The democratic party has been completely decimated. Democrats have moved too far right and suffered tremendous losses because of it. Sixty-nine, House seats gone, 13 Senate seats gone, and a White House gone. Nine-hundred-and-ten seats total gone under 8 years of a Democrat-controlled White House, handing over complete legislative power to the Tsar in chief. To any rational being, it’s evident that being a center-left corporatist politics no longer work, to mainstream media hacks, the solution is to move further right or ”center.” Because to gain back your disenchanted voting base you have to further alienate them by fully and openly embracing neo-conservatism just to pander to right-wingers who would never vote blue in a million years. The solution to a low-voter turnout epidemic in the 2016 election is to adopt more of the things that made them stay home, as part of your campaign. How is it possible that the party of Medicare cuts won the largest majority in Congress and state legislatures since 1928 when the majority of Americans support progressive policies?
It’s simple, Democrats have abandoned the illusion of being the party of progress in favor of big corporate interests. They’re ignored where the numbers are at. Ignored the last saving grace and future of the democratic party. By doing so, gave way to a pseudo-fascist who secured the election via a populist facade and a party they’re united through by donor money.
It’s impossible to talk about what works, without mentioning Bernie Sanders and the well-substantiated theory that he would’ve won the 2016 general election. Detractors obtusely point to the inane fact that he lost the primaries without considering the fact it was one, rigged, and two, general elections are a completely different ball-game. The electorate is another game, but I digress.
The independent senator from Vermont with zero campaign money, name recognition, and a self-proclaimed (democratic) socialist label not only ran the most progressive campaign in US history but ran the most successful independent, grassroots campaigns in modern history.Against the brand-name Clinton machine at that. The crowds upwards of 20,000 were a sign of the changing political climate and rising populist revolt. His immense, insurgent success despite the political establishment’s relentless smear campaign was a physical manifestation of polls showing tremendous favorability towards progressive policies and a growing independent base. All of this ultimately forcing the DNC to to deliver the most progressive party platform in history.
If democrats want to continue on an enlightened path and ditch their corporatist ways – which lead them to vote against legislation to make bankruptcy-inducing prescription drugs cheaper – they have to get with the winning team. The 2016 election showed people wanted populism and a platform for the working class, not career politicians grappling with being in the pockets of big money interests and trying to get reelected. Populism won no matter how much of a lie it turned out to be.
Evidence that moving further left, or back left I should say, wins elections, vests in the unequivocal idea that Bernie would have won.
Starting off with the obvious, let’s examine polling. Polls during the primary season consistently showed Sanders handily defeating Trump by 10 points or more, while Clinton led him by only a few points. This is easy to fathom considering Trump secured the nomination when Hillary lost the three historically blue states that Bernie did well in during the primaries. Sanders beat Clinton in Wisconsin and Michigan. And the DNC chosen candidate lost Pennsylvania. Narrow margins of eight-tenths, three-tenths, and 1.2% in these three Rust Belt states respectively, where Sanders’ message resonated, handed the election to Trump.
What happened? These states usually swing blue. Well, working-class whites who previously voted for Obama were fed up with establishment politics and an unresponsive plutocracy in general so they voted for the only general election candidate who wasn’t bought by Wall Street and promised to remedy working-class struggles. Who else had an populist, working-class message and wasn’t absolutely lying about it? Sanders who made economic inequality the platform of his campaign would have obliterated policy-outline-free and economically illiterate Trump. But he won, and the country lost thanks to democrat hubris.
Left-wing policies are were the numbers are at. And analyzing the historical loss is key to avoiding the same mistakes. Unfortunately, most pundits and strategists are tone-deaf and incapable of any self-reflection. So not only did Hillary fail to draw Obama voters, but she also experienced the downfalls of low-voter turnout that come with a centrist, No-Hope, purely opposition campaign. She won 55% of the vote, Obama 69% in 2012, seeing a decrease in support from black, Latino, young voters and white women. The first female to win the nomination for president couldn’t even garner 50% support from white women against the most heinous sexual assaulter and unabashed misogynist. Garnering 88% of the black vote vs Obama’s 93% over Romney against a candidate who was sued twice by the DOJ for not renting to African Americans. And 65% Latinos vs 71% for Obama against a candidate who called them rapists. Most damaging, 54% millennial support, compared to obama’s 60%. Guess who draws millennials? Bernie Sanders and his progressive policies. In fact, more young people voted for Sanders than Clinton and Trump combined. Not to mention there wouldn’t have been a spoiler effect in Florida from disgruntled Bernie bros voting for kook Jill Stein if he would’ve been the nominee.
An unspoken of conundrum is the astounding number of left-wingers which crossed over, when Bill Clinton-voting republicans were expected to per a NYT exit poll. Funnily enough, not only would Bernie have not suffered this problem from progressive loyalists, but he would’ve made a robust number of republicans cross party lines.
Sanders has also proven to be an effective, mediating, bipartisan voice, reaching across the aisle in CNN townhalls and making Trump voters ‘feel the bern.’ Time and time again, his centered economic message has reached coal country effectively with none of the ‘liberal east coast elite’ condescension. Recall the West-Virginia townhall where a county of Trump voters thanked Bernie and clapped for raising taxes, Medicare for all, and free college. His working-class message would’ve obviously resonated with disgruntled Trump voters on it’s own, but his ability to effectively communicate across the aisle would’ve done numbers.
There is a reason Sanders, who proudly calls himself a socialist, remains the –most popular politician in America per a Fox News poll. There’s a reason he has a higher approval rating than any democrats or republicans on the hill. It’s not just his unwavering earnestness, pseudonym as the “amendment king,” or clean corporate-interest free record. It’s media obfuscated fact that the majority of the country supports progressive policies and the majority of the electorate identifies as independents.
What’s so radical about ideas the majority of Americans support? Fifty-eight percent of Americans support single-payer, 88% oppose cuts to Social security, voters in red states want medicaid expanded, 68% think the wealthy pay too little taxes, 64% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions,58% support breaking up big banks, 63% support raising the minimum wage to $15.00, 53% support labor union law, 64% think corporations don’t pay their fair share.
Sanders put it best back in May, “They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.” The reason Democrats don’t mind losing political clout by ostracizing him as a fringe socialist with “pie-in-the-sky” ideas, is because they’re gate-keeping for their wealthy interests. Reformers in the progressive era did get called loonies by party bosses & robber barons too for daring to dream big against corruption. Except now it happens within their own party.
If Democrats want to win in 2018 they must reject centrism which doesn’t win anymore as evidenced by the 2016 election. (Did Trump win by pivoting?) They must wholly embrace progressive policies (which is is where the numbers are at), policies with majority support that will even court the most deep-red trump counties. Democrats must embrace the fact that the parties have been moving apart for the last 40 years, and few and fewer moderates get elected. Centrism failed democrats for the past 8 years, and Bernie’s platform is the dying party’s last hope.
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