Democrats: Musings on Losing [time-dated archive]

When you get down to it, the leading Democrats in Congress no longer have a message, a unified strategy, or even a point. Republicans recognize this, and they are gleefully capitalizing on their opponents' weaknesses, because they're ruthless Social Darwinist playas.

The GOP is snatching up up every talking point that ever gave Democrats an edge in the polls. They've already rebranded themselves as the Pro-Union party (see: NAFTA, TPP, labor leaders' press statements on Trump meetings), and after Obama's 6 wars of aggression, they even have a slight edge as the *more* Anti-War party (see also: Trump's "America Can't Afford More Regime Change" platform in the 2016 campaign, along with nearly everything that Ron/Rand Paul have ever said against U.S. wars of aggression).

In terms of labor alone, consider the chilling implications of a recent statement by Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa, on President Donald Trump signing an executive order to formally withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“Today, President Trump made good on his campaign promise to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. With this decision, the president has taken the first step toward fixing 30 years of bad trade policies that have cost working Americans millions of good-paying jobs. The Teamsters Union has been on the frontline of the fight to stop destructive trade deals like the TPP, China PNTR, CAFTA and NAFTA for decades. Millions of working men and women saw their jobs leave the country as free trade policies undermined our manufacturing industry. We hope that President Trump’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Jan. 31 opens a real dialogue about fixing the flawed NAFTA.
“We take this development as a positive sign that President Trump will continue to fulfill his campaign promises in regard to trade policy reform and instruct the USTR to negotiate future agreements that protect American workers and industry."

And last but not least, we have the formerly leftist narrative during the Cold War, the height of GOP saber-tattling against the Kremlin: "We can't afford to escalate military tensions with Russia," and it seems like the Right has learned all the lessons about populist electoral mobilization that the Left should have learned by the late 1970s. Looks like the GOP has appropriated this Leftist platform too; Trump is all of a sudden the grownup in the room on military escalation with Russia, at least compared to MSNBC and half of the Democratic leadership... because these clowns have set the bar THAT low!

What happened, Democrats? I keep asking this of friends who seem to trust most politicians with a [D] after their name, but all I get back is people saying "Dude, you're killing The Resistance by questioning the need to have faith in corporatists and centrists who are basically 1980s Republicans. They are the leaders of The Resistance. They won't say how they plan to lead, but they're quite clear that Trump is really bad."

My response: "Umm... yeah, no shit. What's your point? What policies? What ironclad values? Any resistance to mass surveillance? How about Obama signing off on indefinite detention for anyone in the 2012 NDAA that he promised to veto if it included those exact previsions?"  Sometimes, it almost seems as if there is just one authoritarian party, which comes in "hard" and "soft" flavors...

Please tell me, Democratic Party policymakers: WHAT'S THE PLAN?! If you hold public office and these questions send chills down you spine, it's quite possible that you are a sellout. Seriously, is anyone in the party going to stand up to these crony-capitalist clowns? Call me a hypocrite, since I'm out with the DemExit and can't even influence the [D] primaries any more. Like that loathsome Vermont Indpendent Bernie Sanders, who's broadly despised within The Party for "not being a Real Democrat," I no longer have street cred. if I did, I'd be sure to spearhead a doomed attempt at a Progressive insurgency against corporatist millionaire Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

I'm not sure how. but I bet that given a week, the overlords controlling the Republican Hive Mind could get millions of people to associate building oil pipelines with the idea that "Climate change is real, and the Democrats are responsible." Republicans have vile ethics, but the Left could learn a lot from their amazingly successful strategies for turning out votes. Or it may just be that the competition doesn't even rank in terms of persuasive messages, decisive "I will do A, B, and C" platforms, or the projection of strength, all of which play well with American voters across the board.