The Democratic Party this morning.
If you played a drinking game last evening where the rules dictated you swallow a shot every time a Republican defeated a Democrat, you're probably still asleep. Or maybe even dead. But if not, and even if you went to bed early, you already know that we Democrats were beaten yesterday. Badly. Soundly. Decisively. We lost governorships; we lost House seats; we lost the Senate; we lost our asses. Of course, the silver lining to such a drubbing, if there is one, is that we're now presented, through our bitter, angry, resentful tears of loss and frustration, a chance to learn. But while there are obviously a number of lessons to be had from our multi-pronged defeat, those need to be the right lessons.
As we Democrats--amateur and professional alike--sift through the smoking, fetid, blackened ruins of yesterday's electoral train wreck, we need to take objective inventory of where we are, how we got here, and what we need to do to ensure this sort of highly lopsided blowout never happens again. But knowing both people in general and Democrats in particular as I do, I imagine some (many? most?) of the lessons learned will be, sadly and stupidly, diametrically opposite what they should be.
Please read on too see what I mean...
What will probably be learned: America is becoming increasingly conservative, and political progressivism is dead. To survive, then, Democrats need to move even further to the right.
What should actually be learned: the electorate is bored absolutely shitless by cookie cutter, more-of-the-same, can't-tell-them-apart politicians and policies. They want to see noticeable differences between candidates, between sides of the issues, and between parties. If Democrats and their ideas are indistinguishable from Republicans, why bother voting at all?
What will probably be learned: Barack Obama's presidency has been a complete and utter failure. The only way Dems will stand even half a chance in 2016, then, is if they further and completely separate themselves from him and his toxic policies.
What should actually be learned: Obama is unpopular among the Right, certainly--but that's in very large part because he's been so effective. For all his many shortcomings, and for all the times he's let down true progressives, the man has compiled a truly remarkable presidential record for which folks on the Left can be proud. Instead of pulling a Grimes and running away from him, then (and especially since that worked so very well for her), we need to embrace the things he's done, extol his accomplishments, compare and contrast them with the nothingness coming from the Right, and hammer that point again, and again, and again, and again...
What will probably be learned: Democrats need to embrace compromise and start meeting Republicans in the middle, as that's clearly what the people want.
What should actually be learned: Trying to compromise with the modern GOP is like arguing with a drunk. We. Will. Never. Win. People don't appreciate cowards, and they certainly won't vote for a party that turns around, drops its skinny jeans, bends over, and spreads its cheeks every time one of the Right's many populist bullies comes near. Fact: when Democrats let themselves to be screwed over by the Right, they get screwed over by the voter. Period.
What will probably be learned: Liberal policies are a failure, so should be jettisoned.
What should actually be learned: Liberal policies are popular. Very popular. One poll and election after another shows that people in increasing numbers want affordable health care; they want medical/recreational marijuana; they want well-funded schools; they want action on climate change; they want what strong unions bring; they want marriage equality; they want immigration reform, and intelligent gun regulation, and a healthy environment, and freedom of choice, and equal pay for equal work, and so on. So instead of letting those policies be demonized and diluted and done away with by the selfish assholes on the Right, Democrats need to present a united front that these are the things we want, these are the things America needs, and we're not going to relent until we get them.
What will probably be learned: Democrats need to suck it up, and realize that the Republicans won fair and square, and thus deserve our every respect.
What should actually be learned: In large part due to their systemic and very successful voter suppression efforts, the GOP managed to keep a massive number of eligible voters away from the polls yesterday, an overwhelming majority of them left-leaning. These attempts to suppress need to be publicized by Dems; they need to be spotlighted, highlighted, and underlined, and called out--repeatedly and loudly--for the anti-American chicanery it is. And then they need to be overturned.
What will probably be learned: The Dems would have won if only people had contributed more money to the DNC.
What should actually be learned: The DNC is populated by spineless types with a conservative fetish, neo-liberals equally enchanted by both the status quo and the party machine who wouldn't know a progressive policy if it jumped up and bit them on the ass. The DNC has squandered tens of millions of our dollars kowtowing to the right, cowering in the corner every time a red stater says, "Boo!". Enough of that; fuck them and their 20 billion "This is your last chance to contribute!" emails. Get some actual liberals in there, or stop harassing us with your passive-aggressive guilt-trippy spam.
What will probably be learned: Game's over. We lost. Badly. There's no point in going on.
What should actually be learned: two things about older, whiter, male Americans. 1) They tend to vote conservatively. 2) They tend to turn out in disproportionately large numbers for mid-term elections, an advantage they quite simply don't have in general elections. America is turning leftward; 2016 will be ours. Or, it will be so long as our party's leaders learn to stop acting like Republican wannabes.
Will we ever get it right? beats the hell out of me...