http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellencarmich...77ed2419b4
Democrats' Response To President Trump Proves No Lessons Learned
Ellen Carmichael , CONTRIBUTOR
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 21: Participants seen during the Women's March on January 21, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Downtown Los Angeles for the Women's March in protest after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Women's Marches are being held in cities around the world. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)
For the past few days, I've been practically held hostage in my own home. I live in some proximity to the U.S. Capitol, and my apartment complex has been the backdrop of many aggressive protests, night-long sirens sounding and constant chaos.
The mania is no reflection of the individuals who came to the nation's capital to celebrate the inauguration of President Trump, but instead, of those hoping to discredit it. They started fires on the streets of downtown D.C., smoke towers billowing above the tops of buildings. They shut down pedestrian access to public transportation and the National Mall. They screamed hate-filled chants at law enforcement, labeling them "pigs" in between yelling in unison they controlled the streets, planned to destroy everything around them and that they did not accept Donald Trump as president. They left piles upon piles of garbage on the side of the road, content for some working class public employee to clean their filth.
Democrats, naturally, are not held to account for their most passionate advocates. While they might not actually be the ones throwing feces at cops, they exalt the most unhinged in their activist class, legitimizing their most abhorrent behavior as warranted because they're angry, afraid or helpless. It is in the opinion of the Left that they're entitled to say and do whatever they want because however they feel is justified, and thus, they are not responsible for the actions taken as a result of those feelings. Their leadership's refusal to demand better -- or even just kindergarten-level maturity that rejects threatening the safety of others or destroying private property -- suggests their inner revolutionary empathizes with such behavior.
But, on a political level, their behavior reflects just how few lessons they've learned from the past election. I've always maintained that the presidential election wasn't about Donald Trump. Indeed, Senate Republican candidates in states Trump also won outperformed him on average 5.3 points, so this might be the unusual instance of the middle of the ticket propelling the top.
And certainly, Hillary Clinton, like many of the down ballot Democrats this cycle, was an extraordinarily flawed candidate who could not shake a reputation of sinister self-interest and detachment from the lives of ordinary people. Across the board, Democrats failed to connect with voters, and many Republicans grudgingly cast their ballots for Trump when in the voting booth trying to keep a GOP majority in the Senate to check Clinton's presumed power as president.
Even despite all those factors, Trump's rise was, in large part, not due to any conservatism or political philosophy. It was the product of a bunch of ordinary Americans who are tired of the professional Left ascribing xenophobia, homophobia, racism and classism to them on a regular basis. Go to church? You're a troglodyte. Have concerns about people breaking the law by illegally entering the United States? You hate brown people. Don't like the fact that Obamacare caused your premiums to triple? You just don't want poor people to have health care.
Their overreach saw historic electoral losses at every level of government since President Obama took office. Consider this, from Politico Magazine:
"...they are stuck in the minority in Congress with no end in sight, have only 16 governors left and face 32 state legislatures fully under GOP control. Their top leaders in the House are all over 70. Their top leaders in the Senate are all over 60. Under Obama, Democrats have lost 1,034 seats at the state and federal level—there’s no bench, no bench for a bench, virtually no one able to speak for the party as a whole."
A rational actor would assess the catastrophic political losses of the last eight years, and if brave enough, would tell the truth about the situation in which the Democrats find themselves. The far Left wing of their party, represented by shrill ideologues like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has cemented the Democrats' status as a minority party for many years to come. They no longer represent the interests of the average American and are instead consumed with placating their delicately-arranged coalition of the perpetually aggrieved, at least until the next election cycle. If they want to reassume power, they'll need to address the issues that make life harder for average Americans -- cost of living, barriers to economic mobility, inequality in education and so on -- instead of the causes that delight the progressive intelligentsia.
But, there's no indication they have learned such lessons as they reaffirm their commitment to a far Left ideology totally unpalatable to a normal person more interested in living a good life than she is with committing that life to anyone's political agenda. A simple survey of recent events within the Democratic Party and progressive movement prove just how few lessons they gleaned from their most recent electoral landslide loss.
First, the frontrunner for the chairman of the Democratic Party is Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.). Apparently, Democrats believe nothing says "We understand what American voters want!" like making a man who went on a Muslim Brotherhood-sponsored pilgrimage to Mecca their party leader. Even Democratic donors have publicly expressed dismay over what they see as his anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views.
Next, The Democratic Coalition's senior adviser Scott Dworkin bragged on Twitter Monday that his organization would organize a boycott of Washington-area restaurants who served paying customers who happened to be Republicans who opposed Obamacare.
"For fun we are working with DC restaurants & bars to ban Members of Congress who plan on repealing Obamacare #trumpleaks #theresistance," he tweeted.
"Restaurants who don't ban Members will be boycotted by DC residents & close down. We've done it before-It worked #trumpleaks #theresistance," he continued.
Setting aside the extraordinary hubris and bullying of local businesses engaging in free enterprise, the tone-deafness of the strategy speaks volumes about how Democrats view politics -- as a bludgeoning tool to hurt others with whom they disagree "for fun." If they think this will play well among those they seek to convince of the value of Obamacare, they really are delusional.
Then, there's the matter of dozens of Democratic lawmakers refusing to attend the inauguration of then-President-elect Trump. It followed the weeks of scheming to develop ways to prevent the installation of Trump as president, including spamming the inboxes and mailboxes of hundreds of electors nationwide with threatening letters should they cast their ballots in favor of Trump, who was elected by the popular vote in the state. It also came after weeks of complaining from liberals about the illegitimacy of the Electoral College, an institution established in the 1780s, in picking the president.
The showboating meltdown might have appealed to their preferred interest groups, but Americans who are downright exhausted from the 2016 election cycle probably had little patience for the melodramatics. Sore loser syndrome is hardly inspiring to the average person who is ready to go back to living her life, regardless of her choice for president.
Such public displays of contempt from Democratic lawmakers offered reassurance to their activist class who took to -- and over -- the streets of the nation's capital this week that their behavior was warranted because their feelings were justified. Since there was no call for civility or unity from Democratic leadership, it is no wonder that their most rabid supporters felt empowered to act however they wished.
In fact, the Women's March in D.C., with all of its vagina hats and vulgar signs, also featured former Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), among other prominent Democratic lawmakers and liberal public figures. Any credible political adviser on the Left would have cautioned against attempting to normalize this approach to politics, citing the likelihood it would alienate swing voters in places Democrats keep losing. Apparently, they don't quite understand that in order to achieve their desired policies, they have to actually persuade people to support their candidates and causes.
But, for people who blur the lines of the political and the personal, Democratic decisions in the Trump era befuddle those of us who have spent any time in this industry. They continue to engage in behavior that further alienates them from the American mainstream, a signal of their ongoing miscalculation of the political environment and the needs of the people they'd like to represent.
A party whose power lust once necessitated pragmatism now maintains an illogical, slavish devotion to an ideology rejected by voters time and time again. If they don't change their ways, more Democrats will be sent packing in 2018, too. Maybe then they'll learn their lesson.
ps. Sorry Bolty :-)
pps. I originally considered not citing a source at first and seeing how ppl here would have reacted to this, thinking that I was the writer. However, there was always a chance that the source would have been found before I fessed up, thereby giving certain individuals a reason to call plagiarism and all sorts of other niceties. Naturally, I'd have not been believed if I explained myself afterwards.
Democrats' Response To President Trump Proves No Lessons Learned
Ellen Carmichael , CONTRIBUTOR
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 21: Participants seen during the Women's March on January 21, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Downtown Los Angeles for the Women's March in protest after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Women's Marches are being held in cities around the world. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)
For the past few days, I've been practically held hostage in my own home. I live in some proximity to the U.S. Capitol, and my apartment complex has been the backdrop of many aggressive protests, night-long sirens sounding and constant chaos.
The mania is no reflection of the individuals who came to the nation's capital to celebrate the inauguration of President Trump, but instead, of those hoping to discredit it. They started fires on the streets of downtown D.C., smoke towers billowing above the tops of buildings. They shut down pedestrian access to public transportation and the National Mall. They screamed hate-filled chants at law enforcement, labeling them "pigs" in between yelling in unison they controlled the streets, planned to destroy everything around them and that they did not accept Donald Trump as president. They left piles upon piles of garbage on the side of the road, content for some working class public employee to clean their filth.
Democrats, naturally, are not held to account for their most passionate advocates. While they might not actually be the ones throwing feces at cops, they exalt the most unhinged in their activist class, legitimizing their most abhorrent behavior as warranted because they're angry, afraid or helpless. It is in the opinion of the Left that they're entitled to say and do whatever they want because however they feel is justified, and thus, they are not responsible for the actions taken as a result of those feelings. Their leadership's refusal to demand better -- or even just kindergarten-level maturity that rejects threatening the safety of others or destroying private property -- suggests their inner revolutionary empathizes with such behavior.
But, on a political level, their behavior reflects just how few lessons they've learned from the past election. I've always maintained that the presidential election wasn't about Donald Trump. Indeed, Senate Republican candidates in states Trump also won outperformed him on average 5.3 points, so this might be the unusual instance of the middle of the ticket propelling the top.
And certainly, Hillary Clinton, like many of the down ballot Democrats this cycle, was an extraordinarily flawed candidate who could not shake a reputation of sinister self-interest and detachment from the lives of ordinary people. Across the board, Democrats failed to connect with voters, and many Republicans grudgingly cast their ballots for Trump when in the voting booth trying to keep a GOP majority in the Senate to check Clinton's presumed power as president.
Even despite all those factors, Trump's rise was, in large part, not due to any conservatism or political philosophy. It was the product of a bunch of ordinary Americans who are tired of the professional Left ascribing xenophobia, homophobia, racism and classism to them on a regular basis. Go to church? You're a troglodyte. Have concerns about people breaking the law by illegally entering the United States? You hate brown people. Don't like the fact that Obamacare caused your premiums to triple? You just don't want poor people to have health care.
Their overreach saw historic electoral losses at every level of government since President Obama took office. Consider this, from Politico Magazine:
"...they are stuck in the minority in Congress with no end in sight, have only 16 governors left and face 32 state legislatures fully under GOP control. Their top leaders in the House are all over 70. Their top leaders in the Senate are all over 60. Under Obama, Democrats have lost 1,034 seats at the state and federal level—there’s no bench, no bench for a bench, virtually no one able to speak for the party as a whole."
A rational actor would assess the catastrophic political losses of the last eight years, and if brave enough, would tell the truth about the situation in which the Democrats find themselves. The far Left wing of their party, represented by shrill ideologues like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has cemented the Democrats' status as a minority party for many years to come. They no longer represent the interests of the average American and are instead consumed with placating their delicately-arranged coalition of the perpetually aggrieved, at least until the next election cycle. If they want to reassume power, they'll need to address the issues that make life harder for average Americans -- cost of living, barriers to economic mobility, inequality in education and so on -- instead of the causes that delight the progressive intelligentsia.
But, there's no indication they have learned such lessons as they reaffirm their commitment to a far Left ideology totally unpalatable to a normal person more interested in living a good life than she is with committing that life to anyone's political agenda. A simple survey of recent events within the Democratic Party and progressive movement prove just how few lessons they gleaned from their most recent electoral landslide loss.
First, the frontrunner for the chairman of the Democratic Party is Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.). Apparently, Democrats believe nothing says "We understand what American voters want!" like making a man who went on a Muslim Brotherhood-sponsored pilgrimage to Mecca their party leader. Even Democratic donors have publicly expressed dismay over what they see as his anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views.
Next, The Democratic Coalition's senior adviser Scott Dworkin bragged on Twitter Monday that his organization would organize a boycott of Washington-area restaurants who served paying customers who happened to be Republicans who opposed Obamacare.
"For fun we are working with DC restaurants & bars to ban Members of Congress who plan on repealing Obamacare #trumpleaks #theresistance," he tweeted.
"Restaurants who don't ban Members will be boycotted by DC residents & close down. We've done it before-It worked #trumpleaks #theresistance," he continued.
Setting aside the extraordinary hubris and bullying of local businesses engaging in free enterprise, the tone-deafness of the strategy speaks volumes about how Democrats view politics -- as a bludgeoning tool to hurt others with whom they disagree "for fun." If they think this will play well among those they seek to convince of the value of Obamacare, they really are delusional.
Then, there's the matter of dozens of Democratic lawmakers refusing to attend the inauguration of then-President-elect Trump. It followed the weeks of scheming to develop ways to prevent the installation of Trump as president, including spamming the inboxes and mailboxes of hundreds of electors nationwide with threatening letters should they cast their ballots in favor of Trump, who was elected by the popular vote in the state. It also came after weeks of complaining from liberals about the illegitimacy of the Electoral College, an institution established in the 1780s, in picking the president.
The showboating meltdown might have appealed to their preferred interest groups, but Americans who are downright exhausted from the 2016 election cycle probably had little patience for the melodramatics. Sore loser syndrome is hardly inspiring to the average person who is ready to go back to living her life, regardless of her choice for president.
Such public displays of contempt from Democratic lawmakers offered reassurance to their activist class who took to -- and over -- the streets of the nation's capital this week that their behavior was warranted because their feelings were justified. Since there was no call for civility or unity from Democratic leadership, it is no wonder that their most rabid supporters felt empowered to act however they wished.
In fact, the Women's March in D.C., with all of its vagina hats and vulgar signs, also featured former Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), among other prominent Democratic lawmakers and liberal public figures. Any credible political adviser on the Left would have cautioned against attempting to normalize this approach to politics, citing the likelihood it would alienate swing voters in places Democrats keep losing. Apparently, they don't quite understand that in order to achieve their desired policies, they have to actually persuade people to support their candidates and causes.
But, for people who blur the lines of the political and the personal, Democratic decisions in the Trump era befuddle those of us who have spent any time in this industry. They continue to engage in behavior that further alienates them from the American mainstream, a signal of their ongoing miscalculation of the political environment and the needs of the people they'd like to represent.
A party whose power lust once necessitated pragmatism now maintains an illogical, slavish devotion to an ideology rejected by voters time and time again. If they don't change their ways, more Democrats will be sent packing in 2018, too. Maybe then they'll learn their lesson.
ps. Sorry Bolty :-)
pps. I originally considered not citing a source at first and seeing how ppl here would have reacted to this, thinking that I was the writer. However, there was always a chance that the source would have been found before I fessed up, thereby giving certain individuals a reason to call plagiarism and all sorts of other niceties. Naturally, I'd have not been believed if I explained myself afterwards.
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![[Image: VKQ0KLG.png]](http://i.imgur.com/VKQ0KLG.png)
![[Image: a2693075c1af63e64339cdb55061bf648060ffca...6d6f2f.jpg]](http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/a2/a2693075c1af63e64339cdb55061bf648060ffcae7bae73044b1e096cd6d6f2f.jpg)
