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Dems need to reinvent the party

Dr. David Turner

If the French elections offer any clue where “progressivism” is headed in the future then it is down a vague road. The Socialist party ended with only 7 percent of the vote with a more radical leftist receiving 18 percent. But for America, the emergence of Emmanuel Macron, a technocratic liberal if ever there was one, seems likely to project what kind of Democrat we are going to see in 2020.

Macron is an independent allegedly separated from the system, although he is an investment banker and a former attorney general. He is young and good at making moderate sounds, and although he wants to do well for the average citizen, he wants to do it by boosting the social class from which he comes.

For Democrats, such a candidate would be perfectly in step with the party since 1945. More gimmick candidates than substantive, from the eloquent Adlai Stevenson to the youthful John F. Kennedy, all the way to Barack Obama who promised hope. Style was preferable to ideology and competence the hallmark. In 2016 they ran the competent, if not charismatic, Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, Hillary did not have the style that “progressives” seem to crave.

The emphasis is on generalizations about equality, but the passion is for diversity regardless of the form it takes. True enough, Obama subtly tried to help labor and increase the middle class but he never really articulated that part of the message. Bernie Sanders does try to develop a specific economic message, thus in the view of some technocrat Democrats there is a need for a good-looking, amiable candidate that does not feel particularly strong about anything. A sort of American Macron.

But the days of simply running under the banner of 19th century liberal economics — free trade and tolerance — are coming to a close. Donald Trump took some votes that should have gone to Clinton. This was done because Democrats seem to worship at the alter of untrammeled capitalism. If workers fear for their jobs, Democrats comfort them with the mantra of lifetime learning. If their futures bother them, they are given vague clucking noises about how the party feels their pain. And, if they get too explicit in their demands, the voter is lectured about “inappropriate” or “unacceptable” opinions. Prep school jargon does have its uses.

It is perhaps instructive to note that the last two presidential nominees to employ Franklin Roosevelt’s “forgotten men” slogan were Richard Nixon and Trump. Instead, they were given love trumps hate. No criticism of “malefactors of great wealth” or bankers that helped to plunge the world into a financial crisis in 2008. Democrats sound more in line with George W. Bush than FDR. And thus devoid of any central core belief, the party turns to handsome advocates of the status quo. It has become close to being a feudal arrangement. Trust us and we will look out for you on our own terms.

This proved vulnerable in 2016 when Trump became the real lord of the manor. He promised and promised and promised — a hallmark of the Democratic party of another age. He defeated the original party of the forgotten men by using his own version. Democrats need to develop the party from bottom-up rather than top-down.

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