We are almost three weeks removed from the election and whether you have come to terms with the results or not, it is necessary we look toward the future and try to find solutions in what appears to be a problematic political landscape.
This past election season was a big shift away from establishment party politics.
Bernie Sander’s campaign was a testament to that and obviously Donald Trump’s was as well, although in the past few years the Republican establishment has been more of an enigma than the proof of any set of concrete ideas.
Looking back at patterns of history, this shift shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The proclamation of a Washington “outsider” is a highly successful campaign strategy that has been used quite frequently. This strategy is usually most successful during or directly after periods of stress and uncertainty.
The cold war tensions of the late ‘50’s led John F. Kennedy to the white house as he campaigned on the necessity of new blood and the failures of the old guard. Carter’s outsider strategy came on the heels of Watergate, and Reagan’s on the recession and energy crisis of the ‘70’s.
President Obama’s path to the White House was much similar to JFK’s, the causes and conditions looking a little different.
When Obama first took office in 2008, I was coming up on the cusp of adulthood. It was like a light came on in the darkness. The financial crisis we were going through had put burdens on my family and nearly everyone around me and I had grown up most of my life with my country tangled up in two wars. I was a year too young to be eligible to vote, but most of my friends were of age, and Obama was overwhelmingly successful with young people.
The last eight years were pretty good from my point of view.
It seemed that we had recovered from the recession. The economy was steadily improving. My friends and family were doing much better than they had before Obama had taken office.
But this observation comes from my coastal-centric mind. I grew up in the Northeast, and moved to California toward the end of the Obama administration. Although, I traveled through parts of the South and Midwest, it was not for any significant amount of time. At least not enough to break the perception bias I was suffering from.
A large swath of the population struggled mightily the last eight years. If you live on one of the coasts, it may have been harder to see, but many never really recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. History proved again to repeat itself and hindsight being 20/20, it’s easy to now see the flaw of the Hillary Clinton candidacy.
So, now we lie in the wake of the election, many still in a state of bewilderment. The Democrats look to the future and plan for the 2018 midterms and 2020 election, wondering which direction they should go.
A smart solution would be to put forth the exciting, charismatic candidates that the Democrats usually put on the national stage. JFK, Obama, and Bill Clinton all had these qualities. They received large support from younger generations because they can relate to them. They aren’t just old white guys far removed from us, high up in their castles.
Mimicry is one of the great adaptors of behavior in nature.
Species mimic characteristics of other species to be successful. Democrats need to take a lesson from Mother Nature and rip a page out of the Bernie Sander’s playbook.
Somewhere along the way, the elitists hijacked the Democratic Party. They left the little guy behind, and forgot that people vote in states other than California and New York.
The Sanders campaign put the corporations, dark money, and elitists in their sights with the same fervor the people do. In a political era where money buys elections, he refused to take their money! Instead, he funded his entire campaign from small, transparent donations. He made it clear he would go after Wall Street and eradicate the parasite that is dark money from politics.
He had widespread support from young people, minorities, and working class folks because he talked about issues that no other candidates were willing to talk about. Ninety-nine percent of us will never be part of any hedge fund or super pac. Guys like us were feeling like our power in the democratic process was only getting smaller, while the minority one percent at the top was gaining force. Sanders excited us and empowered us. That’s what made Democratic candidates great in the past, and it is what we need now.
I don’t say any of this as an “I told you so”, but rather as a path toward a solution based on the lessons of the past.
The good news is Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and their messages aren’t going anywhere. They’ve thrown their support for DNC chair behind Keith Ellison, an exciting young representative from Minnesota who shares many of their same values.
A candidate I have a strong admiration for, and who I believe will gain a lot of momentum the next four years is Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Prior to filling Frank Lautenberg’s vacant Senate seat, Booker was mayor of Newark, New Jersey.
The trajectory of the Democratic Party looks good.
Bernie Sanders campaign as an outsider and a critic of the establishment was extremely successful. There are young, exciting candidates like Keith Ellison and Cory Booker who will gain significant traction over the next four years. I believe there will be successful movements toward grassroots fundraising and organization, which will help to lesson the grip big corporations have on politics.
That is something that’s good for all of us, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
In the words of the late country music singer Merle Haggard, the Democrat Party is a snowball headed for hell.
When it decides to purge itself of identity politics, grievance politics, and the politics of victimization, it will once again start wining elections at the local, state, and national level. Until that happens, the trajectory will remain as it is today.
Celebrate America! God Bless America!
The Trajectory Of The Democratic party does look good. You lost the White House, the Senate, the Congress maybe 2 seats of the Supreme Court, and just 27 states remain with a Democratic governor…..but cheer up, you still have Detroit as a showcase to your party’s agenda and capabilities
17 not 27, damn tiny keyboard
Let’s not forget Chicago! Rom is doing such a Grrrrreat job!
The neoliberal left’s tactic of identity politics and policing language is what led to this mess in the first place. Years of actively shutting down anyone who questions the party line or presents a disagreeing viewpoint has created an environment where people are afraid to speak their mind for fear of being labeled a racist/sexist/misogynist/rapist. The Clinton campaign hollowed out their voter base by shutting Sanders out of the election and simply expecting his supporters to fall in line. From what I’ve seen with screaming protestors, they haven’t learned a thing from this election cycle. The Democratic party needs to… Read more »
“The Democratic party needs to get their own house in order before trying to “fix” America.” Their egos will not allow them to do so. They don’t see that they’ve done anything wrong. Now with the new administration, they’ll concentrate all their time and energy on the Republicans and no energy on themselves. And it’s darn sure their media will lead the way. When are DNC gonna figure out that in part, it was the media that caused the majority of the adverse results in the past election. A good example is here at HMP, they spent s much time… Read more »
I would like to add that the people who put the Republicans into office will be watching them closely. The acronym RINO came around for a reason. y be worth time and effort for Democrats to watch their politicians closely as well. They also need to realize that the Dems are a little ore moderate as they think … maybe a lot more.