Can Democrats Stay on Task to Defeat Republicans in 2018?

Trump surrounded himself with billionaires at his first state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron and First lady Brigitte Macron but neglected to invite his African American court jester Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian West.

Democrats lost the high profile Arizona race for the House of Representative in a district that Trump won by more than 20 points but narrowed the Republican victory to approximately six points. However, they have made inroads into the number of seats needed to take over the House in 2018. The Democrats’ major political challenge is not to be sidetracked by focusing on the past, current, and future scandals surrounding Trump and his associates. The print and broadcast media will provide ample coverage and emphasis on these events. To date, Trump’s not so secret political strategy has been to lure Democrats into a modern day “rope a dope” scheme akin to Muhammed Ali’s approach to fighting heavyweight champion, George Foreman, for the title in 1974. Ali maneuvered him into expending his energy by punching himself out, while Ali leaned on the ropes, before he knocked Foreman out in the eighth round. This tactic worked against Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Trump could prevail during the midterms if Democrats persist in pursuing it.

It would be prudent for Democrats to essentially chill in their continuing criticism of the President at every turn as a major party emphasis. There are far more important efforts that they should pursue. First, they need to support teachers, a critical part of their base, in their protests and strikes to fully fund public education, raise their wages, ensure the safety of their students, and defeat the privatization of public education. To date, Democrats have essentially straddled the fence in their backing of teachers and public education as they have provided aid and comfort to those individuals, organization, and corporations who are daily creating initiatives to privatize education and other public services for private profit. Teachers need to demand that Democrats work closely with them to frame an education agenda that they will promote at the local, state, and federal levels. They must also be assertive in making certain that Democrats hold the line against the dismantling of public education and of their profession.

Second, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) needs to be more inclusive in communicating with all its groups— suburban white females, millennials, people of color, immigrants, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities to ensure that their primary concerns are incorporated into the DNC platform. It must refrain from advancing a national plan that requires its base to follow a political itinerary that is not always in sync with local and regional interests. This was evident in the 2017 statewide elections and legislative races that Democrats won rather handily in most instances and by large margins in races for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General based on their direct attentiveness to their constituents. There are limited indications that the DNC embraces this perspective.

Third, and by far the most important task for the Democratic Party, is to conduct an electoral autopsy to determine why so many traditional Democratic voters turned to Trump for political salvation in 2016. It is foolhardy to write them off as deplorables, racists, homophobes, and white male–mostly Christian—voters fearful about their place at the political table as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 and persists in doing today. Undoubtedly, some of these elements exist among Trump voters as they do among Democrats. But far more Trump voters were attracted by his fiscal message, although flawed, which strongly appealed to their very real social and economic anxieties. A major reason for their defections was the simple fact that Democrats did not properly acknowledge these feelings and simply took them for granted. The Democratic victories in Republican strongholds since Trump’s election have been largely a result of Trump’s personal peccadillos, their disappointment in his leadership, and local and state Democrats targeting local uncertainties. Those winners have largely achieved their success by addressing local worries.

Therefore, Democrats can only return to power if they keep their eyes on the ball and return to their working-class roots and commitment to equity that has sustained them since the 1960s. The question is whether they can stay on task while campaigning to regain the majority.