With sweeping 2018 election victories across the nation, including Wisconsin, things appear to be looking up for the Democrats. There is much the Democrats can be enthusiastic about. The energy and enthusiasm of Beto O’Rourke; the attention attracted by young freshman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; and the intellectual power of freshman Katie Porter are welcome additions to a political party too often seen as moribund and spineless. Add to this capable U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, and it’s clear the Democrats have a capable field of existing and future influential leaders. This is in addition to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is no longer “the alternative,” but one of many alternatives to past stasis, and former Vice President Joe Biden waiting in the wings.
While things are looking up for Democrats, we retain vivid memories of when Democrats have just plain “blown it.” We recall the words of Oklahoma cowboy philosopher, Will Rogers, “I am a member of no organized political party — I am a Democrat.”
I have long held that even though Democrats have policies and a philosophy better for working people and the nation as a whole, they win only when the Republicans screw up worse than Democrats. Republicans win, not because Republican policies are better or that Republican politicians are better people; it’s because Republicans are shrewder, slicker and more willing to do whatever it takes to win, even playing the race card. Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy,” Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queens,” H.W. Bush’s “Willie Horton’s revolving door,” and Donald Trump’s explicit racial tirades are examples of Republican history.
The viciousness of Republican campaigns, over which Democrats have no control, is bad enough. But Democratic campaigns often aid and abet Republicans by committing gross tactical and strategic errors. The 2016 Clinton campaign was a combination of errors compounded by events over which they had no control, like Russian interference revealed by U.S. intelligence agencies. It had no control over former FBI Director James Comey’s ill-timed October announcement that the Hillary’s emails investigation would be reopened. That announcement was doubtlessly the final nail in the coffin. The Clinton campaign’s tactical errors included carelessly worded statements regarding employment of coal miners and castigating Trump voters. A politician of Clinton’s intelligence and experience should be more astute than to hand Trump issues on a silver platter. This sloppiness was augmented and reinforced by omitting farmers from campaign ads.
A major strategic error was totally neglecting the importance of the 2016 election to the future of the U.S. Supreme Court. It wasn’t just the Clinton campaign, but all of the nationally prominent Democrats who neglected to mention the crucial importance of the federal court system. Meanwhile, Republicans hammered home to supporters of the 2nd amendment, and opponents of Roe vs. Wade, the importance of the 2016 election to the court.
Perhaps the most egregious error of the campaign was assuming that Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin would repeat their long histories of going Democratic in presidential elections. Those three states were lost by a measly 75,000 votes. While the candidate showed up in urban Pennsylvania, she neglected rural Pennsylvania. She ignored Michigan until the 11th hour and ignored Wisconsin. Could the result have been changed had she showed up? Who knows? But ya gotta show up.
Even the vapid media clones realized that Trump’s only path to victory was through the industrial Midwest. Danger signs were flashing very visibly to anyone paying the slightest attention. Michael Moore predicted a Trump victory in Michigan. Okay, so the guy wears a baseball cap to national TV interviews and resembles a homeless panhandler off the streets. The guy is worth listening to, and should have been paid some heed.
Our own state was tragic for the Democrats. To anyone paying the slightest attention, danger signs abounded. In 2010, northern Wisconsin’s long time powerful Democratic Congressman David Obey bowed out. He was replaced by tea partier, Sean Duffy. Also in 2010, the lackluster Ronald Johnson defeated Sen. Russ Feingold, a capable, respected Democrat who had a track record that included working with Republican John McCain on campaign finance reform.
In 2010, Republican right-winger Scott Walker replaced Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. To further signal Wisconsin’s slippage to Republicans, Walker won two additional elections, including a successful resistance to his recall.
If this were not enough to signal danger for Democrats, the Clinton campaign failed to note that even though Obama won in both 2008 and 2012, his margin of victory was dangerously thin.
The Clinton campaign was obviously asleep at the switch. Sending daughter Chelsea to speak to liberals in Madison just doesn’t cut it. How about showing up and reminding those rural, mostly white, Wisconsin counties that went for Obama twice, and those factory workers along the shores of Lake Michigan why they should vote Democratic once again? These Trump voters cannot be accused of racism. Even with that record of Democratic blundering, there is hope. Michigan lost to Trump by an average of only two votes per precinct. Trump won Wisconsin by less than a 1 percent margin.
Since that Democratic disaster, Wisconsin has elected a Democrat-backed State Supreme Court justice in an officially non-partisan race. In 2018, Wisconsin elected a Democratic governor and Attorney General. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, initially considered one of the most endangered Democratic senators, won by double digits. She emphasized working people and they showed up in her campaign ads.
It is conceivable Democrats can win in 2020. But they must avoid traps set by Republicans and the media — and especially their customary self-imposed traps.
— John Waelti’s columns appear every Saturday in the Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
