Keep it up, Democrats!

In American Greatness, Christopher Roach takes a look at the Democratic Party since about 1968 and then writes,

The Democratic Party that nominated Hillary Clinton had an already left-leaning establishment, but it was a hybrid of managerial-class leftism that also endorsed global free trade, “humanitarian” wars, and the tech economy. Like the Bolshevik street fighters who morphed into the Soviet Union’s staid nomenklatura class, the left under Obama was in charge not only of the state, but of the major institutions of culture, like the media, universities, and cutting-edge businesses.

…The Democratic Party’s leadership and activists were united, however, in ditching its old identity as a party of the “working man.” Instead, it became a party for the elites and of the dependent. After all, the unions were now smaller and mostly in the hands of government employees, not industrial workers, who began trending Republican as early as 1972, giving Richard Nixon his victory under the banner of “law and order” and the “silent majority.”

Just as Democrats have taken their voters for granted—presenting octogenarians like Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi as the proper spokesman for their black, brown, gay, and poor voters—working-class Republicans weren’t exactly thrilled by cuts in the capital gains tax cut, nor the stagnant wages that had prevailed since the 1970s. That is, they were Republican more for social issues than economic, even though the party rarely delivered on any issues other than the economic. Even so, the Democrats’ increasing emphasis on multiculturalism, gay rights, and open borders Left them cold.

Trump won by appealing to this group’s interests and concerns (and idiomatic modes of expression) directly, realizing that working-class whites were the heart of the swing vote, not the mythical “economically conservative, socially liberal” cohort of Republican strategists’ fantasies. This quasi-libertarian group is numerically insignificant and already bolted for the Democrats under Obama or by now have revealed the cloven hoof by explicitly opposing Trump, even as he undertook conservative policies.

Trump won by appealing to this group’s interests and concerns (and idiomatic modes of expression) directly, realizing that working-class whites were the heart of the swing vote, not the mythical “economically conservative, socially liberal” cohort of Republican strategists’ fantasies. This quasi-libertarian group is numerically insignificant and already bolted for the Democrats under Obama or by now have revealed the cloven hoof by explicitly opposing Trump, even as he undertook conservative policies.

Purity Tests and Failure
The Democratic Party’s embrace of its left wing has done Donald Trump and the Republican Party a great service. Obama, after all, won in 2008 and 2012 by pretending to be a moderate, deploying unifying rhetoric, and providing social services, including affordable healthcare, to the middle class. Only after his 2012 win did he revert to his Hyde Park socialist background, taking sides on contentious issues like the Trayvon Martin shooting and the anti-police riots in Ferguson. In his second term, he finally decided to push for gun control and the normalization of transgenders in schools and the military. Most importantly, he made it clear that he would do nothing to stop the demographic re-engineering of America and its electorate by stopping immigration, instead, he de facto legalized the-so-called Dreamers through executive order.

As the continuity candidate, Clinton lost. The voters found a voice and a choice in Trump. Instead of going back to the drawing board—as Democrats did with Bill Clinton and his Democratic Leadership Council candidacy in 1992—they have instead shown they think the party simply needs to shout their message more loudly and with greater purity.

Midterms are usually a good time for voters to express their unease with a single party in power, but voter support for Trump has proven remarkably durable. Indeed, even after June’s “month of the border kids,” Trump is hanging strong at nearly 48 percent approval. Outside of a few K Street and think-tank cranks, the NeverTrump phenomenon has dissipated, as traditional Republicans have seen the importance of issues like Supreme Court nominations, solid moves on taxes and regulations, as well as surprising agility by Trump on matters of foreign policy.

Perhaps the most important thing has been the boomerang effect of Democratic attacks on Trump; because people interested in politics belong in some sense to a team, these attacks have encouraged certain Republicans, otherwise uneasy with President Trump, to defend him reflexively—particularly when the attacks are made in an unhinged way.

It may seem quaint, but there are people who think the president and the people who elected him are due a certain degree of deference and respect. Perhaps the Democrats will have to lose a few elections in a row to rethink their strategy. In the meantime, thanks.

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