BloggeRhythms

Although not his likely original intention, the newly elected president is single-handedly spurring the demise of the Democrat party. Because, in their inability to intelligently deal with their loss of the White House, they’re making monumental fools of themselves. A combination of reportage today illustrates how it’s happening.  

The stage for the premise was set by Michael Goodwin in his article today @nypost.com, where he writes that while the President’s travel ban on visitors from seven nations was a sensible idea, it was hobbled by flaws. 

However, based on past performance Goodwin assumes Trump will learn from the mistakes, particularly because: “His fierce determination to be a successful president cannot co-exist with rookie blunders.” 

On the other hand, though, by their actions Democrats not only aren’t gaining, they’re  making it worse for themselves instead. 

To prove the point Goodwin suggests: “Look for the use of tell words like “Muslim ban” to describe an executive order that is no such thing. Look for hero worship of protesters, immigrants, refugees, lawyers rushing to the barricades and congressional critics.

“Look, too, at the Twitter feeds of editors and reporters from those papers and the major networks. You’ll see their embrace of everything anti-Trump, further evidence they are part of a movement to obstruct the president, not cover him.” 

The “dangerously different path” taken by Democrats began with boycotts, first of the inauguration and then the committee votes on Trump’s cabinet and their pledge to filibuster any Supreme Court nominee which resembles “a party fomenting a secession movement."

“Some call it Trump Derangement Syndrome, but that’s too kind. It’s not a temporarily insane reaction, it’s a calculated plan to wreck the presidency, whatever the cost to the country.”

And then, Goodwin delivers an unequivocally logical conclusion derived from the Democrats actions since inauguration day, by predicting that: “Dems are digging their own grave and their revolt against his legitimacy will, in the short term at least, boost Trump’s popularity. Most Americans will conclude he is honestly trying to fulfill the mandate he won and that the fevered rush to destroy him is neither principled nor patriotic.” 

Warning that cultural impatience won’t provide endless time or big room for error, Goodwin says Trump “must pick his fights with discretion and wage them with smart, methodical moves that bring clear results,” at the same time not becoming a “prisoner of Washington.”

Recognizing social media’s impact, Goodwin feels regularly getting out of town is important, meeting people where they live and reminding them that he’s fighting their fights. 

He should also “continue to court core Democrats, especially members of manufacturing unions and open-minded black and Latino voters. And  if “he does all that, and if he’s lucky, America will be great again. That’s what matters.” 

While Goodwin's analysis and expectations certainly seem to be on the mark, his focus today primarily addressed Democrat strategy’s for opposing Trump. And while that’s unquestioningly important for them, Democrat's problems are far larger than that. Particularly because their base is shrinking significantly.     

Back on January 21, 2016, Jeffrey M. Jones reported @gallup.com that at that time only 29% of voters identified themselves as Democrats, 26% as Republicans and 42% as independents.  

While the percentage of independents did not reach 40% until 2011, it’s stayed at or above that level for the past five years, resulting in the lowest Democrat count in the past 27 years, “down from the prior low of 30% in 2014.” 

As a result, Mr. Jones concluded that “the lack of strong attachment to the parties could make candidate-specific factors, as opposed to party loyalty, a greater consideration for voters in choosing a president in this year's election than they have been in past elections.”

And that’s exactly what happened in November. 

So, now we have two perfectly rational explanations today of what transpired to put Trump in power and what he’s done to get himself there. And throughout, his emphasis has focused on meeting with voters to determine what they want, and then trying his best to give it to them. Which from most reports seems to be working, particularly in the mass of Middle-America.   

And what are these brilliant Democrat leaders doing in the face of dwindling party affiliation and monumental losses at all levels of government?

Yesterday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Democrats must “fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box,” against the administration of President Donald Trump.”

Mika Brezinski, Co-host of “Morning Joe” asked: “So, broad question about the future of the Democratic Party, especially given your firsthand experience with what we’ve all been through. There’s so much going on here that we clearly see, you know, places where you — we can criticize what the administration is doing, but how does the party rebuild? How do you prevent overreach in a situation like this? How do you prevent a continuation of the bubble in a situation like this, and how does the party reclaim its reach across the country while fighting these battles?

Kaine replied: “We are so excited that the American public is energized to speak out against the abuses of this administration. Democratic senators led healthcare rallies — Save Our Healthcare — on Martin Luther King Day in about 75 cities around the country, including Richmond. Tens of thousands of people rallied to save our health care. Then, the Women’s March that was organized at a grassroots level. Then, people coming out in protest of these orders. So, the way we get outside the bubble is we take advantage of this tremendous public outcry against the administration. What we’ve got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box, and now there’s the momentum to be able to do this. And we’re not afraid of the popular outcry, we’re energized by it and that’s going to help us do our job and do it better.”

The only problem for Democrats though is, at this point no changes to healthcare have even been made public. What’s more, the vast majority of forced subscribers can’t afford it. And the protestors themselves are primarily bought and paid for by professional organizers. All of which means that as healthcare gets fixed and begins working as it should, the hapless Democrats have once again programmed themselves for failure.   

At the same time, other issues aren’t working out very well for Democrats either. Peter Schroeder reports @thehill.com, that the “Senate Finance Committee advanced a pair of Trump’s nominees with only Republican members present — Steven Mnuchin to head the Treasury Department, and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as secretary of Health and Human Services.”

When Democrats refused to attend a vote on the nominees for two days running, Republicans in the hearing room agreed to change the committee’s standing rules “which normally require at least one member of each party to be in attendance for committee work to proceed.” 

Democrats argued that the pair had made misleading statements to lawmakers that needed to be rectified, Oregon Democrat Senator, Ron Wyden, saying "We're going to keep pushing to get the facts."

When committee Democrats wrote in a letter that: “Both nominees have yet to answer important questions that impact the American people,” Republican Orin Hatch said: “Oh, come on. Come on. They don’t have one argument that’s worthwhile. Not one. And if they had, they should have shown up.”

And in that way, not only are Congressional Republican’s proceeding as planned, but Democrats like pouting brats have taken themselves out of the game altogether.

That's it for today folks.

Adios