Autopsy - Moving Forward

The Democratic Party needs to start re-positioning itself, or trends like this will continue. Clinton managed to pull out a lead in the popular vote, yet she lost ground in several key states that President Obama had flipped in 2012. The fact is, the Democratic Party needs to find itself, and with a crop of potential candidates moving forward, it is time to move forward and have a changing of the guards. Rather than blame everyone else because they lost, you know third party voters, the FBI, Russian hackers, the DNC needs to own this, they need to realize that votes are not owed to their candidate. They need to step back and really look at the final picture of this election. They put forth, via super-delegates a candidate that did not inspire people, who had problems getting a hundred people gathered at a campaign stop. The top of the ticket itself was a rehash of neo-liberal and friendly conservatism. The choice to go with yet another neo-liberal at the top of the ticket harmed the down ballot races. Creating a scenario where the GOP was given control of the Senate, on top of the control they already had within the House of Representatives.

As stated, the Democratic Party needs to re-position itself back towards the left, with the occasional standing towards the center. They need to promote policy, strong sound liberal policy, in which they take the time to explain their standing and why they are standing there. They need to show that they are not cozy with Wall Street and moneyed people, but with the people. To promote policies which do not only stand for those on Wall Street or those who have more money than twenty people could possibly spend in a lifetime. They do not need to continue shouting down at those who say this is wrong, you are wrong, and we need better. It is simple, do or do not there is no try, be better, listen to the concerns of people, and I mean legitimately listen, do not play lip service to ideals or demands. They need to take a position that is less hawkish and interventionist. Yeah that view plays up to conservative voters, but taking the view that we should use our military as a last resort also resonates with many people.

The Democratic Party needs to do something about the nearly 50% of eligible voters who didn't bother voting. Now I hear a lot of blame going around right now, but the truth of it is, Stein barely got 1% of the vote, Johnson voters didn't take much of anything from Clinton at 1.7%, and 46.9% of people did not vote in this election. Why didn't people show up, because they thought it was pointless, because they assumed Clinton had it in the bag, or was it something else. I'd put money on the fact that this segment of the population saw little difference between Trump and Clinton, and realized that nothing will change, because they were not inspired or felt it important to go to the polls.
The DNC needs to drop this “You have to vote for our candidate, because the other guy is worse...” mentality. The truth of it is, that is not at all inspiring. That is a fear based attack, one that people have become numb to. Sorry ladies and gents, fear based politics is starting to fail. Trump came in, used fear just enough to get his foot in the door, then screamed “Make America Great Again,” and enough people in enough places made it possible for him to try. While the Democratic Party, said but “The Supreme Court,” and “Abortion rights,” and a bunch of other things that did not sway voters.
Now, lets take a brief look at who will be leading the charge after this blowout, and depending on what the DNC takes away from this election. If the DNC decides to continue business as usual, in an ever increasing atypical election cycle in which being part of the current corrupt establishment is seen as a badge of honor, you will have Blue Dog Democrat Tim Kaine. The guy who is personally against abortion, but won't touch the good or bad laws that it attracts. As it stands today, I do not foresee anyone who is known to be tied to the establishment being able to gather enough votes to win, unless they have a proven track record of going against the current flow of pro-business interests. In other words, the only people with a chance to win, are going to be those who have managed to be behind the people, helping to bring them up. That isn't Trump, but he made a vow to help them, and they bought it.

Now, I didn't mention all the possible candidates that could begin leading the DNC and Democratic Party, just Tim Kaine, because he is currently the obvious contender for being the head of this party, as of this moment. If a lesson is learned, and the part decides to attempt to rebuild, move away from its current neo-liberal change, we are likely to see Sanders and other hard line progressives take charge. I won't list them all because leadership might emerge from a currently unknown person within the party, or someone who simply “comes in out of the cold.”

Alas, I have serious reservations about the DNC currently. We had a similar situation play out in 2000, and nothing was taken away from it in 2004. By 2008, Obama came along and played the part correctly, enough to be able to continue the prevailing trend while doing just enough to keep people happy enough to vote for him in 2012. But by 2016, we were in the same boat with a typical politician running in an atypical race. Until the DNC, and the Democratic Party realize that real efforts need to be made on those issues that the majority of Americans are feeling and reeling from, things will only get worse.