THIS DIARY WAS FIRST POSTED ON NOVEMBER 14, 2016.
This diary will be in two parts. The first is an explanation for why I think economic populism alone will not revive the Democratic party’s fortunes vs Trumpism. The Second will be about what I think WILL work.
Part I.
Let me start out by saying that we are all economic populists now. Bernie’s progressive economic agenda will be the policy of the Democratic party for the foreseeable future. I agree with that. It’s good public policy, for the most part, and popular.
So, getting into a pissing match about DNC Chairman, and assuming that people who oppose Keith Ellison, or favor Howard Dean (for example) are not 100% on board with an economic progressive agenda is a mistake that Trump and the GOP are happy to exploit.
That being said, there is a HUGE danger that we are putting all of our political eggs in the economic populism basket. While this may put us at a political advantage against conventional Republicans, it is blunted to near ineffective against Trumpism.
Imagine you are a member of the WWC, or rural white person who harbors resentment against immigrants and POC for “jumping” the socioeconomic line. You partly have economic resentments, but a lot of it is also cultural.
Democrats may offer you economic policies that you like. But, they also are the party of POC, liberal elites, gays and Lesbians, religious minorities, and “cultural pollution.”
We may have a fighting chance to blunt our losses with these folks if we are running against typical elitist, corporate Republicans. But, against Trump, why would they budge from their support for him? They get BOTH economic policies they generally like, AND the white nationalism they psychologically crave.
So, while I think it’s valuable to try and understand why they voted the way they did, I’m not sure that moving toward economic populism alone is going to win us many votes with them. Their resentment goes much deeper. They voted for a massively flawed candidate, who many didn’t even like very much.
I believe the reason Hillary lost is because she was both a flawed messenger, and there were enormous forces arrayed against her designed to stop her. So, I think the problem with this election was both candidate specific, and because Democrats didn't activate enough of their core voters in key battleground states to win.
So, what do we do?
Part II.
We should not overreact to this election. We should analyze the data and understand it deeply before deciding on a course of action from a policy standpoint. But, one thing we should do regardless of policy decisions is make an all out effort to protect the right to vote nationally, and expand the electorate as much as possible. Particularly in key battleground states such as NC, PA, MI, WI and FL. I’d also add Arizona and Georgia to that list. Both may be battlegrounds in the next election.
So how do we do this? First, we need a national figurehead and leader who can marshal the resistance. That person is obviously Barack Obama. He and Eric Holder are already going to be working on Legislative redistricting, but that effort should be expanded into a national coalition — modeled on the Moral Mondays marches in North Carolina — to heavily invest in voter protection efforts and to dramatically register new voters to expand the electorate in both 2018 and 2020.
This means going to all the Democratic heavy hitter big donors and putting together a $1 Billion fund to register voters, circulate petitions for referendums and initiatives in states that allow it to protect voting rights, filed lawsuits to protect voting rights, and to do a massive voter education campaign.
I would even start offering — for lack of a better terms — “cultural exchanges” with the WWC, in which members of our coalition engage in social and other activities with WWC to at least try and ease their anxieties about a changing country.
From a public policy standpoint, Democrats cannot give in on immigration reform. That will be a huge battleground. Democrats cannot afford to alienate the Latino and Hispanic community on this. At a minimum, a path to citizenship must be included in any proposed immigration plan. If not, it should be a deal breaker.
Democrats must also double down on civil libertarian protections for free speech, assembly, and protecting our vulnerable People of Color, and the LGBT community.
Along with President Obama, we need a luminary list of people on the advisory board. Obviously, this requires Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with trusted members of the left, such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. A broad based coalition would also be desirable, so attempts should be made to reach out to conscientious never Trumpers on the right, or Libertarians, who are still resisting him, such as Evan McMullen and possible Bill Weld. It can’t just be Democrats. If we can find allies on the right or in libertarian circles, we should embrace them. Trump is everyone's enemy.
I envision an umbrella coalition of environmental, LGBT rights groups, Civil Rights groups, Labor unions (and this one may be easier said than done), the ACLU, the NAACP, etc. Trump and Bannon will do everything they can to divide the opposition. This may involve signaling support for same sex marriage (as Trump has), or buying off labor union support with public works projects. We have to maintain solidarity, even if our particular pet issues may not be under direct immediate threat. LGBT rights, for example, are one Supreme Court Justice away from being reversed (after Trump appoints a conservative to the SCOTUS to replace Scalia).
Keep in mind that Trump’s victory is a precarious one, demographically, His voters are older, and comprise a shrinking portion of the electorate. Democratic voters are a rising share of the electorate. And the ground will be even more favorable for Democrats in 2020, if we resist Trump and do not let his election become normalized.
We need to expand that electorate and accelerate the demographic shifts as much as possible over the next 2-4 years. Heavy concentration, immediately, should be in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. We should also work hard to flip Arizona.
We can do this, but it requires consistent, sustained leadership and hard work.