Republicans forgot or never learned the most salient fact of politics—How to answer this question:
What have you done for me lately?
Whatever President Trump accomplished during his first two years is past tense. It no longer counts going forward. What counted most during the midterms was what politicians were willing to promise for the future. And in House races that could vary by district.
But, regardless, it is what constituents were willing to bet on for the future that determined how they voted and who they voted for. Rather than pledging their votes for the Democrat or Republican candidate, many voters selected the candidate who offered them what they most wanted to hear.
The reason Donald Trump won in 2016 was not that he was a Republican. In fact, even Republicans were not sure how much of a Republican he was.
He was elected, in large part, because he won over men and women who live in the middle of the country and realized they had been played for fools for too long by the Democrats. The Democrat Party was once the party of working men and women, but had surrendered that title to corporations more concerned about hiring cheap labor abroad than in providing jobs for American workers.
Trump seized on that neglect and connected with the middle-class working people who felt left behind by employers content to move their manufacturing facilities abroad. And no American President—Republican or Democrat—had bothered to court their votes by promising a resurgence in American manufacturing.
Instead, our presidents were content to deliver the death knell to American manufacturing and mining, stating that nothing could be done to bring it back. President Obama and Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton both said that coal mining in this country had become an albatross that could no longer be tolerated. That was, they insisted, an irrefutable fact.
And no one thought to campaign otherwise until Trump came along.
But that was then.
Now, however, Democrats made promises they realized would appeal to a demographic group that was up for grabs, the traditionally Republican suburban woman, who wanted something Republicans took away from her—Obamacare. Without repealing and replacing it with something better.
Red Turning Blue
If there was one California county you could count on as Republican, it was Orange County, smack dab in the middle of Southern California, usually as red as the Red Sea. And yet in November 2018, it turned blue.
In Dallas County, long-time Republican Congressman Pete Sessions lost to Democrat Colin Allred, a black civil rights lawyer, who campaigned in support of Obamacare and ultimately in support of single-payer healthcare. Since sixty percent of Dallas County is now made up of blacks and Hispanics, it’s not surprising that a Democrat who supports more government healthcare won. Like other winning Democrats across the country, Allred is advocating more government control and appealing to people who don’t think that’s such a bad idea.
Progressive candidates are even becoming full-throated socialists because so many voters have no idea what socialism really means. Somehow many Democrats now assume socialism means “fairness.” That’s what Karl Marx tried to preach, and what the Russian Bolsheviks assumed in their 1917 Revolution. And it’s what’s being taught in colleges and universities across the country by professors who actually think socialism works.
Today, Democrats are more willing than ever to proudly admit they’re socialists. Consequently, newly elected congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from Queens, NY, proudly calls herself a socialist. And, of course, there’s good, old Bernie Sanders, the socialist/Democrat senator from Vermont, who may run for president again in 2020.
And, don’t forget the losing candidate for governor of Florida, Andrew Gillum, former mayor of Tallahassee, another true-blue socialist, who lost by a hair in the just completed Florida election.
There’s no question that socialism is a creeping phenomenon among Democrat voters, particularly in urban areas that are dominated by black and Hispanic voters.
Why Suburbanites Don’t Like Trump
Urbanites, of course, have been voting for Democrats for some period of time. But suburban voters could, at least in past elections, be counted on to support moderate Republican candidates, like Mitt Romney and John McCain. Of course, Trump is no moderate Republican.
Thus, many affluent suburbanites, who are certainly capitalists, just don’t like Trump’s style. He’s too brash. Too outspoken. They would never invite Trump into their homes. Let alone have dinner with him.
What seems odd is that affluent suburbanites are turning away from the party that—especially under Trump—has brought about enormous economic gains—in employment, GDP, and the stock market. Yet the upper-middle-class isn’t satisfied and showed it during the midterms.
Why Aren’t Suburban Women Impressed with the Economic Results?
It seems that, despite all the good economic news, suburban women want more security. They are worried about the rising cost of healthcare. They feel that Republicans have let them down, after years of deriding Obamacare and promising to offer a better way. And they blame President Trump—not Senator John McCain, who voted against repealing Obamacare–for not solving the problem.
Suburban women want to be sure that their family’s medical needs will be paid for by insurance, even if they have pre-existing conditions. And they think Republicans can’t be counted on to provide it. Therefore, they have suddenly become advocates of Obamacare, even though it costs an arm and a leg and covers medical needs their young families don’t require.
Suburban women apparently want security, whatever the cost. Although the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is current law and provides up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a variety of reasons, that doesn’t seem to be enough.
Therefore, the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, has advocated legislation for six weeks of mandatory paid leave after birth or adoption. Her idea would be financed by the states through their unemployment insurance program. But no one knows, at this point, if that’s even feasible.
Will Trump Reach Out to Suburban Women?
Is President Trump likely to make a concerted effort now to specifically campaign for the votes of suburban women? And, if so, is he likely to play Santa Claus to their desires for new government subsidies? It’s doubtful, but not impossible.
Certainly, Trump’s personality will not undergo a sudden change. He is who he is, unlike so many Democrat politicians who pretend to be what they are not. For example, Barack Obama pretended to be a black man, when, in fact, he is half white and almost half Arab; he has only one black grandmother; blackness makes up a small percent of his DNA. That pretense was one of many. His lies about the benefits of Obamacare were another. Still, Democrat voters bought into his lies, because they liked him and wanted to believe him, no matter what he said.
What Will House Democrats Do?
Politics is a funny business, and Democrat congressmen and woman may spend most of their time during the next two years investigating Trump, which will make many voters wonder if Democrats are now only good at rage and revenge. So, like the Republican congressional majority that just got voted out of office, they have much to lose.
Democrats also know they will be in a position to put forward a program to run on in 2020, and they are likely to push for locking in Obamacare and heading toward single-payer Medicare for all. It will be up to Trump and his allies to counter that socialist program with a Republican solution that suburban women will buy. Otherwise, no matter how many middle-class families cheer for Trump at his rallies, suburban women may defeat him in 2020.
Jim’s Daily Rant is owned and operated by James I. Greene. All rights protected by copyright from reproduction without permission.
Jim's Daily Rant 