A Harsher Reaction

USNews editor Peter Roff has a harsher reaction to the Democrats’ rebranding strategy:

The Democrats are a party adrift. They’ve been able to slow the progress of the new administration to a considerable degree using parliamentary tricks and legislative maneuvers but no one, including some of their most senior political leaders, really has a clue how to get out of the hole they dug for themselves while Barack Obama was president.

His shift to the left – he ran as a centrist but governed as a progressive – showed a whole new generation of young, middle and working-class voters that the Democrats can be trusted to tax you, spend your money on someone else, and impose regulations on the economy that make it tough for you to find a job.

Sooner or later, they always revert to form no matter how hard they try to hide it. Walter Mondale didn’t hide it – and in 1984 he lost 49 states and the presidency to Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton did hide it and won twice, albeit with less than 50 percent of the popular vote each time, but he was smart enough to work with the first Republican Congress in 40 years to produce a series of balanced budgets and to sign, after first vetoing it twice, tough welfare reform legislation that worked.

The Democrats latest try at assembling an agenda for the future was released to little enthusiasm Monday in ex-urban Virginia. Bearing a slogan that sounds like it was stolen from a pizza chain (whose founder and spokesman happens to be a Republican), party luminaries including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – both of whom hail from major American cities – tried to persuade voters in the suburban, ex-urban and rural areas that Democrats are in sync with their interests.

In fairness to President Obama he also demonstrated that sudden epiphanies on the politics of sexual orientation aren’t toxic and that Americans really do want a president who unites them.

The Democrats continue to blame everyone but themselves for their failures, not just in last November’s election but over the last eight years. They blame gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is a tool used by majorities to concentrate minorities to weaken their influence (as in the Illinois 4th District) or to dilute minorities to the same end. It is used by both political parties, as any one observant enough to really care knows.

They blame money despite the mounting evidence that campaign spending is only a minor success factor. We have seen so many examples of that it’s hard to deny the conclusion now. The Georgia 6th District is only the most recent; Hillary Clinton outspent Donald Trump by many multiples.

I continue to believe and hope against all odds that in the final analysis good governance is the key to lasting electoral success. Watch which way the canoes are paddling. In terms of domestic outmigration the cities, states, and regions most solidly controlled by Democrats are experiencing a stunning flight by citizens. The largest and most Democratic states, i.e. California, Illinois, and New York are all losing citizens in the hundreds of thousands. You can’t compensate for that by pursuing the illegal immigrant vote.

That last remark is intended to be hortatory. Democrats shouldn’t cease being Democrats. They need to change their approaches to governing to strategies that actually work rather than pursuing the strategies that they wish would work.