Democrats Disregard Warnings, Face Catastrophic Results

Two statements, eight years apart, highlight a persistent political strategy within the Democratic Party’s leadership:

“The key to victory in a state like Michigan, say Harris campaign strategists, lies in the suburban counties filled with college-educated and predominantly white voters,” reported the New York Times three weeks ago.

“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will gain two moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Philadelphia. This pattern will hold in Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin,” said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer in July 2016.

This recurring tactic amongst Democratic elites, which initially paved the way for Donald Trump’s entry into the White House, has once again proven its effectiveness.

Loyalty to the powerful is a repetition compulsion disorder with horrendous consequences.

Following a national election defeat, some political parties have the foresight to create an “autopsy” report, evaluating their failures and necessary future adjustments. However, after Hillary Clinton’s loss as a candidate allied with corporate and military interests in 2016, the Democratic National Committee chose not to undertake such an analysis.

Therefore, at RootsAction, we initiated our own analysis, assembling a team of researchers and activists to produce “Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis.” Many of our observations from the 2016 election remain relevant today. For instance:

The Democratic National Committee and the party’s congressional leaders continue to focus on courting elusive Republican voters rather than strengthening ties with their own base, including minorities, the youth, and the working class.

Young voters represent one of the significant demographics with low turnout, facing a “toxic mix of economic despair, Republican-driven voter suppression, and lackluster messaging from the Democratic side.”

“Emerging voter groups are forcing the Democratic Party to recognize vehement grassroots opposition to economic injustice, institutional racism, gender inequality, environmental degradation, and corporate dominance. True alignment with the party’s base is unattainable when leaders appear fearful of this base.”

The Democratic Party’s claim of advocating for “working families” is compromised by its reluctance to confront corporate interests, thus allowing Trump to pose as a populist.

With a party resembling fascism now controlling the presidency, Senate, and presumably the House, the implications for both humanity and the environment are unimaginable.

“What needs to happen now includes sincere introspection and facing a harsh reality: many see the party as predominantly serving a voracious oligarchy and becoming increasingly detached from its base,” argued our report. The Democratic Party needs to ideologically and financially distance itself from Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, and other profit-driven corporate interests.

When asked on ABC’s The View four weeks ago if she would have done anything differently from President Biden, Kamala Harris responded, “Nothing comes to mind.” This unwavering loyalty to powerful figures is a repetition compulsion disorder with dreadful outcomes. Harris’s response—amid ongoing atrocities in Gaza facilitated by U.S. military support—represented not only a moral lapse but also a precursor to electoral defeat. She aligned herself with her superior in the White House and his controversial stance on Israel, ignoring the evident desires of the Democratic base.

With the ascendancy of a party with fascist-like traits now confirmed in the presidency, Senate, and likely the House, the stakes for humanity and the planet are indeed dire. Grassroots mobilization should exert as much nonviolent pressure as possible on government officials and other institutional leaders, demanding that any compromise with Republican figures be utterly off the table.

“If you’re not concerned about the growing fascism in America, it will soon start to seem normal. Once that occurs, we are all in danger,” warned Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, in a video six years ago.

“The normalization of fascist ideology, by definition, makes accusations of ‘fascism’ appear exaggerated, even as societal norms shift in these alarming directions,” Stanley noted in his 2018 book. “Normalization specifically means that ideologically extreme conditions no longer seem extreme because they have become normal. The accusation of fascism will always appear extreme; normalization shifts the benchmarks for what is considered ‘extreme.'”

Resisting this normalization is now crucial.