Rethinking Democratic Party Strategy

In the wake of the GOP’s inability to repeal and replace Obamacare and the Democratic party realizing they are a  minority party out of power from city hall to Congress, both parties have circled their respective wagons and firing their guns at their own partisans.  The Democrats have one  set of problems. Theirs is strategy: whether to work with President Trump on some matters of agreement or whether to stonewall everything proposed by Trump and the GOP.  

The GOP’s problem is ideological v political pragmatism, trying to unite two very different factions with very different constituencies. Their chasm opened widely with , the right concerned about limiting federal government and increasing tax breaks to  corporations and wealthy  in the name of job creation and the moderates more concerned about solving the everyday problems of their more purple state constituents .

The Democrats do not have major philosophical and political differences, making it easier to unite.  However, there are some very significant conflicting viewpoints about strategy.  One camp would like to do unto the GOP what the GOP had done unto them. For seven years, the GOP had tried to  stonewall everything in Congress the Democrats wanted, from Supreme Court nominees to stimulus, to Obamacare, to environmental protections, to Wall Street reform.. The GOP had become the party of “no”, and now, imany believe it is the turn  for the Democrats to become the party of no. .

What is a danger is that HSS Secretary Tom Price could do much damage sabotaging the ACA with his administrative functions and the upcoming tax reform legislation could also do some harm. It would be self-fulling the GOP’s prophecy that the ACA was destroying itself.

The alternative is for Democrats joining together with President Trump in coalition politics with Trump supporters and  moderate GOP pragmatists  to repair the ACA and support infrastructure spending. The danger is that it might make Trump look good enough, he would be re-elected, jeopardizing the crucial appointment to the Supreme Court that makes it extremely conservative, jeopardizing Roe v Wade or other issues dear to the Democratic hearts.   

On the other hand, Democrats are beginning to realize that support they normally would have had in 2016 swung to Trump because he showed sympathy with unhappiness of less educated, Southern cultured, and northern blue collar workers ,and promised he would fix it.  Addressing that unhappiness is where both Trump and Bernie Sanders came together and Hillary Clinton missed the boat.   

Where both parties are in danger is forgetting  that their constituents have the power to make a difference in both the Electoral College, the raw national polls, and even local elections.  The laurel leaf of victory will be worn by the party that realizes that partisan warfare and ideology in the long run are not the winners.  It is which party understands the causes  of voter discontent and demonstrates the ability to craft laws and policies that appeal to the restless swing voters.

The Democratic party will have to do what it can to show it cares, even if it means joining in a coalition of strange bedfellows on certain issues. They still have the voice, if not Congressional votes, to raise cain when the GOP harms those same swing voters.