A revealing New York Times article published this week by Thomas B. Edsall points to a longer dry spell for Democrats than that party’s leaders are willing to admit. The gist of Edsall’s sympathetic piece comes from a review of Democratic pollsters, strategists, and liberal academics that show its not just white liberals that stayed home or voted Republican in the 2016 presidential election. Conversely, defections from the Democratic Party ran the gamut in the American electorate.
Democrats have a serious message crisis
Certainly, white party loyalists -- especially working-class whites -- jumped ship in larger numbers.
But according to Edsall’s latest postmortem conclusion, defections run the gamut of our electorate. To hear Democratic Party leaders like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Tom Perez talk, one might think they have learned absolutely nothing from the massive losses they suffered on November 8. Hillary has blamed just about everybody, with the possible exception of her daughter, Chelsea, while Nancy Pelosi thinks that her status-quo reflex of trashing Trump and Republicans in lieu of proposing new policies will carry the day. DNC Pres. Tom Perez thought it would be a good idea to insist that pro-life Democrats are not welcome in the Democratic Party. Even comedian-type Democrats are no fun anymore except to those who still think Kathy Griffin toting an artist’s rendition of Pres.
Trump’s bloody, severed head was the right message. If so, they might want check with the former comedian before copycatting her.
What should be disturbing for Democrats about Edsall’s research is that turnout among African-Americans dropped from 66.6 percent in 2012 to 59.6 percent in 2016. While it can be argued that it's Clinton’s fault or maybe Obama’s for not granting himself a third term by Executive Order, the net result measured by the election sent Hillary Clinton into the woods behind her New York mansion to figure out who to blame.
Still, the seven-point drop in African-American votes is only part of the problem because other elements of what Democrats call their "Rising American Electorate" also stayed home or crossed over.
Democrats lost as much as 9.2 percent since 2012
Post-election pundits and news outlets mostly discussed Clinton’s loss of white voters -- which was simply not helpful or accurate.
Priorities USA, hardly a conservative organization, studied surveys and focus groups to determine what percentage of “drop off voters,” (who lean Democratic but failed to vote in either 2014 or 2016) turned on the party. What they found was intriguing, if depressing for Democrats. According to Priorities' research, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and young voters -- in comparison to the 2012 elections -- were estimated to have stayed away in numbers ranging from 6.7 to 9.2, depending on the group. This was enough to deliver Pres. Trump far more so-called blue states than almost anyone outside of the Trump campaign projected.
Democrats' anti-Trump campaign not working
A majority of these voters lacked faith in the Democratic Party’s ability to rev up lackluster economic growth from the 1.5 percent range it average throughout Obama’s two terms.
What's worse, since Trump’s election the Democratic Party seems content to wage a hate war against the president which is tantamount to wandering in the political woods like Hillary Clinton.
Political analysts say there is scant chance that the Democrats’ anti-Trump rants or tossing Russia-collusion allegations at the wall to see if one will stick will bring Trump down. Even more doubt that it is a winning strategy for 2018. Even if Trump doesn’t have a Comey recording and Democrats were able to get a Republican Senate to impeach their own president, the Republicans would simply move Mike Pence into the White House and call checkmate.
