The Democratic Strategy against Republicans

• ·         Just say “no.” You ain’t got the votes anyway. It worked for the Republicans against Obama.
• ·         Let the Republicans do themselves in. The more they propose programs, the worse they look.
• ·         Fight endlessly with each other, making absolutely certain no clear unifying leaders or platform emerge. Progressives vs liberal elites: Propose expensive and unrealistic socialist programs that terrify middle America or enhance your swamp-like traditional elitist dreams and ignore the people looking for a real direction in exceptionally confusing and disruptive times. Ignore who we have become!
• ·         Continue to run against Donald Trump even in local elections, letting barely-articulate GOP candidates promise the moon and address the local issues that matter most to local voters. Forget that Donald Trump is getting credit for a soaring stock market and a lower level of unemployment.
• ·         Continue to stumble through a rather dramatic failure to understand the power of social media. Make sure to send tons of emails to your supporters that begin with the words, “devastating news,” begging for money, and just wear them out.
• ·         Complain and whine, praying that Bob Mueller will deliver the coup de grace.
• ·         Ignore the elephant in the economic room: automation, the great income inequality machine. Kind of like forgetting that “it’s the economy stupid” is not just a GOP issue!!!!
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The Dems need issues? Really? Let’s look at ourselves the way our greatest global competitor sees us, the People’s Republic of China, a pretty statistically supported view. Maybe this is why China views passing America in global economic and political dominance as little more than a slam dunk. We are self-destructing. In the words of a fictional senior Chinese governmental official created by former acting director and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Morell, writing for the November 23^rd The Cipher Brief:

“The U.S. is sick – that is the word I use. The evidence for this judgment is compelling. Productivity growth, the lifeblood of any economy, has fallen sharply since the mid 1990s, and it has been weak since the late 1960s. Wealth and income inequality have increased substantially; the gap in wealth between the rich and poor is staggering; the U.S. is now an outlier among developed countries. The American dream – the Horatio Alger story – is fading into a memory; the probability of someone born in a lower income group moving to a higher one has declined, and many parents no longer believe that their children will have a better standard of living than them. These are all fundamental changes from the period after WWII.

“Social divisions and social erosion have grown. Racial, ethnic, and religious tensions are on the rise; in polling, large numbers of Americans admit to holding discriminatory views of blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Muslims. It was once considered socially unacceptable to express racist views, but that norm is breaking down. Drug addiction is a serious problem across the entire society; drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, with a clear link to economic conditions.

“Your political elite – your professional political class – has simply not dealt successfully with the country’s problems. As a group, they are, in short, incompetent. They have been so for at least a generation. How could you come to any other conclusion? This is a view shared by many of your own citizens. They do not believe that your government works. In the primaries for the 2016 election, more votes were cast for political outsiders than for professional politicians. That speaks volumes.

“When I look at your country, I sense lost confidence. I see it in many of your citizens and politicians blaming other countries for your own problems. I saw it in the resonance of President Trump’s campaign slogan ‘Make American Great Again.’ I saw it in President Obama’s statement that the U.S. would remain a global power for the next 100 years. Only someone not quite sure about that would need to say it.” Dems, do you really need a foreign power to find your issues for you? Seriously? When has “obvious” been so difficult to see?

I’m Peter Dekom, and other than GOP doing itself in – which just might work – the only real thing that Republicans have going for them is the rather complete failure of the Democratic Party to mount a coherent counter campaign that sticks to voters.