Why the Democratic Party Needs to Do Some Major Soul-Searching

How the Democratic party and its voter base is partially responsible for the outcome of this election.

This is written by my friend, JP Garrigues, who is not on Medium. He agreed to letting me share this. I believe it is an important read, particularly for those who are on the left. For the record, I am very disappointed that Hillary Clinton did not become president, but I do believe the left needs to do some major soul-searching about their decisions in 2016.

My unorganized thoughts for the echo chamber. It’s blunt, but hear me out. It comes from a place of love and the high standards I hold for fellow liberals:

For the past few months, I’ve had many friends make these grandiose posts stating “If you support Trump, unfriend me!” or “If you support Trump, we have absolutely nothing to talk about!” While these white knight posts are noble…. I guess, and garnered tons of little digital hearts within their small little echo-chamber, they only helped to elect Trump.

On a much larger scale, I think the DNC made the same missteps. The DNC set its course long ago in defiance of major policy desires within its constituency. Despite early poll numbers (Bernie having a 12-point lead in a theoretical matchup w/ Trump) and 10+ years of historical data stating HRC isn’t a likable candidate, the DNC doubled-down and helped to ensure that she would be the nominee. Because of this notion of it being “her turn.” I will commend the DNC for adopting more liberal policies, but it was too little, too late, and not in congruence with how the campaign strategy played out.

Ostracizing your opposition, even if it’s based in the best of intentions (eliminating racism) does fuck-all to help you elect a progressive candidate. They teach this basic principle in high school, but somehow we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over. In fact, Paul Krugman, a man whom I once respected immensely, penned an article using the same rhetoric against middle America again JUST LAST NIGHT. There was no introspection, no mea culpa and very little sense in reality. Continue to issue punitive language, continue a Versailles-like strategy, and you’ll continue to be shocked and disappointed. This didn’t creep up on you, you just weren’t paying attention.

Realize that the racism, bigotry, sexism and xenophobia are symptoms rather than causes of where we are today. While it’s too simplistic to just flatly say that white, blue-collar workers are lashing out because of their economic situation, I do hold this is to be a central issue. They’re looking for an excuse to be angry and to rebel against an economy that has continually forgotten about them. Trump is their gilded prophet who espoused nebulous-at-best-solutions, but at least he was addressing them, providing a scapegoat and giving them special little hats! He was at the very least the antithesis to the false prophet that was Hillary Clinton. To state it bluntly: You can’t be a war hawk feminist. You can’t be a Goldman Sachs unionist. And you can’t take a moral high ground if you play dirty — shout out to Donna Brazile.

I hope you recall that something similar happened in 2004. The Democratic party had a bevy of qualified candidates with various degrees of appeal. And in their convoluted strategy, they went with duck food: bland, watered-down, white bread. A man who voted for the war in Iraq before he voted against it. And he lost.

This spineless doublespeak is what is killing liberals. If the Democratic party hasn’t been completely eviscerated after this, then it’ll need to rethink its entire existence and what/whom it wants to represent. And you, as a liberal, need to hold your party responsible for this shitshow of an election.

My hope is that the DNC will go lick its wounds, self-perform an appendectomy and come back stronger with better plans for the future. But more likely, they’ll run off, eat their own entrails and shit out another mediocre candidate in 2020.

I hope I’m wrong.