If anyone needs a metaphor for why the Democratic Party is in worse shape now than any time since Calvin Coolidge the picture attached below says it all. I do not want to get into last year’s primary campaign or revisit the election. One point does bear noting, a primary process that only featured two viable candidates last year, said something about the vigor of the party.
The fact remains the Democrats are a minority party and often a non-factor in states not touching an ocean. If Democrats were owners in the NFL, it would be an outright bloodbath in the front office, where a teams strategies and personnel are discerned. Sadly the Democratic Party has continued to use marginally effective strategists who have more losses than wins in this century.
In many states leaders are in place either by default or because they have succeeded in keeping the doors closed to people with passion and new ideas. Is it accidental that the Los Angeles Rams have drastically improved by hiring a new coach? Not really if one considers the last coach had a handful of winning seasons in the last two decades.
In many states leaders are in place either by default or because they have succeeded in keeping the doors closed to people with passion and new ideas. Is it accidental that the Los Angeles Rams have drastically improved by hiring a new coach? Not really if one considers the last coach had a handful of winning seasons in the last two decades.
When one looks at the most successful teams in baseball, experts can predict easily the teams that will win in future years. The problem the Democrats have is that we have neglected the farm system of state and local offices. To those who wonder why the party lost the Senate in 2016, ask this question. Rather than offering new faces with innovative policies, the Democratic Party opted to run figures from the past like Strickland, Feingold, and Bayh.
One must ask if the Democratic strategies and messaging are up to the task of competing with a Republican Party populated by those who work 24/7 to win? The GOP has been out of new ideas for eons, except for the lunatic fringes who oppose everything. What do Democrats really stand for? The other team can always unite around those populating “the left.” Outside of opposing figures like Issa and Trump, one can honestly ask what does our party stand for?
Democrats have spent my entire adult lifetime allowing ourselves to be defined by the right. The things that resonated with voters the most still boiled down to the populist message. Simply put, "the people versus the powerful. " A huge reason the election was lost in places like Michigan was that the Trump campaign hijacked that historic message.
I do not have all the answers. None of us do. But rather than having the Republicans dictating how we think and what we do, we need to start dictating the flow and tempo of the game. I’m sick of being told we have to “be kind” when faced with a knife fight in an alley. Like any good team, we have to get our pride and our swagger back again. That begins by being proud of our party and it’s history of economic justice.
MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL
