Democratic Party: a Party to be reborn.

Election night last Tuesday was a shocking surprise for everyone in America, even some of Trump’s most ardent supporters. Essentially the impact of Comey’s second investigation announcement coupled with massive discontent among white working class voters in the Midwest and Pennsylvania led to a shift of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania over to the red column. The loss of these states handed Trump the election; His margins in these states barely exceeded 1%. And the shocking thing is that these states haven’t voted Republican since 1988 and Wisconsin hasn’t done so since 1984. The victory of Trump in the Rust Belt was his most viable path to victory, and he managed to pull it off.

This victory leaves the Democratic party in the worst position since the 1920s. They control few state governorships or legislatures, and they are now shut out of the federal government. They do not have much power nationwide as a result. The current situation is perhaps the darkest time in our country’s history for the progressive movement; we face a massive conservative juggernaut that threatens to roll back the social and economic innovations of the previous decades like abortion and same-sex marriage. And the sad part is that nationwide, more people prefer the Democratic party over the Republican party. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in this election, and the Democratic Party won big in Nevada and New Mexico. The vote in Georgia and Arizona was closer than usual(~5% margin), indicating that these states are becoming competitive battleground states.

Indeed, Democrats have the long-term demographic advantage; they have overwhelming support among minorities and women. And as long as Republicans continue to double down on their conservative, lily-white base, this will hurt them in states like Texas, Arizona, and Georgia that are rapidly becoming more diverse. But why then are the Democrats in such a crappy position right now?

Two reasons: minority and youth voter turnout were low in 2010 and 2014, and mediocre in 2016, and the Democrats have lost their support among white-working class voters. The former is an issue caused by lethargic campaign strategies and a lack of enthusiasm among the Democratic base. This issue is readily solvable by adopting a clear, progressive message for the election campaigns and having more charismatic candidates that really connect with the base. The Democrats already have a huge advantage with GOTV machines and data science, but this means nothing when the fundamental campaign sucks.

The latter issue is going to be a lot harder to fix and has been becoming worse for decades. The Democrats first lost the white working class vote in the South in 1968 and then suffered a massive loss in 1980 when Reagan took millions of them away from the Democratic column. Things have gotten even worse since 2009, and the Democratic Party is now very weak among these voters. The underlying issue is that the white working class feels that the Democrats abandoned them for minority voters; they view the party as a bunch of out of touch liberal elitists. They also don’t like the party’s support for free-trade and the more business-friendly policies they pursued in the 1990s. Add to that the general disdain many affluent liberal Democrats have for these people, calling them “deplorables” and ignorant racists. And that they all live in what is derisively referred to as flyover country. It’s no wonder that Donald Trump was able to win them over in such huge numbers.

In order for the Democrats to become the majority party, they will need to win back a lot of these voters. The first thing to do is quite clear: ditch the identity politics and one-sided focus on social justice and really focus on economic populism. The Democratic Party will have to moderate its stances on issues like abortion and gun control to win over voters in red states like Texas and Missouri; these voters may be religious but they have become dissatisfied with fiscally conservative policies in the GOP. This may piss off a lot of Social Justice Warriors and third-wave feminists in the party, but the Democratic Party needs to spread out into rural areas and win rural white folks over. It has to accept these kinds of folks back into the party again. And if the PC police doesn’t like it, they don’t have much of a choice on where to go; the Republicans would be hostile to them.

Secondly, the Democrats need to chuck out their establishment. I personally don’t blame Hillary and her campaign for throwing this election; she did very well throughout the whole campaign. She embraced Sanders progressives like me and my college friends, she let them craft a more progressive party platform, she encouraged Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to campaign for her, and she won all 3 debates by turning Trump’s tricks against him. She was brought down by the FBI’s investigation and the stubborn media bias against her candidacy, portraying her as corrupt and sketchy. But the establishment, at its core, is corrupt and out of touch with America. Take Debbie Wasserman Schultz for instance; she tried to undermine the Sanders campaign by promoting anti-Semitism and unfair primary rules against him. Or Anthony Weiner, whose issues contributed to a shitty year for Democrats. The Democratic establishment consists of Ivy League educated, affluent liberals; they are often perceived as arrogant and elitist. Indeed, this is actually pretty true; I don’t like how this party is run by a bunch of stiff, uptight lawyers. They are very self-righteous and sanctimonious, their tastes and views are becoming out of touch with the base. Furthermore, they adhere to the whole academic ideology of political correctness, focusing on issues like safe spaces, cultural appropriation, and censorship of offensive material. They also are too grounded in the culture of universities; they are open-minded but very judgemental of people who aren’t as educated as they are.

Outside of liberal enclaves and liberal arts colleges in major cities, most people don’t give a shit about these issues. White working-class people are turned off by these abstract theories of racism often aimed at them. The working-class black person living in the inner city and the Latino immigrant family in Los Angeles probably don’t care either; they are concerned far more about economic issues. As Bill Clinton himself said to Bush 41 in a 1992 debate: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Once these elements are purged out of the Democratic Party, the Democrats will need to become very populist and push for a New-Deal style platform. Its this kind of economic populism that would unite working-class white people throughout the country with minority voters and white liberals(who would reluctantly have to stay Democratic), giving the Democrats a permanent, unstoppable majority. The Democrats will have to return to the days of the New Deal, when the Democrats created the very powerful New Deal Coalition to dominate the country. They will need to emotionally connect with voters, promising them that they care about them unlike the GOP. They will need to phrase social programs less as handouts and more as ways to reduce income inequality, promote social mobility, and keep society stable. Adopting the idea of universal basic income wouldn’t be a bad idea; such a program could win over many GOP voters who don’t like the idea of just giving handouts to people.

In essence, the Democratic Party needs a massive makeover. And Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are the way forward. Keith Ellison, a progressive, Muslim Rep from Minnesota, needs to be the next DNC chairman.