It dawned on me this week that one of the major problems the U.S. Democratic Party faces going forward can be summed up in two simple words, intellectual masturbation. That sounds pretty harsh, but the number of intellectual papers and academic analyses that seem to be the majority of the response to their loss in the presidential elections is symptomatic of the problem. They have lost their traditional base. I hate to say it but the percentage of the electorate that has read a book, let alone an academic/intellectual paper, in the last, say, five years, and the percentage that will read almost anything in the next five-to-twenty years is minimal, and going down.
Is that an indictment of the U.S. public education system…absolutely? Recent reports on literacy rates in almost all states are showing declining skills across the board and I don’t want to even think about declining math skills. And, that is a problem that will take decades to correct, and a level of political support that currently is almost non-existent; Trump wants to abolish the Department of Education and his supporters want to burn books that don’t fit with their ideological doctrines.
Underlying all that is a reality I have pointed out on many occasions; no politician in their right mind wants an educated electorate. If such a thing was allowed to become a reality, that educated electorate might start questioning political decisions or, worse, might start holding politicians responsible for their actions.
The Democratic Party has gone down an intellectual rabbit hole, a location where the majority of the potential voters have no wish, or interest, in going. The idea that esoteric concepts like transgender issues (1-2% of the population), LGTBQ issues (5% of the population), Black Lives Matter issues (12% of the population) and many others that formed the major talking points of their 2024 campaign, may add up to 20% of the electorate. YOU DON’T WIN U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS BY APPEALING TO 20% OF THE ELECTORATE.
The recent elections for the new Democratic National Committee again showed that the leadership has no idea why they lost and why Trump won. The speeches and news conferences that came out of those elections basically said “we were on message, and we did nothing wrong”. If they keep going down that rabbit hole, the Party is doomed to future obscurity and irrelevance. CHANGE THE FUCKING MESSAGE AND CHANGE THE FUCKING APPROACH!
The Republicans have been working for decades to manipulate the system by gerrymandering congressional districts and, this time, by understanding what concerns most people. As one of the top democratic strategists has said, loudly, “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID”.
The American public has demonstrated again and again, they are only interested in what affects their pocketbooks. They, overall, could care less about foreign affairs, equal opportunity, Hispanic issues, LGBTQ issues, human rights, Black Lives Matter, Trans issues, even immigration, unless it directly affects their jobs. And that is all the Democrats talk about. No wonder they have lost their traditional base. They are simply talking over the heads of most people’s interests and understanding: Ironically, and sadly, their areas of disinterest and non-understanding also include the U.S. Constitution.
I am not saying those issues are not important and should not be addressed. They absolutely should be in a civilized country. Equally, I am not saying intellectual masturbation is not important either – I am an academic myself. However, to base a national political campaign on those issues is asinine and doomed to failure, as we have seen.
CHANGE THE FUCKING MESSAGE AND CHANGE THE FUCKING APPROACH OR TRUMPERS WILL TURN THE UNITED STATES INTO A DICTATORSHIP BEFORE WE REALISE WHAT IS HAPPENING. IF THAT HAPPENS, CRYING WILL BE JUST AS USELESS AS THE DEMOCRATS’ PRESENT STRATEGY.
I apologise for the language but, as a sage once said, “First, you have to get their attention!”
As a final commentary on the current state of the Democratic Party, I received some encouraging news yesterday. We were having lunch with two friends who had just come from a Colorado Democratic Party semi-annual conference. They reported that the local party head, the state attorney general, and the state’s U.S. congressman all spoke, and no-one mentioned the “20%” issues I cited above. Instead, they described concrete plans to use the courts to stop Trump and a concerted effort to win back the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate (the Republican majorities in both are very slim). Encouraging, hopefully, but the future relies on actions not just plans and talk.
