I have mentioned before that I think it is essential for the
American political process to have two healthy, viable political parties so
that each can keep the excesses of the other in check. The last election showed
that the Democratic party had become seriously dysfunctional, controlling the smallest
number of governorships and state legislatures across the country since the
1920s, and losing both the House and the Senate, as well as the Presidency.
Unfortunately nothing seems to have improved since then. Democrats
keep hoping for a “blue wave” to emerge somehow in the midterm elections to win
them back control of Congress, but there is little evidence thus far of that
happening. Meanwhile they have continued to make serious tactical mistakes that
come back to bite them. They are almost powerless to block the appointment of a
second conservative Supreme Court judge to replace the retiring Justice
Kennedy, largely because of tactical mistakes they made in opposing the first nominee,
now Justice Gorsuch, and in Harry Reid’s unwise decision years ago to kill the
filibuster for judicial nominations. And the left-wing activists uncivilly haranguing
administration figures in restaurants and theaters and on TV is just increasing
the red state voter turnout.
The three current most serious tactical mistakes are the
following:
1. Democrats have no persuasive program to offer in the
upcoming elections. We all know what Trump is offering, whether we agree with
it or not. Who has any idea what the Democrats are offering? How long has it been since you have heard a
new proposal from Democrats? Just being “against Trump” is not a program, nor
is it enough to win elections.
2. Neither the liberal media nor Democratic politicians have
caught on yet that Trump is playing them with his outrageous Twitter comments.
Like waving a red cape at a bull, they charge blindly and futilely at each new
comment, glorying in their outrage and supposed moral superiority, but accomplishing
nothing. Meanwhile, Trump eats up the free media coverage and dominates the
news cycles, just as he did in the primaries and during the election
3. They are still making the fatal mistake of underrating
Trump, just as they did during the election. They love to call him an idiot,
which makes them feel superior but blinds them to the strengths he has and that
they need to overcome. Love him or hate him, Trump is no idiot; in fact he is extraordinarily
good at reading the sentiments and concerns of his voter base, and at political
persuasion. One would think that the last election would have taught Democrats that
lesson, but there is an arrogance in the left that seems to keep them from
seeing the obvious sometimes.
My own reading of the situation is that the Democrats will
continue to be in trouble until and unless they can get some young new Millennial
blood into their upper ranks. They are a party being led by tired old politicians
with tired old programs and tired old ideas about how to win votes. But those
tired old politicians, Nancy Pelosi foremost among them, seem to be determined
to hold power until it is pried from their cold dead fingers.
That is too bad. We badly need a vital and
healthy liberal party to keep the nation in balance, and the current Democratic
Party isn’t cutting it
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