Anybody here remember January 20th, 2001? You do? Good.
Because all of the Democratic bedwetting I heard then is strikingly similar to what I'm hearing right now. Republicans won a winnable election that our team had lost. Karl Rove talked of realignment and 'permanent Republican majority.' Folks in flyover country were giddy with excitement for the better days to come after the horrors of a Democratic president's record of peace and prosperity. For some reason, there are voters out there who hate it when other people are doing well and they wanted change. Democratic leaders were clueless about what to do about it. All seemed lost... until Republicans began to govern.
If you actually believe progressive policy works and conservative policy doesn't, then you should be optimistic. Like me. Six reasons why you should look forward:
- The country remains sharply divided. That's good! The last thing we should want is Democrats to begin rallying around a minority president who won with significantly less people than George W. Bush won. There's a stronger foundation to build on now than there was in 2000.
- Republicans will fuck up a lot. That's good too. Of course, this means a lot of pain for Americans but hey... you get the government you vote for and that's the government you deserve. We will have opportunities to capitalize on their failures and the pain they cause. Toughness under pressure is the call here. OPPOSE EVERYTHING!
- Social and cultural trends will continue. The country is still going to keep doing what it has been doing in the post Cold War era: rapid technological change, increasing urbanization, racial diversification, and sharp economic inequality between the better educated and the less educated. Democrats have to address these grand trends in a persuasive way because they will not be stopped no matter how angry some white folks are about it. Some people hate change, but in life it is the only thing that is certain other than death.
- Young millennials are entering their thirties. That's great because there are so many of them. They are the most educated generation ever. While so many of them beleive, accurately, that they can effect change more significantly outside of government, they'll begin to see that the government isn't just a benign force under a GOP administration. It is in fact, an impediment to their ambitions. I expect to see many of them moving off the sidelines and into the fight. Questionable is if old, moribund Democrats long past pasture age step aside peacefully or fight to stick around until they die. The jury is out, but I am hopeful the old folks will see sense and realize mentoring is the way to go.
- Progressives have the energy. We've seen over the last 15 years or so a strong revitalization of the the viability of liberalism. There's ideological energy on the left that we aren't seeing on the right. The problem they have is most of the ideas and best players they have are operating outside of government. We need to see that kind of Occupy/Bernie energy channeled through better candidates than the kind of kooks and halfwits who can't get elected despite having their hearts in the right place. There's a deep bench outside of politics and I think Democrats are going to look to them for grooming. Trump should help that process get started.
- These things are cyclical. This country has a long history of back and forth swings between the two parties, interrupted occasionally by brief periods of national unity after a major national crisis. For everyone predicting the demise of the two major parties for one reason or another, you have nothing in the way of evidence. Our system of government is stable, the civic institutions of the country intact and sound. So long as that is the case, and absent a civil war or Trump led proverbial burning of the Reichstag, that cycle of swings to and fro will continue. Democratic leaders will have their day again. The only question is what will they have to say when that day comes. I hope they stick with the people who stick with them and build on that.
Buck up people. There's plenty more to do here. Plenty of opportunities to come. Patience, grasshopper.