{"id":604,"date":"2017-12-23T16:19:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-23T16:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=604"},"modified":"2017-12-23T16:19:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-23T16:19:28","slug":"the-democratic-new-years-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/12\/23\/the-democratic-new-years-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Democratic New Year’s Resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democratic New Year\u2019s Resolution<\/p>\n

“All Politics is Local\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Thomas \u201cTip\u201d O\u2019Neill \u2013 Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives \u2013 1977-1987<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cwave election.\u201d[1]<\/a> 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 \u201cred\u201d district.<\/p>\n

The \u201cred meat\u201d 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 \u201cnon-Resistance\u201d 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 \u201cstatement\u201d should be: \u201cwe should allow the investigations to go forward and the facts to come out. The facts will determine what should happen after that.\u201d As \u201cTip\u201d O\u2019Neill famously said, \u201c\u2026all politics is local,\u201d and Democrats need to build an agenda that impacts voters locally.<\/p>\n

Democrats need to crack the \u201cMillennial malaise.\u201d Many Millennials have taken the position that all politicians are corrupt, so it\u2019s 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\u2019t share the prejudices of their parents and don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Millennials definitely get \u201cnet neutrality.\u201d 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. \u00a0Millennials think Congress should act.<\/p>\n

Democrats should absolutely use the Trump Tax \u201cReform\u201d as a wedge issue with all voters. \u201cBillions to Billionaires, nickels to you\u201d is always a strong start. But the next sentence ought to be: \u201cRepublicans gave big businesses our money, \u00a0money that we could have used to build highways and improve medicare.\u201d It’s not just the tax inequities, it\u2019s that the government is cutting it\u2019s own ability to solve problems.<\/p>\n

The Trump Tax \u201cReform\u201d 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\u2019t make them the villain in the story, what they can do is push the political inequality created by Citizen United: \u201cOne person, one vote; not my billions to buy the candidate I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

And finally, Democrats should stand for government governing, not \u201ccontracting out\u201d its responsibilities. Whether it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

So the list looks like this:<\/p>\n

Education and student loans reform<\/p>\n

Health insurance<\/p>\n

Protection of retirement investments and pensions<\/p>\n

Equal rights for everyone, including minorities, women, LGBTQ<\/p>\n

Fair treatment for immigrants (legal and illegal)<\/p>\n

Congressional Law for Net Neutrality<\/p>\n

\u201cReal\u201d Tax Reform that has those that benefit the most (earn the most) pay more<\/p>\n

Campaign Finance Reform<\/p>\n

Government Institutions doing the work (not sub-contracting to for-profits).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

And to all a Merry Christmas!!!!!!<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/epolls\/other\/2018_generic_congressional_vote-6185.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democratic New Year\u2019s Resolution “All Politics is Local\u201d Thomas \u201cTip\u201d O\u2019Neill \u2013 Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives \u2013 1977-1987\u00a0 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 … Continue reading “The Democratic New Year’s Resolution”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Democratic New Year's Resolution : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/12\/23\/the-democratic-new-years-resolution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Democratic New Year's Resolution : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Democratic New Year\u2019s Resolution “All Politics is Local\u201d Thomas \u201cTip\u201d O\u2019Neill \u2013 Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives \u2013 1977-1987\u00a0 Many Democrats are waiting for the Mueller Investigation and the Courts to change American politics. 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