How Democrats Should Campaign In 2024

The Democrats are going about campaigning on Joe Biden's behalf against Donald Trump in the most boneheaded way possible. Painting the latter as either too extreme or racist/sexist/xenophobic is surest way of ultimately losing in 2024.

Democrats need to start running on how much of a real do-nothing president Trump was while in office. They should run on how badly he mismanaged a once in a century disease pandemic and the devestation it'd caused. Just like they should be running upon how he gutted inner city spending, giving us all a crime wave (one which is on the waning end) not seen since the 1980s. Also like that partial government shutdown he caused from late 2018 to early 2019 that lasted for 5 straight weeks.

To put it another way, all the Democrats need to do is run entirely upon Trump's own record as president if they seek to win on November 5.

Republicans Caught Flat-Footed Trying To Oppose Biden

 It's not lost on anyone that Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have been running circles around the Republicans in Congress with great success thusfar. While it is great to see that, it's also a warning sign, too. Here's how: It's a warning sign by illustrating just how broken our system of governance has become; and with 1 of the 2 major political parties out to lunch, fixing it is going to be a real challenge. The first means of getting control of our nation from the hijacking done by the far-right is to rein in corporate excess and wealth inequities that have been driving its extremism.

So far, the Republicans seem content on embracing this far-right extremism and making it their party's brand; rejecting the will of the rest of the electorate in the process. To them, the far-right's extremist conduct and rhetoric is their ticket back into power in 2022. That and extreme gerrymandering. Whether all of that will work or not isn't the question we should be asking ourselves. The question we should be asking ourselves is how to go about changing the culture in Washington, DC so that the Republicans have no other choice than ditching the far-right for good. That is going to take some time, and a few electoral losses, for the Republican Party to ultimately reach that conclusion. In the meantime, many veteran Republican senators and representatives are heading for the exits as they don't see any reason to remain in an environment that encourages the worst abuses of power for personal gain. Essentially they're tired of being forced into concentrating on scoring political points instead of doing their actual job, which is governing and keeping tabs on the current issues of the day to craft policy.

It's the 1 fact that Democrats in Washington are beginning to recognize, they need to start moving the government's policy-making closer to where the people are. If they keep remaining responsive to this fact, it'll help them hold strong in the 2022 midterm election; maybe even gain seats in both chambers (the incumbent party has pulled off this result 4 times in US History: 1806, 1818, 1934 and 2002). Should the Democrats continue to successfully illustrate actual governance and productivity looks like, it'll help them make the case that the Republicans should not be given any lever of power given that they don't govern at all and their party has become the unproductive do-nothing party. 10 years of Republican mismanagement has taken a heavy toll on us all, and so far the Democrats have demonstrated that they understand that point very clearly. They recognize now in 2021 that they screwed up badly in 2009 and 2010 by going by the old manual of crafting legislation, which did little to help people as the economy began to recover from the worst throes of the Great Recession.

As for the original premise of this blog post, the fact is that Republicans are not just opposing the vast majority of the electorate when trying to obstruct Biden and the Democrats. They're also opposing their own base who actually supports what Biden and the Democrats are doing with their new trifacta. Biden is able to connect with them, making it easy for them to understand what's being churned out of Congress. The other problem the Republicans are also running into is that Biden is nowhere near as polarizing as either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were when they were running for president (or in Obama's case, as president). And because he's nowhere near as polarizing, it's next to impossible to get their based all riled up in anger. Republicans have demonstrated time and again that they have nothing to offer and are bankrupt of ideas; that is with the exceptions of lowering taxes on the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations and expanding deregulation of the economy.

1968 Is The Wrong Comparison For 2020

I have no patience for those voices who claim that 1968 is the year for us to compare 2020 to in terms of dynamic similarities, as it's the wrong analogy. The right election years to compare 2020 to are 1980 and 1992. 1980 and 1992 were years of immense change in how certain regions had aligned themselves politically. Some states, like California. were Republican-leaning swing states prior to 1992; while others, such as Texas, had been Democratic-leaning swing states prior to 1980. 2020 is shaping up to be a year along those same dynamics again. 

What The Results Of This Year's Elections Tell Us

With the Democrats taking 2 of the 3 gubernatorial races and control of the Virginia State Legislature in this year's elections, they're now in a much stronger position to fight the effects of Trumpism and ultraconservatism coming from the Republicans. This means that for average Americans, the assault on their basic rights as citizens will no longer be under attack and that their voice in government will be much stronger.

The results are also indicating a problem for Trump and the Republican Party, and that problem is that their lies are no longer being believed by the American people. That realization should scare them, as they have no further credibility as time goes on. With the exception of Gerald Ford, each Republican president over the last 50 years has gotten into office by colluding with a foreign actor. The party itself hadn't gotten caught doing so until mid-September in the form of Ukrainegate.

The fact that Kentucky's Republican governor Matt Bevin lost on November 14 is enough to show that Trumpism has finally started being rejected by some portions of Trump's base. It's also a signal to Trump himself that he's in real electoral trouble going into next year's presidential election. The same can be said for Mitch McConnell, whose incumbency is in peril, too.

My Nomination Choice Poll

I placed a poll on Twitter to gauge who you would like to get the Democratic nomination for president. Spread it out to your friends and family.

Who do you want to get the nomination in 2020?

— jgsf1987 (@jgsf1987) October 27, 2019

2019 Is Going To Be 1 Hell Of An Interesting Year

There’s no denying that because of the outcome of the 2018 midterms, 2019 is shaping up to be a real interesting ride now that Donald Trump is practically cornered. How much more mayhem he’ll cause is still a massive unknown, but 1 thing is definitely clear, it’s not going to be a pretty picture. What happens now is dependent on what he chooses to use next as a conveniently placed distraction.

Seeing The Left Destroy Itself

I know that I wrote about how the Right was destroying itself last year, but I think it's time to give the Left its due. The biggest problem is that the "leadership" is doing everything humanly possible to prevent anything meaningful from being enacted. This is a massive problem when the Democrats are holding America hostage just to fatten Corporate America's wallet (the GOP notwithstanding), while only pretending to care about the issues that actually matter to the electorate. At this point the Democratic National Committee has lost its mind, only carrying on (until about last week or so) Hillary Clinton's post-election media tantrum. Be it about Donald Trump's supposed connections to Russia, or how everyone who voted for someone other than Clinton as a mysogynist. That's just a couple of examples, but it paints the picture of how badly out-of-touch the "Left" (and I'm being very generous to the Democratic Party's current leadership) has become. Until there's a revolt from within, there's no way for the left to actually assert itself in America's political dialogue. Especially when we're fighting the very worst elements of the far-right.

Dishonoring Our Nation’s Vets

Alright, I think that it’s better to start off by saying that the Republicans in Congress are complete chicken-hawks, and I’m being very kind in saying that. Basically, I don’t see why they can’t just bother to live up to the deal they made vets of this nation: don the uniform to defend us and we’ll cover your cost of living. That’s how it should be, but lately Republicans in Congress have been wrapping themselves in the flag, while paying lip service to the after-effects.

If anything, the Republicans have been using war and the troops as political pawns to gain any advantage in their quest to destroy the Democrats. This is beyond disgraceful, and it shows why the Republican Party has become the Party of Corruption. It needs to quit and do so now, if it wants to retain any credibility with the American electorate. If there’s anything that we as Americans dispise more than anything, it’s politicizing the military. The military is apolitical for a reason, it represents everyone and is a unified voice in our country’s defense.