Democrats would do well to get out of the bubble
The Republican Primary looks like a poorly made reality TV series. Unfortunately it is real. Unfortunately contrary to popular belief, one of those incompetent demagogues could be your next president.
If one follows polling data, America is becoming a much more liberal country. In fact it is likely directly responsible for President Obama’s epiphany, support of same-sex marriage is the right thing after-all. In fact, it may be the reason why many of the arguments against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) were not fatal as they were for Clinton in the 90’s. One should note that a substantial part of those that disfavor Obamacare do so because it did not go far enough.
One hears many Liberals talk about getting the popcorn as they sit and watch the train wreck that is the Republican Primary. Liberals are behaving as if a Democrat is a shoo-in for the 2016 presidency. Democrats better be careful with their cocky assertions. Democrats better start digging a bit deeper beyond the façade of invincibility.
Republicans had similar turmoil in 1980. The video above is probative. Today’s political charlatans are Donald Trump and Ben Carson. Back then they had an actor, an incompetent candidate running in a field that included a competent politician, war heroes, and others.
One must remember that the incompetent candidate won that election. The competent candidate that disparaged the actor’s economic plan as voodoo economics became the vice president. Of course Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush cleaned the democrats’ clock.
Many will blame the Iran Hostage Crisis and the economic malaise of the time. But wait, isn’t income inequality a malaise and isn’t the frustration with The Iran Hostage Crisis congruous to the ISIS crisis in the manufactured angst brought to Americans?
Much is being made about the anti-immigrant (anti-Latino) and racist rhetoric emanating from the candidates. Yet, the Republican field is more reflective of America with a black man, a woman, two Latinos, a presumably gay man, and a South Asian man. Democrats offer a white woman pre-ordained to be the democratic nominee and several white men. The ads are likely already being tested in focus groups.
By every metric Democrats should win the White House in 2016. Likewise, by every metric Democrats should control the Senate and the House of Representatives. They should be in control of more governorships and state houses. But that is not the case.
The Vox article “Democrats are in denial. Their party is actually in deep trouble” should be a must read for every Liberal Democrat.
“The presidency is extremely important, of course. But there are also thousands of critically important offices all the way down the ballot. And the vast majority — 70 percent of state legislatures, more than 60 percent of governors, 55 percent of attorneys general and secretaries of state — are in Republicans hands. And, of course, Republicans control both chambers of Congress.”
In other words, the state Democratic parties around the country are decimated. Many do not even have a bench of candidates ready to run in order reverse the trend.
Here is an inconvenient truth. Structurally speaking the Republicans are in a much better positione to continue winning state legislatures and the U.S. House of Representatives. The execution of the Powell Manifesto has already been successful. ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, and many other think tanks have sufficiently gotten laws passed and brainwashed enough American to control minds where necessary and to have the law when needed.
Republican Governor Sam Brownback destroyed Kansas’ economy. Brownback’s self-described experiment failed. In the 2014 election his Democratic opponent Paul Davis got the endorsements of over 104 Republicans. He was up in the polls on Election Day. He lost by about 4 points.
Flawed Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin’s anti-Obamacare platform will put more than 400,000 Kentuckian’s at risk if he kills Kinect. His Democratic opponent Jack Conway was up by several points. Instead Conway lost by several points.
Maryland elected a Republican governor after the polls indicated the Democrat would win in this blue state. An unholy alliance between black preachers and the southern religious complex defeated a progressive equal rights ordinance in Houston, Texas. If one needed to understand the job at hand, the job to inform fellow Americans of the reality that they ultimately need to save their own micro-economy, review the 2016 Generic Congressional Vote poll. Republicans lead by point.
Republicans know that given the nature of Democrats and their base, they do not have much to worry about. They have the ability to make ISIS the Democrat’s Iran Contra. They will make the immigration issue an inoculation against the immigration/refugee fiasco in Europe. And inasmuch as income inequality is a direct result of supply-side economics, an economics we are still living under, they will make it a failure of Obama’s faux liberalism.
Instead of sitting down in our flimsy bubble while eating popcorn as one watches the Republican Primary reality show, it behooves Liberal Democrats to get off their behind and start engaging the base and those that still have nominal control of their minds into voting and voting their interests.