(Wrongo will say more about Veteranâs Day during Sundayâs cartoon edition. For today, letâs acknowledge that Veteranâs Day is one of Americaâs most patriotic holidays, and that this year, it feels very disappointing to many of us. Leave that aside. Take a minute to reflect on those who fought for us so that we have the right to vote for whomever we please.)
Regarding the election: Arenât you happy that America is on its way to being great again?
For both the winners and the losers, please don’t make things worse than they have to be by deepening the divide between the two political camps. Most of all, try to be understanding of each other. Half of the country is not reacting well to this, and some on both sides are going to say things that they’ll regret, or that put them at odds with you and your core values.
People aren’t at their best when they’re afraid and confused, so take a beat, and let the next month or two go by without overreacting. There will plenty of time to do that after the inauguration.
And there is little value for Democrats in performing a self-flagellating post-mortem. We can analyze the results, but we can’t change them. We know what went wrong, even if we wonât admit it. Hereâs what has to happen:
- Democrats need to find a way to make sure that their primary process favors new faces with bold, inspiring ideas. We canât have any more competent retreads. Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry and Hillary Clinton were all competent technocrats who were really weak candidates. How many times must we replay this record before changing direction?
- It’s time for Democrats to stop using white working classas a pejorative. Not so long ago they were the bedrock of the New Deal Democratic Party. Find a way to be respectful. Think about how to bring them back to the Democratsâ side.
- There is one argument that we need to see less of: that the demographic makeup of the US is sure to produce a Democratic paradise. This argument is false, as we learned on November 8, and it promotes lazy thinking by the leaders of the DNC: the âWe’ll just sit back and they’ll drop into our hands like ripe fruit” kind of thinking.
Finally, the notion that since the old white people will die off, we should focus solely on Millennials is stupid. Time makes more old people every day. And as people age, they change their opinions and politics.
Hillary and her campaign team failed. They raised $1.1 billion by Election Day, and lost conclusively. Their strategy, and its execution were both failures. If you spent a $billion in the corporate world and failed, you would be fired immediately by your organization. Dems should take no consolation from Hillary winning the popular vote. It doesnât change who the president is. The real numerical difference is very small, and may even be reversed by the time all votes are counted.
Hillary did not articulate an inspiring vision. Her damned emails and the Clinton Foundation were self-inflicted wounds. Her teamâs strategy of micro-targeting, which worked well for an inspiring candidate Barack Obama, was self-limiting for the technocrat Clinton.
The 2016 problem that Democrats failed to address was that nearly half of the electorate was dissatisfied enough that they were willing to vote for Donald Trump, arguably the least qualified person to ever hold the office. And Clinton and her campaign team had no message or vision directed at the group Donald inspired.
Presidential campaigns are an affair of the heart, but Hillary was a cerebral candidate in a highly-charged emotional situation.
The so-called Deplorables have spoken. Democrats have opened the door and let the Right Wing demons in. The GOP now has free reign. And doubtless, there will be no mercy dispensed as they roll back the new deal legislation that remains of the books.
It is likely that the âlessonâ the DNC will learn from their loss will be to move even further to the right. Yet, when Americans have to choose between an ersatz Republican-lite and the real thing, they will choose the real thing every time. If the DNC had an ounce of clever thinking, they would recognize the need to be once again have a platform that is:
- Fully committed to adding more jobs, jobs, jobs
- For reining in the economic power of large corporations
- For reversing income inequality
- For Medicare for all
- For additional taxation of the highest personal income brackets
- Against endless war
- Against Citizens United
The question is whether progressives attempt to âreformâ the Democratic Party, or whether they organize a new party. It might begin like the Republicans began when they split from the Whigs. The Whigs split started in 1850, and by 1856, the Whigs were no longer a national party.
Maybe in these times, a new âAmerican Justiceâ party could recruit Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard, Gavin Newsom and most important, a battalion of young messengers to bring a third party to power in the US.
If that doesnât happen, we need to see the DNC leadershipâs heads on a pike.
In either case, we face a decade or more of rebuilding progressivism into an American political majority.
I still find myself wondering about economists who see the only option as trade vs (the evil of) protectionism, as if any attempt to put a finger on the scale in favor of jobs is simply wrong. If it is, then what? Then nothing. But… until the Paul Krugman’s can write a few columns in favor of protectionism, there is (I believe) little we can do.
And even if we really did put tariffs on goods, so what? We don’t make cheap steel like rebar – we only make high end stuff. We don’t make iPhones. We don’t make cameras.
Re the election, however flawed Hillary was, she still got more votes and got them in places like CA or NJ where she did not even campaign.
That does not defend her utter stupidity in not anticipating the size of the email problem, or the Clinton foundation nonsense – but how do you beat a man who says whatever the audience wants to hear, with not a bit of consistency with his own speeches.