NC Democrats should run on hope, not anger
The North Carolina Democratic Party last week summoned reporters to its state headquarters in Raleigh to announce the results of its extensive polling of Republican state legislative districts. The numbers sounded like a Democratic pollster’s version of “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
The surveys show Democrats have a huge advantage in voter enthusiasm. Morgan Jackson, a Democratic strategist who presented the results, said there’s a blue wave building that could wash out Republicans in Wake and Mecklenburg counties, topple some in rural counties and break the GOP’s veto-proof majorities in the state House and Senate. There was even talk – with the requisite caveat about it being a long way until the election – of Democrats reversing the Republican rout of 2010 and taking outright control of the General Assembly.
This year could be “the best year for Democrats since Watergate,” Jackson said. Why? He said it comes down to one word: anger. Republicans won because voters were angry at President Obama, he said, but “now the most motivated voters are anti-Trump voters.”
The numbers are impressively positive for Democrats. Even Republicans concede they’re likely heading for a drubbing in a midterm election with an unpopular Republican president.
But Democrats ought not be giddy about how mad voters are. Instead they should be worried that anti-Trump fever will keep them from learning why Democrats have been hammered at the state and federal levels since 2010. The risk is that they’ll read negative energy toward Trump as positive energy toward them. If the Democratic agenda was making broader gains in North Carolina, Republicans wouldn’t still hold veto-proof majorities in the state House and Senate. Gerrymandering plays a role, sure, but given the right-wing extremism of the Republican-led General Assembly since 2011, Democrats should have retaken more ground than they have.
Now, with big wins looming in November, it’s becoming clear Democrats didn’t learn from Hillary Clinton’s disastrous campaign. Like Clinton, they’re still focused on running on “We’re not Trump.”
Politics, in its best and strongest sense, is about standing for something. And right now it’s hard to tell what Democrats stand for.
Democrats ought to stop counting on Trump (or Robert Mueller) to return them to power. They should rediscover their roots and reassert their vision. The party should be the natural home of working people, rural and urban, black, white and Hispanic. That’s the broad connection with ordinary Americans that FDR forged. That’s the broad base John Kennedy drew upon when as president he averaged a 70 percent approval rating. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ economic populism brought the party back toward working people. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s badgering of banks and Wall Street and her fighting for consumers does the same.
In North Carolina, Democrats are talking about a Trump-triggered blue wave, but what they should be running on is a response to a radical state legislature. General Assembly Republicans have been asserting their agenda – tax cuts for the wealthy, voter suppression, anti-cities, anti-workers, anti-environmental regulation. What is the Democratic agenda? We’re not Trump?
Not being Trump likely will boost Democrats in November, but it will be a victory without a mandate. That’s the problem with waves. They crest, crash and recede. Democrats should instead seek a sea change, a reversal of the anti-government sentiment that Ronald Reagan brought in and which still moves white, working-class voters to vote for politicians who mostly enrich the rich.
The strongest force in politics isn’t anger. It’s hope. Democrats should seek to instill it. Then they’ll win because of who they are, not because of who they aren’t.
Barnett: 919-829-4512
This story was originally published March 24, 2018 at 3:05 PM with the headline "NC Democrats should run on hope, not anger."