High from sniffing their own Moral Panics, firmly entrenched in the belief that they would never fall victim to their own zero-sum political gains, the Democrats are reeling.
This has been the most satisfying thing to watch, politically, of my entire lifetime. The same people who called us racist, homophobic, xenophobic Nazis are now crushed into political and cultural oblivion. They make up roughly 20% of the population now, mostly confined to the bluest of Blue enclaves. They have lost untold numbers of Latinos, Black and other minorities and, even more damning, have lost the youth almost entirely.
Predictably, they are now back begging. Oh, SORRY, we didn't mean it. Or, we did mean it, but we don't mean it
now. Because we need you now.
Democrats, welcome to the consequences of your own folly. Was a real high there for awhile, huh? Enjoy your withdrawal now. We won't be supplying you any rescue doses.
This is a sign of a strange dynamic that has emerged in Democratic politics. Many pundits, strategists, and even elected officials recognize that the party has weakened itself by being out of touch, or at least perceived to be out of touch, on cultural issues. As Representative Ritchie Torres of New York told Time in May, “We swung the pendulum too far to the left.” But for the most part, the very same Democrats making that argument haven’t followed it to its natural conclusion by moving significantly rightward on any major issue. Even Torres’s big postelection immigration “flip-flop,” as Politico put it, was to announce that he would no longer fight against the deportation of undocumented immigrants who have a criminal record.
Countless Democrats are barnstorming the country and the media, stressing the need to broaden their party’s appeal and reach voters where they are. But they have yet to prove that they’re willing to do what it takes.
Party leaders know they need to moderate on cultural issues to win back working-class voters—so why don’t they?
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