In the aftermath of another devastating electoral loss, Democrats have not learned their lessons very well. In the U.S. Senate, Democrats elected 66-year old Chuck Schumer of New York as their Minority Leader, replacing the outgoing Harry Reid of Nevada. Schumer will offer more East Coast liberal leadership to a party that desperately needs to move ideologically to the center and geographically to the country’s heartland.
In an even worse move, House Democrats re-elected super liberal Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco as their Minority Leader. Pelosi has been leading House Democrats since 2003 and has been at the helm as her party has lost control of the House. Despite her horrible track record, Pelosi defeated Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio by a comfortable 134-63 margin in a closed-door session. In response to Pelosi’s re-election, Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway tweeted, "What a relief. I was worried they had learned from the elections & might be competitive and cohesive again."
Of course, Conway is right: Democrats remain stuck on stupid. Instead of expanding their base, they chose to remain wedded to political correctness and hard core liberal leadership. Soon, they will name a new Democratic National Committee Chairman, and the leading candidate is radical Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), a former spokesman for the Nation of Islam, who once praised anti-Semitic Minister Louis Farrakhan as a “role model for youth.”
If Ellison is elected, the Democrats will have the type of leadership team that will have little chance to win back Rust Belt voters who defected to Trump in the presidential election. Hillary Clinton was unable to inspire blue collar Democrats and they voted for Trump in surprising numbers, even turning Michigan into a red state.
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Despite her devastating loss to Trump, there is some speculation that Clinton is contemplating a third presidential run in 2020. This could be why her lawyers are participating in the Wisconsin recount effort. Republicans should be delighted at the news that a two-time loser who has failed at every job she has ever held would be itching to run for President again in four years.
Instead of Hillary making another presidential run, Democrats need to figure out why they keep losing elections. Since 2010, Democrats have lost three national elections, with their only victory coming in 2012 when voters returned President Obama to the White House.
Democrats are now in the minority in both the House and Senate in the U.S. Congress. On Saturday December 10, it will get even worse for Democrats as Louisiana voters will almost certainly elect Republican State Treasurer John Kennedy to the Senate seat. This will give Democrats only 48 seats in the upper body, a major disappointment. This was the year that Democrats were supposed to make huge inroads in the Senate, since Republicans were defending 24 of 34 seats. Instead they will gain a mere two seats. On the House side, the Republicans will control approximately 241 seats, a strong majority once again.
Democrats have also suffered greatly at the state level with only 18 governors and the control of only 13 state legislatures. In fact, the Democratic Party of 2016 is a minority party with power bases on both coasts and in major cities. In between, the country is a sea of red as exemplified by the Trump presidential victory. He won 306 electoral votes in 31 states, whereas Hillary Clinton only won 232 electoral votes in 19 states.
Democrats will maintain that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote with a margin of 2.1 million votes, but that number will not win the presidency. In 2000, Al Gore also won the popular vote and lost the presidential election. In fact, this election is the fifth time in U.S. history that a president has been elected while losing the popular vote.
Democrats can continue to focus on the “popular vote victory” and a recount effort, but a better use of time would be to investigate what has happened to a party that a mere 8 years ago, wielded tremendous influence throughout the country.
Maybe sensible Democrats will realize that the Obama presidency has harmed their party tremendously, leading to losses throughout the country. The President’s agenda has been rejected by the American people who do not like his policies such as Obamacare, higher taxes, more regulation, open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.
As president, Trump is promising to pursue popular policies that will turn back many of these Obama initiatives. This will only increase the troubles for the Democrat Party moving forward.
Democrats are no longer the party of the working class, but the party of radical progressives, illegal aliens and special interests. In this election, Trump captured working class support from voters in Rust Belt states that had not voted for the GOP in a generation or more. Clearly, Trump will need to deliver for the working-class voters who entrusted him with the White House; however, assuming he is successful, the Democrats may be in the political wilderness for many years to come.
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