The Democratic New Year’s Resolution
“All Politics is Local”
Thomas “Tip” O’Neill – Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives – 1977-1987
Many Democrats are waiting for the Mueller Investigation and the Courts to change American politics. While it may well happen in the next year, the outcome is out of the hands of most Democrats. There is, however, an event that is completely in the hands of every Democrat, and every voter: the election of 2018.
And while many of us (Democrats that is) are still trying to recover from the electoral wounds of 2016, the reality of November 2018 represents a huge opportunity. Clearly the Republicans led by Trump are weakened, and despite gerrymandered districts drawn to benefit Republicans, we are on the cusp of a huge “wave election.”[1] Generic polling (Dem v Rep) shows Democrats with a baseline lead in many currently Republican Congressional districts. This includes races against well known Republicans like Darrell Issa and Dana Rohrabacker. Even a challenger to Speaker Paul Ryan is only six points behind in a solidly “red” district.
The “red meat” issue to the Resistance base is President Trump. Their hope is for a Democratic majority in the House to proceed towards Impeachment. But this is not the most significant issue to the “non-Resistance” voter, the voter that Democrats will need to win over. It is not in the Democrats best interest to make the 2018 election about Impeachment. The Democratic “statement” should be: “we should allow the investigations to go forward and the facts to come out. The facts will determine what should happen after that.” As “Tip” O’Neill famously said, “…all politics is local,” and Democrats need to build an agenda that impacts voters locally.
Democrats need to crack the “Millennial malaise.” Many Millennials have taken the position that all politicians are corrupt, so it’s not worth participating. The changes wrought by the Trump Administration have the potential to shock them into participation. Some issues of specific concern: education and student loans repayment, health insurance and retirement investment. Most Millennials don’t share the prejudices of their parents and don’t want to restrict immigration and roll back LGBTQ rights. Their world includes all of those folks and gets along fine. They feel their government should do the same.
Millennials definitely get “net neutrality.” They see this as THE example of government being bought. The FCC ruling allowing the service providers to monetize differing speeds on the internet directly hits their wallet, and is an issue with a Congressional solution. Millennials think Congress should act.
Democrats should absolutely use the Trump Tax “Reform” as a wedge issue with all voters. “Billions to Billionaires, nickels to you” is always a strong start. But the next sentence ought to be: “Republicans gave big businesses our money, money that we could have used to build highways and improve medicare.” It’s not just the tax inequities, it’s that the government is cutting it’s own ability to solve problems.
The Trump Tax “Reform” further accelerates the widening income gap in the United States, but many Americans view million/billionaires as something they aspire to be. Because of that, Democrats can’t make them the villain in the story, what they can do is push the political inequality created by Citizen United: “One person, one vote; not my billions to buy the candidate I want.”
And finally, Democrats should stand for government governing, not “contracting out” its responsibilities. Whether it’s in public education, prisons, spying or wars: it is the job of the government to fulfill the obligations, not hire someone else to do it.
So the list looks like this:
Education and student loans reform
Health insurance
Protection of retirement investments and pensions
Equal rights for everyone, including minorities, women, LGBTQ
Fair treatment for immigrants (legal and illegal)
Congressional Law for Net Neutrality
“Real” Tax Reform that has those that benefit the most (earn the most) pay more
Campaign Finance Reform
Government Institutions doing the work (not sub-contracting to for-profits).
It’s a start. Democrats need to be FOR something, not just against Trump. If the party can find the candidates (and the finances) to articulate that agenda, then January 2019 will have a whole new look. That should be this year’s Democratic New Year’s Resolution.
And to all a Merry Christmas!!!!!!
[1] https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/2018_generic_congressional_vote-6185.html
