In a victory for America, last Tuesday Democrat Doug Jones defeated the GOP favorite, Roy Moore, in a special election for one of Alabama’s two Senate seats. The victory was an upset, for sure, and if you listen to Democrats they would tell you it’s the greatest political upset in the modern history of the country. Knowing what allegations judge Moore faces — namely pedophilia, which makes his blatant racism a mere afterthought — it’s no doubt a positive he didn’t capture the seat.
However, for Democrats to cheer this as some sort of meaningful breakthrough is probably misleading. Establishment stooges like House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), or Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (NY), would like you to believe Doug Jones’s centrism won the day. What really happened was: Centrism beat a racist pedophile by a whole 1.5 percent. Way to go, centrism!
It can be funny to poke at people in the South for their way of life, notably how they tend to reject evolution at a higher clip than the rest of the country. I think that’s a fair criticism, worthy of scorn. But it’s the soft bigotry of low expectations that makes anyone — in this case largely Democrats — just assume Alabama would elect Moore simply because of his (deep red) party affiliation. As it turns out, people in the South aren’t entirely what people say they are.
With that said: I think the worst possible takeaways from this Democratic win are that centrism alone did the trick, or that the people of Alabama voted for Jones just to protest Donald Trump. That ain’t what happened. They voted against a pedophile, and the Democrats ran a candidate that could only muster a win within the margin of error. This is what centrism gets you, folks. And candidates like Jones are the reason liberals are in massive trouble heading into the 2018 midterms. When you run centrists, you lose. Unless of course they are up against guys who touch underage girls.
Unfortunately, Democratic leadership doesn’t seem to understand this. Well, maybe that isn’t the right way of putting it. Of course they understand this. But they are paid handsomely by their donors to not understand, if that makes sense. The only surefire way to dominate elections from now to kingdom come is to offer people something to vote for. Since the devastation and embarrassment of losing to Trump in 2016, the Democratic Party has not fundamentally changed any of their problems — the things that delivered Trump in the first place. That is what makes them losers, and it’s why they can probably expect to lose again next year.
To be fair, Progressive champion Bernie Sanders has not helped the situation. While he admirably stumps around the country on all of his campaign talking points — like single-payer healthcare, free college, and an increased minimum wage — he has been doing outreach for the Democrats even though they don’t support any of those things. The Democrats are in the business of double-dipping: They want to benefit from Bernie attracting new people into the party without the burden of actually caving to any of his ideas. On the surface, Sanders’s motivation here seems a tad perplexing.
Although I have no idea whether I’m right or wrong, I believe Bernie is doing it for two reasons. The first may be obvious: He wants to turn existing Democrats onto his message. If he talks enough, and explains that his vision for the Democratic Party is actually the old vision — back when the President was Franklin Roosevelt and they had to invent term limits because he was so popular — then the blueprint becomes more palatable.
The second reason is a little deeper, but it’s what I would do in his position. It’s that, when 2020 rolls around and Bernie becomes the frontrunner on the Democratic ticket, he will be able to throw his hands in the air and say he did absolutely everything they asked. So when they attempt to thwart his chances during the primary, which they will surely try to do, he can effectively tell them to go fuck themselves. Because at this point he can run away and hide with the amount of support he has; never forget he is far and away the most popular politician in the country. If the Democrats don’t back Sanders in 2020, he can run as a viable third party candidate and would be the favorite to win a plurality against a corporate Democrat and Donald Trump. I don’t think that’s what he wants to do. I just think he understands that’s what has to be done.
The writing is on the wall for the Democratic Party. So while they collectively jizz over Doug Jones defeating Roy Moore, what are they really celebrating? Do they think the American people are finally turning on Trump? Do they think it’s proof that centrism is the only way to combat the agenda of the right wing? Again, these are the exact opposite conclusions that should be drawn.
Being a white millennial from Southern California, one could say I am not fully in tune with the underbelly of America. I’m not from an area of the country that has been hit hard by the trade deals that have shipped U.S. jobs overseas. I’m not a farmer. I don’t live miles away from my nearest neighbor.
What I do know is the people who love Donald Trump are not going anywhere. Right this second they believe, like truly believe, Trump is “draining the swamp,” and I know this because it’s what they tell me whenever I troll them into a political discussion. The media and Democrats are the bad guys, they say. Russia is a fake story, they say. Donald Trump is their guy, and whatever insane shit he does, his supporters are a thousand percent on board with him. It’s really remarkable, actually. I just don’t know if it’s funny (in a scary way) or scary (in a funny way).
But real life, that is where the shit goes down. That is where the people are. I pay about as much attention to the anchors and reporters on CNN and MSNBC as I do to the whacked out online Trump conspiracy theorists, which is to say very little. The conversations that matter are at home, or in the streets, or (if there is opportunity) in the workplace. These are the conversations people should have.
This is why I never understood why Democrats have tried to turn Donald Trump into some kind of unicorn — something totally outside the realm of normal in American politics — when what they should have done is tie him directly to the Republican Party. Because the policies he has supported, such as his anti-worker healthcare bill, or anti-worker tax code, or xenophobic travel ban, are items any Republican president would have checked off. Trump is not different than a normal Republican.
But neither side agrees with me on this. Trump supporters feel like their man is anti-establishment even when every meaningful policy he has tried to pass has been at the behest of the establishment. Democrats, on the other hand, are attempting to convince people that every major problem with the United States only came into being when Trump took office. And, clearly, if you have read this far then you should know both sides are wrong.
Me personally, I’m not mad either way. It seems like both sides are so entrenched in their beliefs — just as I am entrenched in mine — that normal conversations about this stuff are almost impossible to have. That is what’s nice about being in my position, a political free agent of sorts, because I enjoy talking to Trump supporters. I actually agree, on the mainstream media or the Russia story, with a lot of Trump supporters.
I don’t know a lot of things, but this bit is important: The fight for the future of America will not be done by making Donald Trump seem like an outlier. It’s only going to further the loyalty of the die-hard Trump supporter. The fight for the future will be done with ideas. So whenever I get to talking to a Trump fan, I look to find out what I can agree with them on. And once we can agree, I make a couple references to the way the Democrats and Republicans both do business — and how Donald Trump does the exact same thing — and ask them how unreasonable it would be if we tried something different.
Now, I realize there is a healthy percentage of people who cannot be reached. I don’t know if it’s as low as 10% or as high as 18% or 20%, but either way there’s nothing you can do about it. While that sucks, it doesn’t change that I am still a believer in people reaching the proper conclusions. The same country that elected Barack Obama also elected Donald Trump. So now is not the time to all of a sudden call Americans racists, or fascists, or neo-Nazis. (Those people exist, but they aren’t the up-for-grabs group I’m talking about here.) Those labels do not help the longterm cause.
People need to be educated, and since the mainstream media does an exceptionally poor job at that, it’s up to the people to help each other. You don’t have to take my word for anything I write on here. The only thing you need to understand is that, if you live in America, 60% of the money you pay in taxes goes to the military, which spends more per year on toys and guns than the next dozen countries combined. And both sides — Democrat and Republican — are 100 percent on board. The media never asks who is going to pay for it when America goes to war.
They only ask you who’s going to pay for it when it has to do with helping working families. When the U.S. decides it needs to increase the military budget by $50 billion, the mainstream news doesn’t bat an eye. If a politician proposed that we use that money to pay for kids to go to college for free, or to expand Medicaid, then every single pundit would come on TV to tell you how bad of an idea it is, or if it’s even possible that America can afford to do such a thing.
Half the country makes $30,000 or less per year. In the richest country in the history of the world, 50 percent of Americans live at or below the poverty line. If you believe that is moral, that there is nothing to see here, then by all means continue to support the two parties that have made it happen, and are actively looking to make matters worse. I’m just the sad sunuva bitch who thinks there is a better way, and that a better way is absolutely possible.
Donald Trump is not going to be the guy to deliver. And if you know me and the direction of almost every political post on here, then you know that the Democrats are not going to be the ones to help, either. Both parties worship one thing, and that one thing is money. Their job is to represent the people, but it turns out the only people that matter to them are the ones cutting the checks.
Future Bets 