"But they own the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. So how can you say that?”
Indeed, they “stole” the White House from the most reviled presidential candidate in U.S. history, they took the Senate by a few Georgian hairs' breadth, and they lost thirteen seats in the House while maintaining a slim majority of seats.
But, consider: from 1901 thru today, Democrats have owned the House of Representatives with 250 members or more 22 times, that is for 44 years out of 120; and they have owned it with more than 300(!) members three times, the same number of times that Republicans have owned the House with 250 or more members in that same timeframe; and Republicans have elected fewer than 200 of their members to the House for every election between 1959 and 1995, 38 years straight! Since 1901, Democrats have occupied 60 or more seats in the Senate 11 times, while Republicans have occupied 60 seats once, in 1907, under Teddy Roosevelt, a "progressive" Republican who would be a Democrat today. Consider: from 1933 thru 1981 – forty-eight years – the Democrats owned the Senate in all but four years (44D-4R). And Democrats owned the House from 1931 to 1995 – sixty-four years – in all but four years (60D-4R)!
Since then, however, Republicans have owned each house of Congress more than 60% of the time. Among the states, there are 28 Republican governors to 22 Democratic governors. 30 state legislatures are Republican controlled while 17 are controlled by Democrats. Republicans control the executive and the legislative in 23 states while Democrats control merely 14. Indeed, in today’s world, there are countless maps of the United States colored red and blue, which betray a real REDness nationwide. I won’t cite these maps because there are too many ways to draw them. Some maps reflect counties, and some reflect Congressional Districts; some maps reflect the party that won the presidency, or won the House seat, or the state legislature. In all cases, the vast majority of the land mass of the USA is red (if only because most Democratic voters live in densely populated cities). All this despite the fact that 39.6% of registered voters are Democrats while only 29.2% are Republicans (as of July 2021).
This is what I mean by "what Democrats do best is lose elections."
Democrats have been called “the party of the people” ever since we elected our first Democratic president, Andrew Jackson, in 1828. But it has been quite a while since this was true. At the state level – governors, lt. governors, secretaries of state, and two state legislative houses – the country is even more red than nationwide. I would like to suggest that there is a clear and dominant reason for this turnabout, and that reason is messaging. Ever since President Reagan – “the Great Communicator” – the Republicans have out-messaged Democrats. Republicans know what they stand for (and against), Republicans know how to message it, and Republicans get out there and fight for what they stand for (and, especially, against). I will not quibble whether they actually believe a lot of what they message, but they surely out-message the Democrats.
Here is a prime example of very powerful and effective Republican messaging. For as long as most of you can remember, Republicans have slandered Democrats by labeling them Socialists. They called Obama a Socialist, they call the progressive wing of the Democratic Party Socialist, they have even begun to call President (moderate for 79 years) Biden a Socialist. A few Democrats – like “independent” Senator Bernie Sanders, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – embrace the term, even if they are not – really – Socialists.
“So, fella, if even Sanders and AOC are not ‘really’ Socialists, what is a Socialist, what is Socialism?”
If you have not taken a college course in Economics, you may be forgiven for not knowing what Socialism really is. Republican candidates for public office know you don’t know. And they take advantage of your not knowing what Socialism is, except that it makes you think of Communists. And no red-blooded American likes Communists. Soviet Communists were our deadly enemy for some 45 years of “Cold War” following the end of World War II.
Mostly, though, Democrats do not respond at all to charges of being Socialists. And that is a failure of messaging. Here is what a messaging Democrat might say in response to a charge of being a Socialist. Close your eyes and listen to a real Democrat message!
Socialism is an economic system that has a) no private property, b) no privately-owned corporations, and c) centralized planning of the economy. Now, none of you has ever heard any American Democrat preach THIS gospel, because no American Democrat is – really – a Socialist.
But here is our connection with Socialism. Anything paid for by the government – by taxpayer dollars – that is meant to benefit all the people, is a SocialistIC idea. For example, Ben Franklin invented the first publicly funded Fire Department, and the first Public Library. As they are paid for by government funds and as they benefit the public – not a few wealthy owners – they are SocialistIC ideas and government programs. Other SocialistIC programs include public schools, public parks, public roads, public highways, bridges, dams, etc. Also, Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, Medicare. NASA. Police departments. The Military, fgodsake! And, of course, Welfare. You may not approve of Welfare but Welfare is no more and no less SocialistIC than Unemployment Insurance. What about all those other SocialistIC programs? Would you prefer to live without them? All these ideas are SocialistIC programs that are paid for by your tax dollars, and they benefit either everyone or those few unfortunate enough to need a helping hand.
Every industrialized democracy in the world (even Sweden, Denmark and Norway) is a “mixed economy,” with Capitalism at its core and SocialistIC programs to soften Capitalism’s sharp edges. Don't be taken in by Republican lies. Vote Democratic.”
So, next time you hear a Republican talk at you about how all those Democrats want to make America a Socialist country, just remember, “he thinks we are stupid, that we don’t know what Socialism really is. But we like those SocialistIC programs, even if we have to pay taxes to pay for them.”
This is why, "what Democrats do best is lose elections." Because they don’t know what they stand for, they can’t message what they don’t stand for, and they don’t fight for anything. Republican-Lite may win some elections, but it is not a viable long-term strategy for a forward-moving Democratic Party.
One final thought. Republicans are the party of Abraham Lincoln, of Teddy Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Not recognizably so anymore. And Republicans are the party of small government, fiscal responsibility, and states’ rights Federalism. Not recognizably so since President Reagan. Even less since January 2017.
We would all be better off – Democrats and Republicans, office holders and citizens alike – if only we remembered what we used to stand for. We used to elect (mostly?) honorable men and women, patriots who were truly our public servants. And we used to design governmental programs that benefitted the public, and pay for them without breaking the bank.
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