CT Blue

The meme seems to be taking hold, at least among the citizens of Left Blogistan, that Democrats lost big this year because they have no coherent message and offer voters no particular reason to vote for them, relying instead on the argument, express or implied, that you should vote against Republicans. While that latter statement is true, it doesn't sell.

Nor, in my opinion, do some of the issues we are told that the Democrats should push. A good example of what I'm talking about is here. I don't argue with any of these proposals on a theoretical basis; they are all good. But many achieve their results at second or third remove, becoming more diffuse and less effective in the process. Far better to push for things whose immediate impact is clear, unambiguous and meaningful; something people will turn out to prevent Republicans from taking away (Democrats ran on the threat to social security for years). For instance, the aggregate impact of a $500 per person increase in the personal exemption might be significant, but you need to be an economist to appreciate that. To the average voter it amounts to a small reduction in taxes that, while nice, is not life changing. Not the kind of thing to get a reluctant voter to the polls. Even the suggested raise in the minimum wage is weak beer. Why not go for a wage that is equivalent to that which prevailed when we had a middle class? That would mean a more than $17.50 minimum wage, against which a wage of $12.50 looks pretty weak. We have a tendency to advocate for things we think we might get after compromising rather than the things we actually want (or claim we want). We’ve seen the result of starting negotiations from what we think will sell to the nonexistent moderate Republicans; we end up with muddled results such as the ACA, which pleased no one. Imagine what Social Security would look like today if FDR had proposed a system he thought might be acceptable to Republicans. At least then, some Republicans might have listened, and they might have allowed a vote. That’s not happening now.

One would also hope that Democrats have learned that you can succeed through obstruction, as the Republicans have done in spades. That doesn’t mean we should obstruct; it does mean that if we can retake the majority we should destroy the means of obstruction and push through our programs. Better to lose because your policies failed than to lose because they were never implemented in the first place, which is precisely why we just lost.