misfitS pOLITICS

We talk. We write. We entertain. Or so we think.
  • Home
  • Home

How to Train Your Democrat

1/27/2017

1 Comment

 
CDP
Recently Politico ran a story on Democrats holding a seminar consisting of lessons to teach member politicians how they should be speaking to Donald Trump voters. The impulse is understandable given their party’s current state, both federally and in a majority of the states. Judging by the lineup of speakers and presenters, however, it is highly likely that they continue to focus on the wrong things. It was held in West Virginia, where Joe Manchin faces reelection in 2018, but the inclusion of David Brock and Dianne Feinstein as presenters certainly leads one to believe that many Democrats still aren’t listening to Manchin.
    
This is not another “why Trump won” screed. That horse was beaten to death with broken records quite a few exits back. This is rather, in the spirit of comity and bipartisanship, a few suggestions to Democrats on how to truly reach those flyover country voters they have hemorrhaged the last few election cycles. Because it isn’t really “Trump voters” they need to learn to speak to, it’s the majority of the people not invested in hard leftist politics– i.e., most Americans.

Rein in your crazies. This is not normal behavior. The far left is understandably upset that Donald Trump won and prevented their Dauphin from ascending to her rightful throne. However, he’s the duly, legally elected President. This in no way means you should line up and support policies you oppose, but the fact is that most Americans who both voted for and against Trump view his election as fair and square. Of all people to realize before the election that screaming at your political opponents is a poor way to convince them to vote for your candidate, one notable example was President Obama himself. You’re upset and disappointed. People understand that. What normal people don’t understand is your unhinged insistence that Trump somehow “stole” the election from Hillary. To get anywhere close to the majorities President Obama enjoyed in 2009, you’re going to have to win a hell of a lot of elections and only reasoned and intelligent arguments are going to convince most voters. Stop screaming at people.

Abortion is a losing issue. This does not mean that being pro-choice is a losing issue. The majority of Americans are not for an outright ban on abortion, which is in any case impossible short of the overturning of Roe. However, the Left’s insistence on abortion being a sacrosanct and inviolable right has indisputably hurt their electoral prospects. American taxpayer dollars funding abortion overseas is an even worse hill to die on. The difficulty facing the Left is that there is a relatively large group of their dependable voters who are hardliners on abortion. But to have any hope of returning to being a national party (as opposed to just holding their large population centers and hoping they have enough votes to control the executive branch every so often), Democrats are going to have to face the fact that most red state Americans have come around to the idea that if abortion is a necessary evil, it should be as rare, and as early, as possible. As our highly intelligent and erudite friend @molratty recently stated in this space:

“The question of whether and under what circumstances we should allow the intentional killing of a human being isn’t easy, but it becomes significantly more difficult when abortion advocates try to obfuscate and dodge it.”

This is actual settled science. Democrats had better come to terms with it.

It isn’t always about race or sex. As hard as this may be for many on the far Left to understand, most Americans don’t spend their days dissecting every interpersonal interaction for signs of racism and sexism. The idea that Trump won because America is a racist and sexist country is stupid and insulting. Yes, some of Donald Trump’s support is from virulent racists. But so was some of Barack Obama’s. Yes, Donald Trump is a human being who in his personal life apparently treats women not related to him pretty terribly. So did Bill Clinton. As a political party, it should be possible to appeal to voters without constantly dividing them into groups and pitting the groups against one another. Living by identity politics means that, eventually, you die by identity politics. Develop a platform that appeals to Americans across the board instead of many platforms used to appeal to disparate aggrieved groups.

The media is dragging you down with it. The press has been in the pockets of the Left for a long, long time. They got used to enjoying positive spin from almost every outlet. But now, the press is actually an albatross for the Left. Americans don’t trust the media in general, and a lot of that distrust is due to the media doing the Left’s heavy lifting for 60 years. But Trump has caused an unhinging of a lot of the media that is actually driving more people to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. If the Left is unable to convince the media to focus on targeted, specific attacks on Trump’s policy proposals (which is a target-rich environment), they should at the very least refrain from joining in the media’s myopic focus on every little Trump untruth. Trying to catch Trump in all of his inane lies doesn’t put any actual ideas on the table.

Learn that the entirety of the Constitution is your friend. For many on the Right, the charge made by many Democrats of hypocrisy over support for President Trump’s early Executive Orders seems pretty hypocritical in and of itself. There are many on the Right, however, who dislike Executive Orders regardless of the party affiliation of the president issuing them. The problem the Left faces is that they are almost wholly untrustworthy in their application of the Constitution. An honest return to the belief that the Constitution is the law of the land and that our disagreements are only over its application could go a long way in convincing centrist Democrats that the radical progressive wing of the party isn’t in control in perpetuity. A return to the idea that the three branches of government exist specifically as a check against any one branch attaining too much power would likely be greeted warmly by the Right. It might also force reluctant conservative/conservatarian Republicans in Congress to oppose Trump when he runs afoul of the Constitution, as they should do in any event.

This is not an exhaustive list. The Democrats have a vast array of electoral problems facing them. They will continue to lose ground if they refuse outright to address immigration in good faith or to affirm Constitutional protections for all religious liberty. The choice is theirs, and it is a clear one.
1 Comment
RaymondWPS link
1/29/2017 02:20:32 pm

Great Mic Drop, CDP!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Misfits

    Just a gaggle of people from all over who have similar interests and loud opinions mixed with a dose of humor. We met on Twitter.
    ​Enough said.

    (If that's not enough, you can learn more here)

    Tweets by misfitspolitics

    Archives

    January 2024
    November 2023
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    January 2021
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All
    2016
    9/11
    Abortion
    AFB
    Afghanistan
    Air Force
    #alfieevans
    Alfie Evans
    ALS
    Armed Forces
    Army
    Baby
    Ben Carson
    Bernie
    Blog
    Bosnia
    CAOC
    #CelebrateWomen
    Christie
    City Council
    Comey
    Cooking
    Crete
    Cruz
    Deep Fry
    Desert Storm
    Donald Trump
    Drug Companies
    Election
    England
    Europe
    Exclusivity
    F-16
    Fanfic
    Fayetteville
    FBI
    FDA
    Fiction
    Fire
    Florida
    Free Market
    Fun
    Germany
    Gilmore
    Government
    Health Care
    Hillary Clinton
    Hobby
    Iraq
    Italy
    John Kasich
    Kevin Williamson
    Korea
    Kuwait
    LANTIRN
    Life
    Local Politics
    Marco Rubio
    Medical Care
    Memoir
    Military
    MIsfitMemo
    #MisfitMemo
    Misfits
    Misfits Politics
    Moms
    Mother's Day
    Narrative
    National Review
    NATO
    Navy
    #NeverTrump
    Patent
    Pharmaceutical
    Philippines
    Phillippines
    Politics
    Raymond
    Reform
    Rex
    Rubio
    Scarcity
    September 11th
    Service
    Ted Cruz
    Thread
    Tweetstorm
    Twitter
    UK
    Water
    Weekly Rewind
    World Cup
    World Trade Center

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact​

Copyright © 2016
  MisfitsPolitics
  • Home
  • Home