Before I get to this week’s column, dear readers, I’d like to apologize for my absence the last few weeks. I had several urgent life events that needed my full attention (John Lennon once famously quipped that “life is what happens while you’re making your plans”), but I am now back and ready for further punishment. I’ve missed you.
Onward:
The Democrats of my acquaintance are still grieving from Donald Trump’s victory in last month’s national election, but at some point the party needs to put away the urn filled with the ashes of this year’s electoral disaster and figure out where to go next.
Taking inspiration from Alcoholics Anonymous, I think step one is Democrats admitting that they have a problem.
There is no getting around it: the situation faced by the Democratic Party is dire. In a few weeks, Republicans will control the presidency, both houses of Congress (and thus, soon, the Supreme Court), they will have both houses of the legislature in 32 states, and have “complete dominance” (Republican governor plus Republican legislature) in 25 states. The Democrats, by contrast, control both houses of the legislature in just 14 states, and have complete dominance in only six.
The problems go deeper than just this year’s defeat. There are also the crushing defeats — not just reasonably-to-be-expected-in-midterms modest losses, but crushing defeats — Democrats suffered in the mid-term elections in 2010 and 2014, and the fact that they could not take back both houses of Congress in the 2012 presidential election with a popular and charismatic president at the top of the ticket, point to deeper problems for the Democratic Party.
The clear (to me, at least) implication of the failures of the last six years is the first lesson of 2016:
1. Even when they win, they don’t win enough.
They don’t have a big enough coalition of voters to reliably give them a governing majority (i.e., Democratic president and Congress), and I don’t see this changing for the foreseeable future unless they act to expand their coalition.
The “Coalition of the Ascendant” that is the current target demographic of the Democratic Party is composed of highly educated voters, particularly in the bigger, more cosmopolitan “Alpha” and near-alpha cities and metropolitan areas (New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) plus racial and cultural minorities.
Added together, that is roughly 50 percent of the country. What that means is that in Democratic “wave” years (e.g., 2006, 2008), they may get a governing majority, but the more usual, typical case will be that the presidency and/or at least one house of Congress will be in Republican hands, which the last six years have amply shown is enough to make any significant progress on issues Democrats care about extremely unlikely, at best.
They need more people to be reliable, loyal democratic voters, so that the worst case is they have 50 percent plus a smidge, and the usual case is they have a governing majority. That is the only way to make progressive change that won’t be repealed the next time a Republican takes the White House (and for that matter, will make it unlikely for a Republican to gain the White House to begin with).
Where are their opportunities for expansion? That’s the second lesson of this year’s disaster:
2. The Democratic Party is not doing nearly enough for working-class voters.
Notice I didn’t say, “white” working class. I said working class, period – of every ethnicity. Let me define what I mean by working class: “people living the usual situation of the 70 percent of the country that does not have a bachelor’s degree or above.”
Notice that I said, “the usual situation.” You might point out that there are people who don’t have college degrees who are doing just fine (e.g., Bill Gates) and you’d be right. The thing is, people like Bill Gates, and for that matter a more common example like, say, a guy who went from being a carpenter to a successful contractor, are not the typical case most of the time. The vast, vast bulk of people who do not have college degrees have been either running in place or slipping backwards the last 30 to 40 years.
The Democrats used to have lots to offer people like that, but for 20 or more years they have done far too little. Dr. Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary and Professor of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley, gave a decent summary in a recent article for the British newspaper The Guardian:
“Democrats have occupied the White House for 16 of the last 24 years, and for four of those years had control of both houses of Congress. But in that time they failed to reverse the decline in working-class wages and economic security. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama ardently pushed for free trade agreements without providing millions of blue-collar workers who thereby lost their jobs means of getting new ones that paid at least as well.
“They stood by as corporations hammered trade unions, the backbone of the white working class – failing to reform labor laws to impose meaningful penalties on companies that violate them, or help workers form unions with simple up-or-down votes. Partly as a result, union membership sank from 22 percent of all workers when Bill Clinton was elected president to less than 12 percent today, and the working class lost bargaining leverage to get a share of the economy’s gains.
“Bill Clinton and Obama also allowed antitrust enforcement to ossify – with the result that large corporations have grown far larger, and major industries more concentrated. The unsurprising result of this combination – more trade, declining unionization and more industry concentration – has been to shift political and economic power to big corporations and the wealthy, and to shaft the working class. This created an opening for Donald Trump’s authoritarian demagoguery, and his presidency.”
Dr. Reich is right. I’ll have more – much more – in part 2 next week.
Matt Talbot is a writer and poet, as well as an old Benicia hand.
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What you are saying in your article is not new. I have been saying the same thing for years. You just pick up facts and then write an article about them. You have no vision. You just write about what has already been reported. You are what the Democrat/Progressive party is all about. Words and no action. Your party is old and worn out. Nancy, Hillary, Chuck, Leahy, Durbin, Diane and now the turncoats Bernie and Warren. Completely out of touch with reality. Your leaders are dreamers and agenda driven failures. They could care less about the voters. It will take years to remake your party. You will be no help. You just repeat what everyone else already knows. The Republican party has got it right and it took time to build that vision. They are not about to let go. Get use to very strong Republican party leaders. California be aware you are next.
Prove It
https://vimeo.com/194758694?ref=em-share
Not sure what your saying. But the results proved it.
Exactly.
You seem to really enjoy living in your alternate reality, sir.
I do believe your comments tell us the world you live\ in. Enjoy the next 16+ years. It will be fun.
You personify the people in this country who couldn’t care less about how your actions hurt the marginalized people who live here and now fear for their lives. You can’t possibly know anyone in that position because they don’t exist in your reality. Your sarcastic comment reveals that perfectly.
(Interesting that you don’t reveal your real identity. Mr. Owl.)
Thanks to you and those who live in your world, relatives in our family now fear for their lives and the lives of their children. It’s pretty hard to enjoy that.
“(Interesting that you don’t reveal your real identity. Mr. Owl.)”.
Now that is funny. How will we ever know who: Bob ‘The Owl’ Livesay really is.
Yes, perfect…Thank you, Mr. Owl, for responding just as I’d hoped and expected.
Bob Livesay is my real name. I live in Benicia. What is wrong with you.
Lol. You gave it away Bob!
Dear Mr. Livesay,
“What is wrong with you?”
Yep, I’m a bit damaged from working in your town, (far too long), with some unkind Christians and closed-minded people. My guess is that would damage anyone.
Jane quit being a bigot and lighten up. There is nothing wrong with me. I assume there is also nothing wrong with you. I have being posting and writing LTTE for a very long time. Over three hundred LTTE and many more postings. I know a lot of people in town. Very concerned you would question my name. but at the same time just who are you.
Hi Mr. Livesay,
Please don’t be concerned about my oversight regarding your name. I skimmed reading it, most likely because writing to this site elevates my blood pressure. That’s due to residual post trauma from horrible experiences I had while working in your town.
Thank you for your willingness to keep our dialogue going. I appreciate that.
I’d like to refrain from using charged words like bigot, This should explain what happened to me:
My Turn: ‘You are not liked here’
By: Vallejo Times-Herald
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 – 9:00 p.m.
Years ago, after area newspapers printed my commentary about the school district’s indifference to serving emotionally disturbed students, it didn’t take long for the administrators to hold a meeting to inform me that I had committed a sin. I met with legal counsel provided by my union, and was advised not to repeat anything that was said at that meeting. Strikingly, what wasn’t mentioned in the meeting made the biggest impression on me: The safety and well-being of the students and their teachers. It seemed that the image of the school district and its own town took precedence. One thing was clear: They couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.
That was 2007 (www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_7241927?source=email), and I needed to work until 2012 if I wanted to retire with the pension for which I worked so hard. (Teachers in California don’t receive Social Security.) If I made any more waves, I could kiss that pension goodbye. But the wheels of retaliation were already set in motion to drive me away.
Before I became a whistleblower, I was a creative, hard-working and well-liked teacher. I loved my job. But that changed when the school principal began filling my classes with a disproportionate number of students with behavior or emotional problems, the kind of students I had addressed in my article.
One year of having this kind of class takes a toll on a teacher’s physical and emotional health. But having this kind of class for five consecutive years, without
anyone’s support, almost killed my soul and faith in people.
There was no support when a large boy threw a chair across the room, and his foster mother verbally abused me. There was no support when an emotionally disturbed girl threw tantrums. There was no support when I asked for help with the student who verbalized 75 percent of his thoughts during instruction and quiet work times. There was no support when a boy begged me not to tell his dad about fights he had with other kids, because his dad would hit him with the belt.
The principal retaliated against me every way she could. I couldn’t even get faulty electrical wiring fixed in my classroom. Frustrated that it still hadn’t been repaired after my third written request, I asked her in person.
She was leaning back in the office manager’s chair, a favorite parent and janitor sitting on chairs facing her. “Now, now, Jane, ask nicely!” were the next words I heard as the janitor and parent laughed along as she ridiculed me.
Gradually my health did suffer from a toxic work environment. I was physically exhausted and became anxious and depressed. There was nothing left inside of me to create lesson plans, correct papers, have good judgement and be the good, well-liked teacher I had been for the 18 years prior to this nightmare.
That was unfortunate for the student teacher assigned to me in my final year. Rather than watching me demonstrate good teaching, he took my place. My personality had changed so drastically during those final years that I didn’t recognize myself. Behind my back, untrue rumors were circulated among some staff and parents. Eventually I was ostracized by most of the staff.
Teaching at the end of my career took all the will and perseverance I could muster. I was numb and operating on automatic. To this day, I don’t know how I made it to the finish line.
It felt like a miracle when I could finally retire in 2012, as I had planned. On my last day, one of the teachers looked me in the eye and said, “You are not liked here.”
After I retired, therapy helped me recover and heal. In counseling I learned that I was in a crisis for five years, and anyone or anything associated with the school became triggers that brought terrible feelings back, a symptom of post trauma.
I paid a huge price by sticking it out until the brutal end, but whistleblowers always do. I am proud that I spoke out when my first piece published.
I would do it again in a heartbeat … and I guess I just did.
Jane Hara/Recovering teacher
Link to my commentary in the Contra Costa Times, which puts the second article into perspective:
(www.contracostatimes.com/
opinion/ci_7241927?source=email)
oops, wrong link…Here it is:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_7241927?source=email
Matt,
You are overlooking several major aspects, which you may already plan to cover in Part II, but it is difficult to overlook the fact that the Democrats had the House, The Senate and the Presidency for two full years and they failed to deliver for the American people.
What did they deliver on, beyond Obamacare? And what did John Gruber tell us? That they lied and deceived the stupid voters’.
The Democrats have many issues, not the least of which is looking down their noses as elitist snobs who think they are the only ones with the answers.
They need to learn to listen and not to lecture.
Maybe I should not have said that, as I am enjoying watching the Democrats self destruct.
DDL,
Are you serious?
Conveniently you ignored the fact that the “republicans” stonewalled the evil black president every step of the way.
Your blindness, and that of many Trump supporters, is what will go down in history as the cause of overt bigotry and big oil’s FREEDOM to line their pockets to bursting while ignoring the destruction of our planet and the victims who will suffer in their wake.
“In a way, the world−view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“Conveniently you ignored the fact that the “republicans” stonewalled the evil black president every step of the way.”
Don’t forget they also stonewalled the evil white parts of that same President. And thank God they did! Had they not we would really be in a mess.
One additional comment: Regarding Robert Reich.: I would be careful listening to him. Earlier this year he also said:
“I’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization. It died in 2016. RIP.”
Matt, Welcome back. I hope your “urgent life events” were not too traumatic. It’s good to be able to read your well thought out words again. Cheers!
Not his words. Someone else or as I would say many have said the same thing. Not new or well thought out.
Nice to hear from you Bob. It is always delightful to see your quixotic outlook on posted comments. I hope your holiday season has kicked of with a bang. Cheers!
very practical and better yet true.
Matt –
Why are you so focused on what’s best for the Democratic Party? Why not focus on what is best for America? For her citizens?
Good point, Tom.
Thanks.
Today I’m focusing on this.
“The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn’t care if you are a white person who likes black people; it’s still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don’t look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no one is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we’re immediately born into. It’s like being born into air: you take it in as soon as you breathe. It’s not a cold that you can get over. There is no anti-racist certification class. It’s a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world. It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it’s hard work, but it’s the price you pay for owning everything.”
-Scott Woods