I disagree with John Podhoretz and Noah Rothman’s claim in their article at Commentary:
Look to your right and you will see that his designated successor lost her bid for the presidency to a man Obama himself had not only campaigned against ferociously but declared unfit to hold the nuclear codes. Look to your left and you will see the news stories detailing the possible strategies for the repeal and the replacement of the president’s signature piece of legislation, Obamacare. Then look up and down at the partisan cathedral he helped to rebuild. Its benches are, as Shakespeare said of tree branches in winter, “bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.†While he was the one with the nuclear codes, the Democratic Party has been hit with a neutron bomb. And on the bomb’s nose, written like the “Dear John†message on the nuke in Dr. Strangelove, were the words: “Barack Obama was here.â€
I don’t believe it is all Obama’s fault. It is true that Republicans now control the White House, the Senate, the House, and two-thirds of state legislatures and governors’ mansions. However, as James Comey’s letters didn’t cause Hillary Clinton’s defeat, while President Obama didn’t cause Democrats to lose their strength outside the major cities where they hold nearly unchallenged sway, he didn’t help.
Democrats have been losing strength outside the Northeast, the West Coast, and major cities for decades. George W. Bush’s massive unpopularity and Barack Obama’s election in 2008 gave them a reprieve which they squandered.
A Hispanic voting bloc won’t give Democrats another reliable bloc like the black voters which they can remember only at election time and ignore the rest of the time. Indeed, there’s emerging evidence that black voters are tiring of the game as well.
They say that the first rule of holes is that when you’re in a hole, stop digging. The hole that Democrats are in was formed by the pursuit of multiculturalism and power for a handful of Ivy-educated elites at the expense of a different group of elites. If they want to be a real populist party, they need to do things for people not just the well-heeled.
“Trickle-down” economics is flawed whether it’s the supply side preached by the Republicans or the demand side practiced by the Democrats in which you pay professionals to perform services for the poor with the notional intention of helping the poor.
Let people be the captains of their own fates. That’s real populism.
My theory is that the Democrats changed from being a party of the working class to being a party of progressive elites and minority groups. The basis of the party change from a focus on class politics to identity politics. The last of the working class element were swept away following the passage of Obamacare, where the Democratic leadership in Congress sacrifice its moderates to pass the bill. So I think the bulk of responsibility lies with the Congressional leadership – President Obamas role was more one of benign neglect, though his appointed officials followed the identity politics model.
Yup.
I might go farther to suggest that the Democratic Party has gone from being a party of secure elites (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jack Kennedy) to being a party of insecure elites (bureaucrats, professional organizers, government clients, etc.).
Basically, I think the parties have swapped places. The Republicans are now a populist party buoyed by the “solid South” while the Democrats are the party of the Northeastern elite.