Party Breakdown

“The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise” – Benjamin Franklin

Any political party will question their tactics and approach after an election loss and re-group to regain ground next time. Not so now. Since their unexpected loss in the Presidential election, the Democrats are doubling down with the same strategy they had been using before the election in near perfect synchrony with the media. This strategy consists of reliance on false narratives, obstruction for obstruction’s sake, and chronic over-reaction to every single movement of the new President.

We see this as symptomatic of the “devolution” of the Democrat party. No introspective analysis of their losses has been assayed within the party structure. A variety of explanations for their election loss continue to spew forth: the Russians meddled, the FBI Director acted improperly, and most recently, that the Twitter service was more advantageous to Mr. Trump. Not under consideration at all is that their strategy and/or ideology itself was flawed.

While the Presidential election loss was “unexpected” by most Democrats and the media, it directly follows a trend of significant election losses suffered by the Democrat party at the state and local levels since 2010. In the last 8 years, over 1,000 elected positions at the local, state and federal levels of government have changed from Democrat to Republican. This shrinkage, combined with the Republican win this past November, has left the Democrat party in their weakest overall position (by percentage of elected office holders) since the 1920’s. There are numerous well-educated progressive thinkers in this country, each perfectly capable of seeing this larger perspective and what has befallen their party. In the aftermath of the election, we fully expected to see new Democrat Party leaders emerge with a different approach and a modified message, if for no other reason than simple survival. It hasn’t happened. What are they doing instead and why isn’t it working?

Instead of encouraging discourse and compromise, many Democrats now simply label anyone whose ideology is even slightly different from their own as execrable and not worth working with. They fiercely descry every action taken by the Trump Administration even when the Democrats themselves called for the same action previously (e.g. firing FBI Director James Comey). There is no alternative vision put forth, just constant bashing of President Trump and his agenda. This is loudly echoed by the vocal alt-left on social and traditional media who use ad hominem attacks against everyone whose views they oppose. Reasoned argument gives way to mud-slinging every time.

In this vein, it is similarly unsettling and ominous to see the Democrat’s readiness to repudiate even their own potential voters and candidates: Tom Perez, leader of the Democratic National Committee, recently disavowed Democratic candidates and voters who are pro-life. (See Huffpost and The Hill) These constituents are stated to comprise 23% of Democratic voters. Thus the pool of “acceptable” allies shrinks instead of growing. It’s like the Borg – you will be assimilated or destroyed. Hardly a thoughtful strategy for a severely weakened party.

It comes across as a total loss of perspective. All opposing viewpoints and players and are subjected to the same over-the-top harsh invective. The supply of taboo words and phrases to use for the next egregious act has been nearly exhausted. This has led to a blunting of any impact of their attacks since it becomes harder to out-do the previous assault. Can every Trump appointee and Trump action be so superlatively evil?  You can’t even tell which administration members the Democrats consider the worst, as they are all apparently irredeemably awful. It’s the classic case of crying wolf. Surely every single conservative can’t be the worst threat to the flock ever!

This attitude and message of the present group of Democrat leaders provides license for their vocal followers to be even more over-the-top, loud and harsh. It has become a contest to see who can get away with using the worst language and insulting comments. While this kind of discourse is viewed by many as distasteful, it is also attention-grabbing. News and other media outlets willingly replay and feature all the gross invective, conspiracy theories and sensational accusations since it benefits them economically by drawing eyeballs to their ads ($). Late night comedians cleverly amplify these over-the-top reactions into genuinely funny (or not) routines that imbed themselves into pop culture. Democrats see all this as tacit public support of their strategy and therefore stick with it – rinse & repeat. We are reminded of a pithy definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” (attribution debated, but generally ascribed to Albert Einstein).

It’s an unbroken feedback loop preventing any sober articulation of a Party vision for the country’s future. Desperately needed is a cohesive positive message for the good of the Democrat Party. Unfortunately, any such message would be a terribly boring headline relative to the repetitive lightning strikes of doom that are now the status quo. One only hears disjointed rants about pet causes that can arouse high passion and feed the tongue-lashing monster: The rights of illegal aliens, desperate clinging to the failing Obamacare system, exhortations regarding abortion rights, and commitment to the ridiculous notion of white guilt and privilege. There is nary a hint of a congruent message that could actually work as a unifying principle.

In what may turn out to be another gross miscalculation, the Democrat party also seems to have utmost confidence in the subterranean embedded bureaucracy from the Obama administration. It looks to these “deep state” operatives to provide support, leaks, and “credible” evidence from within to feed a media narrative of ineptness, inexperience, Russian interference, and the need for “serious” investigations of the President and his actions. The fanciful but unmistakable goal is apparently to “take down” the President and replace him. While this excites and animates some of their constituency, the “goal” being pursued here is not unlike that of a dog chasing a car.

Let’s say the dog catches the car. What then? Great effort will be expended for no beneficial outcome. Hillary Clinton would not retroactively become President – Mike Pence would. Republican majorities in local and state governments will remain, as will the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. A new Republican Vice-President would be chosen. The agenda voted on by the people who propelled Donald Trump to the Presidency will continue to be pursued. The Democrats will have just spent a lot of time and energy on something that creates very exciting headlines for a short period, but effectively changes nothing. Just imagine if they had instead used that same amount of time and energy to solidify a new message and genuinely captured a new generation of constituents who will actually vote for them (rather than just march and protest).

Lastly, the Democrat Party, which prides itself as having its finger on the “pulse” of the people, was served up a remarkable opportunity to refresh itself this past election cycle and squandered it in spectacular fashion. Whether one agrees or not with the platform of Bernie Sanders, he created genuine enthusiasm and a loyal following of young energetic Democrats. Rather than figuring out a way to adapt the energy of this “movement” into a reshaped message, Party leaders instead worked to undermine Sanders, and in the process failed to take advantage of the connection he created with voters. Contrast that to the nearly identical circumstance facing the Republican leadership at the time. Although Donald Trump was reviled by his own Party leadership far more than Bernie Sanders was by the Democrat kingpins, the Republicans nevertheless recognized the “pulse” of their constituents and adapted their campaign to Trump’s resonating message to the voters.

The Democrats need only look back in time to the 2008 Obama campaign for a model of success in how to win a Presidential election. However, they need a much deeper introspective analysis to reverse the underlying rejection of their message in the growing majority of state governments. Failing to address this will continue to wither their ties to the critical local levels, leaving the Democrat “Emperors” wearing no clothes.