“The Democratic Party is Not Twitter.”
Hard-to-Swallow Pills: Joe Biden remains the most electable candidate for president. Except for Donald Trump.
The Democratic National Committee, unless it has a major trick up its sleeve- like Oprah announcing a 2020 run- has perhaps never looked in worse disarray. The good news for voting Democrats, and indeed all those looking forward to voting against Donald Trump in favor of literally anyone else, is that over a year remains before election day 2020.
The question in every liberal mind: Will it be a repeat performance of 2016?
Voting Democrats, Democratic Party leadership and Democratic allies in the media seemed genuinely shocked at the upset election of Donald Trump in 2016.
You know, the one they had been assuring themselves and each other could never and would never happen?
Now, watching the Democratic candidates running against him, a defeat at the hands of Donald Trump might be difficult to cast as a surprise upset this time around.
With the world seemingly at their feet, with the presidency theirs for the winning, Democratic candidates seemed determined to take America down deeper and deeper rabbit holes of social justice, wealth-redistribution, climate justice, and socialism.
The writing has been on the wall for the past two years: Democrats must stop underestimating Trump. Democrats must also stop dismissing Trump voters as unworthy of consideration.
But what Democrats must do most- and most urgently- is stop ignoring the moderates and working-class voters within their own party.
For these critical swing-state voters, the needle on social issues has not moved as far as progressives in the party might like. The Justice Democrats, for whom we have to thank for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are fond of threatening moderates in the party with primary challenges.
For these elected officials, the message from the new guard is simple; “Conform to the new democratic dogma or you’re out.”
What the Justice Democrats plan to do with moderate voters in the Democratic Party who do not subscribe to the most recent playlist of far-left issues like open borders, abolishing ICE or eliminating private health insurance, is unclear.
These voters are also not entirely on board with spending trillions of dollars* on grand plans to save the planet, either.
(*by raising everyone’s taxes, reversing the Trump tax cuts, imposing new regulations and exposing American corporations to new litigations.)
As former Vice President Joe Biden’s team recently responded when questioned about Biden’s liberal bona fides in the context of a party enduring a hard left turn: “The Democratic Party is not Twitter.”
Too true. Indeed, only about 7% of Americans use Twitter.
Last night’s debate was yet another spectacle in which it was decided unanimously that Donald Trump is the worst thing to happen to U.S. politics since Ted Kennedy killed a lady.
Once this was recorded as a matter of personal order, Democrats running for President cried havoc and unleashed the dogs of war. On U.S. voters, business owners and taxpayers- including, it goes without saying, fellow Democrats.
There are a few words in the English language that, when combined in a particular order, instantly strike fear into the hearts of even the most stalwart:
“God told me to kill you” and “man-eating plant” for instance, both terrifying.
“Complete economic over-haul” is another. Sounds expensive. Like “price upon request” expensive. Like when a contractor gives you an estimate and the bill ends up being twice that- expensive.
That none of it might work, or that it might do little good since we share a planet with two major markets- China and India- which continue to pollute at will, is beside the point.
In truth, raising taxes and crippling U.S. companies may be the opposite of a good strategy to deal with climate change and human impact on the environment. Innovation got us into this mess; innovation might be the only thing that can get us out.
The words “complete economic overhaul” might play well to the drama-loving droves of the Twitter-verse. The idea of remaking the U.S. into an environmentally conscious utopia may sound good when bandied about on social media.
In real life, it looks like lay-offs, plant closings, lost jobs.
It was Democratic promises that assured blue-collar manufacturing workers three decades ago that sending their jobs overseas for cheaper labor would benefit everyone- eventually.
It didn’t. People lost their jobs, families lost their homes, entire towns have fallen onto hard times; and people living in the countries where we sent all those jobs remain just as economically disadvantaged and desperate to immigrate to America as they ever were.
What Democrats running for President plan to do for struggling Americans, working-class Democrats, and the U.S. small business owners who serve as an economic engine for middle-class prosperity, is never mentioned.
Do Democrats even want to win? Or are they too busy moralizing?
One possible scenario that would make a Democratic victory more probable in 2020 would be for the U.S. to enter an economic downturn. But Democrats dreaming of a recession need to wake up.
The August jobs report was another blow-out, breaking records and surpassing projections by a fairly large margin. Other indicators, like consumer confidence, are also looking good… for Donald Trump.
News that manufacturing contracted recently, for the first time since 2016, fell somewhat flat upon the ears of a working-class electorate used to manufacturing contracting year after year for decades now.
The best thing Democrats hoping to oust Donald Trump from office in 2020 can do is embrace Joe Biden and hope moderate Democrats can forget the inchoate socialist ravings of Bernie Sanders and $10 trillion-dollar climate change plan introduced by Sen. Kamala Harris- before election day.
Before it’s too late.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)