Rob Leary, 11/14/2018
There was no sweeping “blue wave” of victorious Democratic Party candidates that lefty “progressive” liberals swore was going to wash over both houses of Congress as a mass rebuke of Trump. I never believed there was going to be one. The Senate picked up more Republican seats, increasing conservative control of that chamber. The House of Representatives, as I suspected it would, picked up several Democratic seats allowing them to narrowly take back the majority. But there was no real revolutionary Democratic backlash against Trump and the GOP, as was foreshadowed by many liberal activists, pundits, and Trump critics.
What did happen? The United States became more divided, more partisan, and Congress will now be more dysfunctional and more “do-nothing” than it has ever been before. In my opinion, neither liberals nor conservatives won on November 6th. We are now in perpetual Congressional gridlock for the foreseeable future.
Our problem is that we have two extremes controlling the political machine. For years, the GOP coddled right-wing conservative extremists, which ultimately lead to Trump being elected. However, over the last couple years, the Democratic Party has embraced the extreme leftist “progressive” faction of its base. Democrats doubled-down and went all-in on this strategy for mid-terms to win back those Bernie Sanders voters that abandoned their party and Hillary in 2016 because they weren’t “progressive” enough. I believe it is a strategy that backfired miserably and will only continue to backfire headed into future elections unless they dial-back their pandering to that extremist faction. If not, the party will continue to alienate many longtime moderate Democrat and centrist swing voters.
I can say this from experience because as a left-of-center, long-time Democrat leaning voter they have lost me. Not completely. I will still vote for the best candidate in my mind, but I am more likely now than ever to cast a vote for a moderate, socially liberal Republican over a left-wing Democrat than I have ever been in my life. I still see myself supporting majority Democratic candidates but I will no longer vote for a candidate merely because he or she has a “D” next to their name.
The Democratic Party’s major failure in conjuring the “blue wave,” as I see it, was its abandonment of the moderate, left-of-center and centrist swing voter. Just like the GOP had done over the years, the Democratic Party has embraced candidates’ whose ideological stances on many key issues are based on race and “racism.” Some GOP politicians’ bread and butter strategy has been race baiting and pandering to racists. Many Democrat politicians now seem to be hanging their hats on winning elections by race baiting and decrying anyone who disagrees with them as racists--or sexists.
Democrats and liberals are absolutely obsessed with race and gender right now. As a longtime listener to NPR, I have not been listening as much for the last year or so. It seems like every story and every interview or piece on every program is one either attacking Trump or it deals with race and/or gender. That’s it. NPR is now (anti) Trump, race and gender radio. By the way many leftist liberals are currently talking, you would think we are living in a pre-19th Amendment, pre-Civil Rights era America, which is an absolutely ridiculous notion. Period.
Some of the behavior I have seen displayed by liberals over the past couple of years is disturbing and hypocritically parallels the insanity I saw on the part of many conservatives after Obama was elected. Many are angry, unhinged and have an unhealthy obsession with Trump. They cannot go an hour on social media without posting something negative about him. Compounding this is the aggressive and confrontational face of leftist extremism being embraced by the Democrats, where activists are cornering and threatening conservative politicians at their homes, in restaurants, coffee shops, elevators etc. Prominent Democrat legislators have even encouraged such behavior and called for an end to civility.
For people who supposedly hate racism, I have heard some of the angriest, hate-filled statements about white people and ignorant racial stereotyping of white people over the past couple of years. There is often a blatant double standard conveyed among lefty liberals with regard to race and racism between Caucasians and non-Caucasians. What does it mean if you do not 100% agree with their notions of race and “racism?” Of course it means you’re a “racist,” or “Uncle Tom” etc.
Here’s the thing, when your first and only response to anyone who even remotely disagrees with your ideological stances on issues and policy proposals is to immediately yell “you’re a racist” in their face, you have shut down all chances of civil dialogue and reaching any common ground.
Personally, I think there is truly much more Americans have in common that we can build on, rather than constantly harping on what divides us. Until recently, I had faith the Democrats were the party that could tap into that reality and unite people—including the middle--behind them. What I have seen lately is Democrats moving more toward discourse and an angry, extremist “you’re either 100% with us or we’re 100% against you” mentality. There have been many misplaced accusations of racism and sexism lately, which has served to distance a significant portion of long-time moderate Democratic voters and centrist swing voters. A lot of people are tired of it.
That is why there was no Blue Wave in 2018.
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