January 21, 2017
The inauguration of Donald Trump has unleashed a fury among Democrats along with their cheerleaders in the media and Hollywood. Over sixty Democratic members of Congress boycotted his inauguration, several entertainers refused to perform at his balls and the level of protests against his presidency is unprecedented. Numerous attempts have been made to either deny or delegitimize an election he won fair and square and against all odds – from questioning the wisdom of the electoral college, Jill Stein’s recount, intimidating the electors and blaming the Russians. All of this is to detract from the real reason the Democrats lost – laziness.
Over the past two generations, Democrats have figured out that it is easier to convince five minds than to convince millions. Thus, their easy victories have occurred in the Supreme Court whether it be removing prayer from public schools, allowing pornography to proliferate, legalizing gay marriage and abortion, and forcing taxpayers to pay for the education of illegal immigrants and the legal fees of criminals.
This laziness reached its apogee under President Obama. Charismatic and likable, the former President was a once-in-a-generation politician. His 2008 coattails were enormous, giving the Democrats a large majority in the House and a filibuster-proof Senate. The problem was that his policies were less popular and during the off-year elections of 2010 and 2014, the Democrats were decimated – losing the House, the Senate along with numerous governorships and state legislatures.
But when the big donors for the Democrats expressed concern over these losses to President Obama during their fundraisers, he flashed his trademark grin and reassured them that the elections in flyover land were irrelevant. All they had to do was bankroll Hillary Clinton who was locked by demographics to win the presidency. She would continue to rule like he did, by appointing judges and bureaucrats who made up the law. The Republicans could win all the local elections they wanted, but when it came to policy – the illegals would keep flooding the boarders, the coals mines would close, carbon emissions would be regulated, transgender bathrooms would become the norm and if your hedge fund got into big trouble, the regulators would bail it out. Just write the check and we’ll take care of the rest.
This laziness was also reflected in the nominating rules of the Democratic Party. Fifteen percent of the delegates at their Convention were what are called “superdelegates,” meaning they were not elected by the primary voters. Furthermore, the delegates from the primary results were apportioned according to the popular vote, rather than by winner-take-all. This made it mathematically impossible for the Democratic version of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, to win.
When the Sanders’ supporters pointed out that their candidate was attracting huge crowds while Hillary Clinton’s crowds had to be corralled at gunpoint, the Democrat elders told them not to worry. When the Sanders’ supporters said they met many voters who couldn’t decide between Sanders or Trump, the elders just laughed. When the Sanders’ supporters pointed out that their candidate was polling six to eight points better than Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, the Democratic elders patted them on the head and said “Be good boys and girls and get behind Hillary. We know what we’re doing.”
And that is what happened. On Election Day, Clinton’s fireworks were locked and loaded on the Hudson River. The faux glass ceiling was set to shatter at her headquarters. Then all of a sudden, the body language and voice tone of the news anchors changed. The liberal smirk disappeared from Rachel Maddow’s face. The rest is history.
The laziness of the Democrats persists. Their game plan is to protest, litigate and hope liberal judges are willing to stop Trump’s agenda by undemocratic means. This will decrease Trump’s popularity and give Republican leaders cold feet. Will it work? Who knows? But in the long run, Democrats should return to their working class roots rather than contemptuously writing off a large portion of the population as “deplorables,” as Clinton famously called them. This means Meryl Streep has to show up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Don’t hold your breath.