himself to be associated with greatness, aside perhaps from crass self-promotion. But the foregoing is largely why the major party numbers remain as described in this post.
The Democratic Party lost the trust of the working class in southern Oregon. In discussions like today's on this blog, it's worth remembering that, in the memory of many who are alive now, Democrats won elections to serve counties in southern Oregon; but that was long ago. Peter Sage, as a county commissioner two generations ago, is an example. Harry Boivin and Fred Heard are other examples from Klamath County. (Wikipedia has a good article on Harry Boivin). Al Ullman was House Ways and Means chair in Congress in the 70s. Then, the spotted owl put a lot of the Democrats who elected people such as Harry Boivin out of work. Two generations later, the prospects for many of these voters' children and grandchildren are not that great. In rural Oregon, people tend to identify the Democratic Party with job-killing environmentalism. This isn't lost on Republican politicians, and it helps explain why Republicans are now predominant. It's the economy. You won't earn the same level of pay cleaning floors at Rogue Regional as your grandfather made working in a plywood mill. MAGA.
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