As a man of the American Left, it's hard to see the Democrats as a party that can win. And if I'm being honest, there is a small part of me that doesn't want them to, assuming the path remains the same. This shouldn't dissuade you from questioning my bona fides. I think trickle-down economics weakens the country and is bad for the overall economy, I think the continuing understaffing of the State Dept. ruins our soft power - by which I believe any nation truely achieves global domination, and I think the Individual-Industrial Complex is code word for "If you aren't rich, you must be stupid." Just the opposite, I think wealth tends to breed stupidity. How many children of the rich and powerful achieve anything great?
But my hesitation with electoral victory, or political posturing from the Left is clear: I'm not against Socialism for areas where a market would fail - highways need better congestion pricing, and the subsidies for oil have suppressed a renewables market - but blanket tax-coverage for any and all medical expenses and higher education will put tremendous strain on a system that doesn't have the surge capacity that would be the first year of this system change. I'll plan to post my disposition on any of these issues in the coming months, but by and large I don't see it as good. I went to College on Loans, and Grad School on less loans but loans none-the-less. I already felt as if people were there because they were supposed to be, but imagine if anyone could just sign-up on-line and take your seat? There were classes I needed to wake up at 7:00 a.m. just to get a placement in.
But for a moment, forget the issues. The major problem with the Democratic field so far in 2018 is that I don't have a place to say that without a mob coming for me, I don't have a candidate that will stand up and say these things, and I don't have another alternative. There's been rumors of a Romney/Bloomberg ticket as a third option in 2020 - I hope there will be. But for right now I'm not holding my breath and hoping they announce.
The Democratic Party, going into the mid-terms had a decentralized platform. You could, largely, say whatever you wanted. This is a party, heretofore, that elected both Connor Lamb and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That was one of the reasons I liked the party. It was a big-tent party that went for solutions. But this is our problem as a group (and to be clear, I've never been registered with any political party), when everyone has buy-in, there's far more half-interested advocates than there are hardcore policy folks. And the advocates generally think they're smarter than those of us who dig deep into policy and look at the mechanisms. "I want free shit" (and I hate to sound like a Republican here) is a bigger applause line than "How are we going to pay for that?"
Typically, saying "How are we going to pay for that?" is a Republican line that translates to "I don't want to do that." But for wonks, it's a genuine question. Because payment is required by any laborer either physically or mentally. But the Left needs to wrap it's head around this concept - sometimes the way things are paid for are just as moral a the thing the money is going toward. Socialized highways (as I mentioned above) are an over-congested nightmare. But if congestion pricing is applied that money can go toward better financed public transportation. It's important to understand that aspect because when you don't, you have the sort of hair-brained ideas that Bill deBlasio (Mayor of NYC) comes up with thats says "The middle class would be hurt by Congestion Pricing." He thinks this because he was middle class in the 1960s. Despite two teachers making well over $250k a year in NYC, the middle class is defined by income relative to the regional market. I'm glad teachers are paid that well there, but $250 is not middle class; and those of us who are don't drive to work in major cities, you take the train.
There, in that example, is a microcosm of the problem. The children of the middle class in the 50's and 60's grew up to be the professional class. And while I won't insult their drive or benefit of social mobility, the reason we continue to run into problems is because these top-tier economic members don't know what the day-to-day struggles are. Democrats, since 2016, have been asking some variation of the question "How do we connect with the white working class male?" And that isn't really what they're asking. They're asking "How does a Partner at a Law Firm we've nominated to be our candidate convince poor folks that s/he understands them against all the obvious facts that they don't."
The working class democrats spawned professional democrats, and instead of saying "we made good on the deal, let's get out of the way and let those in the trenches run things" then held on to tower with a death grip. For years it was good enough to say your mother mopped floors so you could go to college. But now - and this should really be obvious - mopping floors won't send anyone to college. That's why the bullshit narrative no longer works. Your talking in terms that don't exist any longer.
In many ways, Hillary Clinton was the greatest standard bearer for the Democrats in 2016 because she represented them so completely. Did her homework, put in the time, was a little too stiff from years of climbing the ladder. Hillary Clinton, on the deck of a single-family detached home in the suburbs at a cookout, talking to a neighbor is what the ruling class in the Democratic party has become. Which is to say, Republican. I can't rage against two parties in one post, but Republicans (briefly) are a party of people who were born on 3rd and believe they hit a triple (and tell everyone they hit a home run despite the obvious). We become the inverse of JFK. Born without struggle believing we've made good despite no odds. While JFK was never poor, he was a generation removed from open classism in Boston toward the Irish, and many there saw him as someone who could show the world that the Irish, too, could achieve. Now we've got a pack of achievers showing they could have been shunned once!
Unfortunately for us on the Left, we've now abandoned the achievers outdated story for someone who appears like they'd have a story. The question is no longer who is inevitable (an Establishment question) but which of the pre-approved protected classes can say the right platitudes to be our standard bearer. I was talking to someone in the aftermath of 2016 and said "I'm seeing a lot of good press from Gavin Newsom"
"No," she said "he's too white; too male"
Maybe he is. But are we really going to rule folks out based on that? My soul cringed into a hole at the thought that we were going to sacrifice everything again because we were using the same old formulas. Once, in 2007, I was asked by a State Senator if we had all voted for Hillary Clinton like "good little democrats." (the statement still makes my blood boil).
"No, I'm voting for Obama" I had said at the time because I liked him more then and I still do.
"I like him" she said to me "But it's not his time."
If we listen to these people, there's only one road we can go down. If the "it's not their time" crowd won in 2008, it's likely we'd have McCain which, yes, would have been a better option than Trump, but not as good as Obama. The problem here is clear. The Democrats need to do three things if they want to win 2020:
- Don't hire someone who grew up middle- or upper-class
- Don't draft someone who's job is in the Professional Class (e.g. Doctor's, Lawyers, etc.)
- And for the love of christ, let them battle it out in the primaries.
If the party continues to go hunting for candidates at suburban barbecues or by eliminating candidates with charisma simply because they aren't checking the right boxes demographically then we might as well throw in the towel now. Advocates, Tweeting platitudes on Twitter is not the party and they do not show up to vote. They are occasionally useful idiots, and more often they're ruining it for the rest of us. It isn't hard to see how the self-righteous blew it in September. Anyone who paid attention to politics knew Brett Kavanaugh was getting on the bench. Thanks to our friends on the sanctimonious Left, Fox News was provided with a gritty reboot of the '68 Democratic Convention. We always knew we'd lose the seat; now we've lost the Senate as well.
If you've read this far, and you think "Ok genius, what would you advise we do?" My answer is pretty simple:
- Get a car on November 6th and drive your moron friends to the polls.
- Find yourself the issue you care about most and reach the trade publications for it (i.e. not the fluff pieces but the graduate research)
- Grasp the concept that superficial Tweeting on 40 issues isn't as good as burrowing deep into one issue (and neither are as good as actually voting)
In the meantime, I'm going to be a white, patriarchal fascist and support the Beto O'Rourke 2020 campaign now - even if you managed to sabotage him in Texas.
