DO DEMOCRATS HAVE A PLAN?

 

“I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat.” Will Rogers

For those of us who follow the day-to-day political news, being a Democrat can be a frustrating experience. Despite the Democratic presidential candidate having won the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections (though thanks to the Electoral College system, just five presidential terms), the party seems unable to decide what and whom it represents. Moderate Democrats and progressives are in conflict over many legislative initiatives. Well-pleased Republicans look on with a mostly united front, as Democrats appear to be bashing each other out of their slim Congressional majority ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections.

To quiet ones’ nerves, it is sometimes helpful to stand back from the news cycle and consider a more panoramic view of the Democratic Party. A recent book, What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party, by Michael Kazin, fits the bill by reminding me why I am a Democrat.

Mr. Kazin traces the history of what he terms “the oldest mass party in the world.” He believes that Martin Van Buren in the 1820s, not Thomas Jefferson, was the true father of the Party. Van Buren molded Democrats into a powerful electoral machine, complete with a network of local newspapers, nominating conventions and a spoils system of government jobs. My father, the nephew of a Democratic state senator, would benefit from Van Buren’s handiwork over a century later in 1949.  Harry Truman awarded him the plum position of postmaster in our small NJ town.

After Democrats found a charismatic leader in Andrew Jackson, two principles would guide the party until the 1960s. The first, Kazin calls “moral capitalism,” the belief that government should serve the interests of ordinary Americans not business elites. The second is white supremacy. Many Northern Democrats supported the right of their southern Democrat brothers to hold slaves and later supported the Jim Crow laws.

The original populist, Democrat William Jennings Bryant, believed that social change required using public authority to redistribute private wealth. However, his three presidential campaigns ended in failure because his message never caught on with industrial workers or the middle class. Finally, a Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, was elected president. He increased antitrust legislation and instituted an income tax on wealthy Americans. Neither Bryant nor Wilson had any interest in racial justice.

Democrats came to control the cities, and their political success was due to Irish dominated political machines. Industrial unions got out the Democratic vote. The unions took the Democratic Party to the left and gave FDR the influence he needed to pass the more radical elements of the 1930s New Deal. After WWII, a new breed of Democratic leaders, black and white, were anxious to dismantle segregation. Slowly, the two major parties switched identities with regard to race until LBJ’s Civil Rights Act sealed the deal. Republicans found a new home in the south.

The Vietnam War, feminism, the LGBTQ+ community and immigration issues all helped to further galvanize the modern Democratic Party. However, the conflict grew between socially liberal and fiscally moderate leaders like JFK, the Clintons and Obama and all-in progressive social Democrats like Bernie Sanders. Under its “large tent,” the present Democratic party has been unable to forge a coalition of working and lower middle class voters of all races.

As things stand today, Democrats can count on affluent urban voters, members of racial minorities and a majority of women. Conversely, Republicans have locked up voters in rural and “small town” America where declining industrialization and globalization have led to chronic economic decline. Why Democrats no longer speak to many white, working class Americans remains the great political mystery of our time.

In 2022, there are two problems with Democratic messaging. First, the Democratic “large tent” that seeks to attract both progressives and moderates has ended up angering one and then the other. Progressives believed President Biden would “go-big” and pass massive social reform, climate change and tax increases of the wealthy. On the other hand, moderates were sure that with a slim electoral mandate Biden would “stay small” and work to heal the damage Trump caused to our democratic institutions.

Second, the progressive left has opened up a cultural war can-of-worms by giving Republicans the opportunity to invoke a negative vocabulary with which to frighten middle class Americans. Democrats need these voters to move forward. The misused concepts of wokeness, cancel culture, defund the police, banning guns, Marxism, “offensive” public health mandates and critical race theory are all wrongly applied by conservative media. This has influenced white Americans to turn away from the Democratic Party.

What is to be done? Returning to the author Michael Kazin, he observes that historically Democrats succeed when they enact policies such as Medicare that serve all segments of the working middle class. He cautions that new initiatives must not be seen by white voters to benefit only minorities.

A winning plan will not be easy because it must walk a fine line between being too progressive and too status quo in order to keep a winning coalition together. All segments of the Democratic Party must be prepared to compromise starting with the Inflation Reduction Act now before Congress. With proper messaging and sound policies, the white middle class should return to their historical place under the Democratic tent.