Thank you, thank you. Grateful that you read the comments which inform me each day. I do not twitter because as a news junky I simply cannot devote anymore time to the news. NPR in the kitchen, iPad in hand too much. You are an outstanding man, Bret Stephens. Brilliant and humble. Resent is not too strong a word when I see contact twitter to get to you and others. You have forced me to recognize other points of view. Scary tho.
2
Sure, all of this is reasonable; I am guilty of the things you accuse many of us of. I suppose if we want to win we need to change, but the thing I cannot get over is that there is room at my table for all good ideas; that appears to be untrue of the Trump side. How do you work with racists, people who cannot process facts, and are so hypocritical in their religious views it is laughable?
I grew up in Maine and spend a lot of time there, live in and around NYC now; I was not shocked Trump won and still wins given the pain I saw in Maine - entire ways of life ruined by NAFTA. But how do you explain to these people that the yes the Dems sold them out, but the GOP also blocked almost every attempt to provide training and a safety net?
I am stuck on this notion that I don't want to negotiate with people who refuse to negotiate.
5
#1) It seems reasonable to consider the Democrats opposed Kavanaugh because he was a poor choice who demonstrated unsuitable temperament for the SCOTUS. He was picked to protect Trump when others on the Federalist top ten could have gone through smoothly. It was not a wise political maneuver since there was little chance for successfully blocking his nomination.
#2) As electoral and Senate voters no longer reflect the popular majority (small population states get 2 senators & grab electoral points with slim margins) - the idea of representative government is now replaced by a regional fluke- the over weighting of rural vs metropolitan voters. This cannot last forever nor will compassion for the ruthless shifts in capitalism's economic favoritism unite the nation.
Small towns in the rust belt and the demise of family farms, coal and manufacturing cannot be remedied with empathy. Job re-training has not been very effective and Amazon is not building in areas their 20-40 year old college grad employees do not favor as places to raise their kids.
Only a restoration of rational policy, compromise and the demise of trumpism can save our democracy...which absolutely requires courageous & honest Republicans making a reasoned case to their base.
The Democrats need a charismatic, down-to-earth guy in jeans who can dodge & weave against name-calling & dumb bluster.
5
"I want Trump, and Trumpism, to lose. ". Ok, Bret, stop berating Democrats and the Democrats and tell us how to get this done. We are all ears!
21
Your Texas examples is really bad. Beto lost, but the Democratic turnout dislodged Republican House members who normally cruise to reelection. The impact on local races and the state legislature was significant. Beto built bridges by talking about his progressive views and why they are good for all Texans, while Cruz's campaign was basically "eek! scary Dem! Hide your guns!" How do you build a bridge to that? This column is basically a muddle suggesting... what exactly? "Build bridges" is a nice catchphrase but what do you really mean there?
43
“You don’t need a Ph.D. in psychology to know that the president is an insecure narcissist with daddy issues.”
But if you did have that Ph.D., you’d probably recognize that Trump’s damage has everything to do with his mother. Absentee fathers are the status quo in our society; and sometimes it’s even by choice.
Mothers, conversely, have the capacity to provide a much broader foundation for emotional stability in their children, even in the absence of a partner. What a curious evolutionary trait.
5
All the comments I read here are not about moving the country forward but rather emotional responses and anger. You all seen to hate Republicans and Trump and this keeps you breathing because you have no real solutions to the country's problems.
13
Bravo! For calling out liberal's blind spots, especially in a forum here, which is about as liberal a forum as can be found. I'm no DJT fan. But the Blue Wave didn't happen because the Dems are nearly as, if not as bad, as the GOP. And I'm seriously starting to think they bend over backwards for immigrants because that is a source of votes for them. But ignoring the rest of the population is not a way to win office. Try to find common causes that the majority of citizens care about, regardless of race or sexual orientation.
16
I'm having a hard time reconciling your "warning to the Democrats" with well-documented actions (or inactions if you prefer) of the Republican party who failed to hold DJT accountable and remained silent as he threatened our democracy. Silence is consent, Bret.
Why don't you spend some time researching the harmful actions/inactions of GOP lawmakers before you begin labeling the resistance as pompous? Really, pompous? Or perhaps in your world, you believe the GOP does no harm. Do you ever think about who will pay for the exorbitant deficits, a result of GOP tax cuts to corporate America and the wealthy? It's our children who will pay, Bret, our children.
Bret, please spare me your labels and lecture. By the way, in case you are looking for a data point to use in the future, the historic number of women elected to Congress is a direct result of the resistance. Across. Our. Democracy.
32
You are simply wrong. I have spent the best part of this last year volunteering for a Democratic campaign that was trying to reach a middle ground with conservatives in our district. I have holes in my tongue from listening politely to their lies and trying to find some common ground. I am married to a Trump supporter who refused to even talk to this moderate candidate that I was so excited to work for. There is no reasoning or compromise possible, we are in a war to pretend otherwise is delusional.
31
The Democrats can easily lose in 2020. I suggest they start working for middle class Americans the next 2 years. If they fall into the illegal trap Trump will soon regain the nations ear.
10
Why does it not bother Trump's supporters that the man lies six times a day?
Why do they not care that $1.5 Trillion dollars was borrowed and distributed to primarily billionaires. This is blowing up the budget and the result ultimately will be reductions in social security, medicare and medicaid.
26
From the sound of it Bret isn't asking his adversaries to "build bridges" to his side. He's asking for political asylum as far from "his side" as possible.
5
Brett
My learnings are to the right/ conservative (although I prefer to call myself and an evidentist, ie want evidence).
This is one of the few columns that I see on the left that I can read and see that you are making a sensible point, rather than name calling
7
Yea, this was a good showing overall by the GOP, but Beto came within 2 percentage points of winning in Texas. If the GOP can't hold Texas, they can't win the Presidency. I would be more worried if I were a Republican than if I was a Democrat.
11
The main issues in Florida, Georgia, and Texas lie not with the "left-wing candidates" running in those red states but with rampant voter suppression and election fraud. Currently in Florida, boxes full of uncounted ballots keep turning up. In Georgia, the Secretary of State who was in charge of elections was also the GOP gubernatorial candidate and cheated in every way...because he could. And I read many accounts of Beto’s votes suddenly clicking over to Cruz.
The Democrats ran many outstanding progressive candidates across the nation. Progressivism is not the problem. The problem is GOP election chicanery.
25
You want all Democrats to "stop manning imaginary barricades, and start building real bridges to the other America." Putting aside the fact that the barricades are not imaginary, you keep asking Democrats to do what you, a right-wing Republican, have been entirely incapable of doing. You and the few others like you who spent their lives fighting on what had previously been the far-right of the Republican Party have zero influence on Trump supporters because they revile you for refusing to kneel before Trump. Further, you're exiled as there’s no longer a Republican Party, just a Party of Trump.
I've spent my life, both personally and professionally, negotiating with Republicans and Conservatives, yet I've been utterly unable to come to a real agreement with Trump supporters about anything. The reason is simple; no matter how much I try to move towards a Trump supporter and come to some consensus, they won't move towards me, they move further away. It's remarkable to try and speak with a Trump supporter and realize that every move you make towards "consensus" is merely viewed by them as a concession they can exploit. It was shocking at first, though it should surprise no one, because it's exactly how Trump works, and how the GOP now works. (Mitch McConnell anyone?)
Further, Democrats are not a tool you can exploit to get your Party back Bret. You consistently do it because you’re desperate and refuse to come to terms with the fact that your Republican Party is gone forever.
45
It is demographics. The urban and suburban near the cities voted democrat and the further out suburban and rural voted Republican. Republican areas are becoming redder, Democrat areas are becoming bluer. The middle ground is disappearing and the people are falling into camps. Myself, I grew up in Staten Island and now live in Rhode Island. I am a registered Democrat and have always been. I used to vote all over the place. I find myself now almost never considering a Republican for office they have so disgusted me. Democrats would be willing to compromise and they know the numbers. By 2020 under 18 Whites are no longer a majority in this country for that age group and the slide begins for all others. The Republican party has done everything to alienate every minority group it can. The Vote you so easily dismissed in Texas was a lot closer than anyone in the Republican party wanted. They see Texas slowly turning blue. So will Arizona, it is just a matter of time. Meanwhile white Republicans continue to hunker down and bury their heads in the sand and do not see that soon enough, they will no longer be the force they were. If you see it as a struggle, it would be better for Republicans to negotiate the changes that are coming from a position of strength, than one of weakness, alas that will never happen.
7
The Democrats got 4.2 millions more votes than GOP, despite gerrymandering and voter suppression. If there is a warning it is that the GOP will go to any ends to make sure it can win elections while losing them....
6
Mr. Stephens,
I don't identify with Antifa, the "Resistance," or any others for the far left whose raucous media strategies are gleefully being covered by NY Times, Mr Stevens and all other major media with the same degree of faux seriousness as are Trump's tweets.
This election was not about resistance to Trump. It was about resistance to the Republican (and some Democrats) corporate agenda which is to de-institutionalize health care, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, keep the minimum wage at a poverty level, keep Military funding and warmaking at an all time budget-busting high and destroy the environment and the planet's atmosphere -- all in the name of selfish, short term profits -- while leaving a violent, militarized eco-wasteland to the future.
The nihilism project has failed and the new global, human community is arising. The future is about allocation of limited resources. Money is a resource. Note how the oligarchs, and their stealth supporters like Stevens, never actually mention money. That is by design.
Everyone now, keep your eyes on the orange carnival barker's tweets and pay no attention to all those official people in suits carrying off those trunks of gold.
18
Oh come on: Lucy McBath winning Gingrich's old Congressional seat, and away from a women known for voter suppression and opposition to Planned Parenthood. And Kris Kobach losing! We need to celebrate those races and others, and keep on fighting.
11
You're essentially asking Democrats to suddenly become competent. Good luck with that.
They're simply out of their league when it comes to dealing with the alt.right. The Kavanaugh fiasco demonstrates that this crowd of Democrats is just as inept as the do-nothing crew that allowed the Republicans to set the legislative agenda when Obama was president.
Now, despite the obvious skill of their opponents, the Democrats are now talking as if they might accomplish something substantive in the context of the aggressive, successful strategies they face. In fact, they can't even proceed with the Russia investigation without first spending time and effort preserving the existence of the Mueller Probe. Too bad they've already shown they have no idea how to proceed with that.
No, the Democrats cannot invoke a miracle to magically become as skilled as the nationalist autocracy proponents. The only way to fix them is to vote all of them out of there and replace them with real politicians. As you've pointed out, they've made voting successfully for their candidates a no-win proposition by not even knowing what kind of candidates they need to wage campaigns with any real chance of succeeding.
So in 2020, nothing will have been done by the Democrats. The president, the senate, and the supreme court will have made the consitution virtually irrelevant. And the good old Democrats will still support ultra-liberal candidates who can't possibly win centrist votes.
4
Correct. To paraphrase Walt Kelly, you met the enemy, and he is you. Demonizing only gets you so far with reasonable people.
2
Look at the results: the Trumpy places got Trumpier, the Lefty places got Leftier, and the places that were always in the middle generally moved a notch or two leftward. Pretty standard stuff.
6
Brett's entire essay here is rendered without value by his gross misstatement of fact that he cited as his premise. Brett asserted incorrectly that Democrats merely won 28 House seats on November 6th. Brett is in error about this. Does Brett not know that 17 House districts are still counting votes and that it is apparent that in 10 of those districts the Democratic candidates are headed for uncomplicated victories once the votes are counted, so his assertion which he stated as fact that Democrats "merely" won 28 seats is without value. In truth the Dems are headed for victories in 10 of the 17 districts which are still counting votes such that when all the votes are counted and certified the Democrats will hold a minimum of 35 House seats and quite likely 38 House seats.
Brett's original sin in this essay was misleading Times readers, either by guile or ignorance, into thinking the Dems current count of 28 was the final count when all he had to do was to add the Democratic count so far with the Republican count so far to have determined that they add up to only 418 seats instead of 435 seats. Had he simply done that he might have then looked into the status of the outstanding 17 seats and he would have found that Dems are destined for easy victories in 10 of them which would render the final count at 38 House Democrats in the congress to be seated in January. It is mind boggling how Brett missed this.
11
These comments are hilarious; most of them are the very thing the author is warning against. Trump's supporters already reached out. During Obama's presidency, the Republicans constantly rolled over, enabling his ridiculous unconstitutional demands. As voters, we have desperately tried to reason with Trump's opponents using hard, proveable facts, only to be dismissed as every insult you can think of, and have the conversation manipulated with ad hominem, red herring, and brazen lies. We've already gone more than halfway, you need to take at least one step forward. That includes the author; he recognizes the problem, but his overall tone toward Trump suggests that he doesn't realize he is still making the same mistakes.
2
Oh, Lord, I love it when self-identified conservatives tell us Democrats how to act. This column, with its admonition that the Resistance party become "humbler", is truly ludicrous. While it's unfortunate about the Senate, the Democrats will now hold every gavel in the House, they've taken a healthy number of governorships and an even healthier number of seats in various state legislatures.
And for all his bluster, Trump has never faced the degree of scrutiny that he's going to be under once the likes of Adam Schiff and company go to work.
9
Once again the burden of turning back this disgrace has nothing to do with the people enabling it.
The entirety of the GOP just ran a nakedly racist 4th quarter in their campaign. The party that most enables the NRA stands in the wake of another mass shooting and bears no responsibility for its leader's fecklessness in the face of the carnage. The President barely could contain himself for another 12 hours before unleashing fusillade against his imagined enemy of the people.
Sure the Dems need to do better and on the surface it should not be hard because what they offer helps rural America more than anything the GOP cares about but for God's sake can the party of personal responsibility show some? If they can't or won't nothing the Dems could ever do will matter.
7
I wish in the first place to applaud Brett Stephens' willingness to directly engage his readers by responding to their comments in this section . If only his other colleagues would condescend to do the same, a real dialogue could be opened between NYT columnists and readers .
Having said this, there is a great deal to "unpack" in this column, the gist of which seems to be that the recipe of success for Democrats is to listen to the grievances of many trump supporters .
And then what ?
How do we address the grievances of the "lock her up" crowds or of "the press is the enemy of the people"crowd or of the "build the wall and let Mexico pay for it" crowd, etc.? And even if we did, would they in return concede that universal health care, protection of the environment, fairness in our tax laws, reduction of income inequity, rational gun laws and respect women's health choices are issues which must, at the very least, be discussed soberly and dispassionately ? Is what is good for the goose equally good for the gander ?
I think we all know the answer to that . But yet, Brett asserts that supporters of the liberal democratic order should go through the exercise, perhaps, as the French say, because"one does not need to hope in order to undertake, nor to succeed in order to persevere".
Put it bluntly, in other words, we should do it simply because we believe that we are better than they are . Which, unfortunately, brings us back to ground zero .
8
Much of the argument here is based on the notion that a 28-seat swing appears weak compared to the Republican swing in 2010. "The Resistance didn't convert." But I think the comparison is simplistic. The two sides (conservatives v progressive) do not operate by the same dynamic. The conservative message is, by definition, easy to make and often concrete (ie, "go back to the way it was"). The progressive "message," if you can call it that, is almost always amorphous until it isn't. When its "message" appeals, it should be expected to win, or move forward, by smaller margins than when the conservative message appeals and wins the day. The progressive objective should be to solidify their message and their coalition one group at a time. I think they have done that with this election. The best example I can think of is bridge-building with the suburban women who deserted them in 2016.
Stephens is suggesting a little common sense. No one is saying Democrats need to convert hard-core Trump supporters to win elections. They are a distinct minority. Elections are won by turning out your base AND attracting enough independents, undecideds and other "persuadables," in part by trying to understand why they might consider voting for the other candidate. They are not won by loudly demonizing, insulting or shaming anyone who might have ever considered voting for the opposing party or candidate. This may make one feel virtuous, but it's self-defeating as an election strategy. It's not how we will beat Trump in 2020. I don't think Bret is anything more complicated than this.
3
racists approve of trump. there's not a lot of room for negotiation there.
5
Uhhh, we're not going to defeat racism and ignorance in just a couple years.
Here's an idea ... let's just cross all the "bridges" they've so thoughtfully built to us!
Instead of building bridges, we should build coffins because only when these "aggrieved white victims" with their "economic whitexiety" finally die off will we make the progress we need.
8
I'm usually a fan of Stephens's writing, despite disagreeing with him philosophically. But this column? Meh.
8
Mr. Stephens gets it.
Trump would still just be a self-promoting t.v. personality if it wasn't for the left having made labels such as "racist," "bigot," "misogynist," "hater," "xenophobe," "homophobe," etc. utterly meaningless. They have cynically weaponized the most important notions of civility and human rights for generations. Note how "white supremacy" is now the thing, because mere "racist" has lost its sting.
Trumpism is a big middle finger from the half of the country whose traditionalism, non-ideological conservatism, religiosity, patriotism, middle-Americanism has been belittled, mocked, hated and denounced for generations by a left which completely controls our culture.
These people would not more vote for a Democrat because they are offering a better healthcare plan than a black transgender woman would have voted for Bull Conor because he offered her a better tax break.
I think this criticism is misplaced, generally, but there are some correct things about it. First, Trump is supported by a lot of angry and ignorant and racist white people, and many of them are women. Second, HRC was a mistake as a candidate, and her misguided "agenda" was tailored to fit "liberal" Democratic objectives. She failed to win rural voters and factory workers. Why? They should all be voting democratic.
There are more Democrats than Republicans, and Republicans are at bottom criminals when they seek to subvert the constitution and democracy by preventing all people from voting. That's wrong, racist and ugly: They deserve no respect, not even grudging admiration, for achieving such a misguided and horrible goal.
Most Republican voters think this is a "white" country and that black people and Mexicans, Muslims, etc., are dangerous people. They think the sexually confused are simply ugly in God's eyes and wrong. They are also old and dying off, slowly, but they are going to leave behind many children with similar ideas. As for Muslims, in particular: Images of ISIS members executing people and burning people alive is hardly what makes for good Muslim PR anywhere in the world. Can those people even claim to be civilized? Clearly no, not even close.
Trumps voters favor "real" and working Americans over anyone else. Trump is horrible, yes, but the USA is a deluded, ignorant, and conservative country. Democrats have to address that head-on. HRC failed to do that.
3
This is the the fundamental difference between liberals and modern conservatives. Conservatives defend what you tacitly acknowledge is a rigged system, by saying “but those are the rules of the game.” Liberals want to reform the system so it’s no longer rigged.
In addition, you can belittle and dismiss Stacey Abrams as a “leftist” all you want, but whatever she is, she might well have won the race for governor of Georgia, if her opponent hadn’t engaged in extensive voter suppression — or do you dismiss that too as being just “the rules of the game?”
Once again, you seek to excuse the inexcusable, and should be ashamed of yourself...
6
Shorter Stephens: listen liberals, you should take my advice and let the planet burn. It's what real Americans want.
8
we get a little good news, but this giy sees a little joy and has to kill it. dotnt relax. don't chill for a minute you must be up tight and worried. that's how we get vlicks.
No matter how "malinformed" Trumpers are, people on the left have to stop trying to "school" them. It merely allows Trumpism to more deeply infect and fester in their wounds of intellectual insecurity. In other words, no matter how strong and valid the arguments against Trump, if we make them feel stupid and undereducated, they will only strive harder and harder to prove their world views to be true, to the point of denying what is right in front of their faces. Hannity, Ingram, Tucker, and company exploit those insecurities by saying, "There go the elitist, condescending leftists with their haughty taughty degrees talking down to you deplorables again. The liberals think they know what's best for you and the country better than you do."
2
Jeez. just pipe down. You write this column every other week. You can't build a bridge to racist, rural, and reactionary. We should have put these people in jail for treason after the Civil War. We are now seeing what a mistake it was to let them return to their farms and fields.
6
So when should we draw the line? I am supposed to stomach racism, bigotry, hatred, greed, close-mindedness, and just general negativity that i see in every republican I have ever met.
When will they share some of my ideals? Why do I have to always bend over backwards to make sure I am not a "commie dirtbag?" Why do I have to beat down upon women, minorities, gays, and the poor to be part of the conversation?
Yes, those poor people in the other America that are so put upon despite having every advantage and still they live in hate and fear.
No thanks I am good and proud to a be a liberal who will do my best for the most.
10
The NYT built a bridge. Thanks to that bridge you enjoy the privilege of expressing your personal opinions for millions to consider despite the fact that the Times is a liberal publication (or "fake news" as some would say). Russ Douthat and the Brooks brothers have been afforded the same opportunity.
Do we find Paul Krugman, Frank Rich or Noam Chomsky in the pages of the WSJ or National Review? (rhetorical)
I wonder--could bridge-building possibly be a two-sided endeavor? Probably not--it's all the liberals fault--right?
8
700 words and nothing said. Impressive.
4
You write patronizingly as though we need to build a bridge to get to Trump’s supporters instead of understanding that we already live on their side of the bridge.
They are members of our own family, our friends, our in-laws, our coworkers, and our neighbors - our spouses! We’ve heard them parrot Trump’s lies for years in our own living rooms. We’ve already been stunned silent in our offices, churches and schools by their hatred, bigotry and willful ignorance about the homosexual agenda, the hoax of climate change, the criminality of blacks, the road to socialism and the evil of immigrants.
One can build a bridge between two truths but not between the truth and lies.
11
I've long admired your writing Bret, but must admit to getting tired of constant railing against the Dems, liberals and/or the Resistance. All without holding Trump supporters accountable for their racist and homophobic beliefs. Of course by placing yourself in the unassailable position of being anti-Trump and anti-liberal you are therefore beyond criticism.
Can you think of a more appropriate term than deplorables for Trump's ardent supporters? Something kinder and gentler for these proud and vociferous bigots ? Yes, the Dems are failing to convert these people, so surely you must have the answer. If so, I beg you to let us in on your secret.
Although you tell us how opposed you are to Trump in every column, why don't you hold his supporters accountable for their
behavior and their votes? Why no mention of the hatred that's visible on their faces and their signs at his rallies? While ripping the Resistance for failing to convert, just how does one compromise with a racial bigot? Same for a homophobe. Any ideas Bret? How ignorant and naive for the Dems, that even though they may have had the better candidates to think that Af-Americans could become governors in GA and/or FL. Yes, Nixon's southern strategy is still alive and well in your beloved G.O.P. but trust me, better times are coming. You remind me of that old slogan from the 60's Bret, "if you're not part of the solution, your part of the problem".
6
Wow! Mr. Stephens, your drivel game is quite strong. We should try to understand these bigots? Really? That's you're answer? They move the goal posts, and I HAVE TO CHANGE???? No, sir. I wholeheartedly reject this idea.
3
Apocalypticians? Pompously? Surprised you didn’t get “radical “ in there. Maybe listen to Trump and tone it down.
1
Bret for years you and your fellow Republican pundits were in lockstep demonizing Democrats, vilifying Obama (for what possible reason I wonder), cheering on McConnell's obstructionism and sedition, issuing the usual dog whistles and jeremiahs about immigrants, minorities and dangerous socialists, ratifying Bush's ruinous tax cuts and wars, and endorsing phony Republican "investigations' into Nothing Burgers like Whitewater and Benghazi. So in my humble opinion you have a lot of nerve warning Democrats about anything. As usual a Republican administration, this time a blatantly anti-democratic, crypto fascist kleptocracy is going to drive America into a ditch and the Democrats are once again going to be called to rescue it, while Republican obstruct and harass them at every turn. And of course you are getting a head start on it. Despicable.
7
The spectre of several constitutional crises and even of civil war or organized civil insurrection should be a warning to Republicans.
There is a rising fascist tide that may sink all boats.
2
You hope that trump is gone in 2 years? You were a charter member of the Trump despisers? Where were you 2 years ago? Did you once use your position to urge people to vote for Clinton?
I suggest that you visit New Mexico, i.e. the real America!
3
With all due respect Mr. Stephens, there is no way to build bridges with Nazis, and racists and people stupid enough to believe the drivel tRump spews daily. And when the combined populations of North and South Dakota of less than 2 million people are represented by FOUR senators while California with 40 million plus is represented by TWO, you can bet that we will whine until we change this! tRump supporters are responsible for the country's demise and unless they change their minds, America will continue to crumble regardless of what the Dems do.
3
You're kidding with this, right?
3
I really wish the Times, in their liberal quest to include right wing voices in their newspaper, unlike the right wing press, would drop your column. Rarely do you have an original or trenchant thought. Rarely is your thinking even particularly coherent, to be honest. How do you suggest Liberals build bridges to Racists and White Supremacists. And, btw, dont you think that all those White Upper Middle Class Republican Suburbanites who voted Blue this election represent a few bridges here and there? No. What the Dems actually need to do is embrace Socialism without restraint. Arkansas voted heavily socialist in the 30s as did Wisconsin. And so?
3
Imaginary barricades, Mr. Stephens? Like the geopolitical cage that residents of Gaza are penned into, which you claim to be the product of Palestinian aggression?
Knock knock, Neo-con.
1
The delusions of white men and their knee jerk compulsion to always, always blame liberals, i.e. women, people of color, LGBTQ people, is underwhelming and transparent. White people elected Trump. White people allow Trump to continue in office. This is NOT a liberal problem. This is a WHITE PEOPLE problem. Maybe Bret should take his own advice and stop manning imaginary barricades!
6
I'm glad to see so many comments developing the theme of this essay. It's a litany of lessons which all opponents of Donald Trump really must learn without further delay.
I'm one of those who have always said, and will continue to say, that we should not think of compromising with bigots or trying to win over confirmed Trumpies who will only despise us for the effort. Our task is not to find common ground with those people, but to outnumber them on a gerrymander-busting scale. However, that's beside the points being made here.
Some liberal voices as well as conservative ones here at the Times have warned us that we'll defeat ourselves by putting self-gratification ahead of bridge-building in our political efforts. Liberals must speak to and for a national community that extends beyond committed world-changers.
The obstacles to such principled bridge-building can be exasperating. Even though higher steel prices due to Trump's tariff are seriously hurting US industries that use steel, some workers in those industries still support Trump. Even though US soybean farmers see themselves being wiped out by Trump's trade war, some still support Trump. They seem to see themselves as the Light Brigade of a patriotic struggle.
But those are among the very areas where mature, compassionate political effort can build bridges and form a decent community of interest. Recrimination is futile. The movement we need now is not a self-immolating Resistance, but a conquering Alternative.
2
Sorry Bret, but it ain't over. Recounts are going on, the tallies keep going up - and the numbers are on the side of Team Blue.
Gerrymanders, suppressing votes - it's the GOP that needs to clean up its act.
2
Sorry, Mr. Stephens. The midterm results should tell you that the GOP is running on borrowed time.
They are losing ground in the Northeast (hard as that is to imagine, given the low bar they started with). In the West, they are not only losing ground but fighting a losing demographic battle which will further cut into their votes in every subsequent election to come.
They are losing the cities and suburbs, big time.
A political party that bases much of its future upon white, rural and uneducated voters is not one that will have a long shelf life until it broadens its appeal.
This myopic party is doing the exact opposite.
6
I don't disagree with your points. As a white male progressive, a civil rights kid from the 1960s married to a black American woman who serves on the selectboard in our town, I have to say that we are more aggrieved by the piety of the left than the open bigotry of the right.
I do know that in 800 words you have to leave a lot out, like the history of slavery and racism that shaped our electoral system at the start and has dogged our electoral politics ever since then. Trump's appeal to race and nativism is just the latest version of what has taken place in every election since the first one I watched, in 1968.
You also had to leave out the question of what the Republican Party's responsibility is for the current crisis the nation faces. I get it.
I agree that until the educated left-wing elite that controls electoral politics on the two coasts learns to talk to their neighbors in the heartland, we will not see anything but a divided nation.
My wife and I were at a Manhattan book party soon after Trump was elected, and in introducing the poet, an old college friend, the host of the affair said "I know we all are suffering right now." I looked around the room. My wife was the only black woman there. Everyone wore good suits or gowns and had a glass of wine in their hands. The brownstone we were in would cost at least $5 million, probably a good deal more.
So I agree that the disconnect is real and needs to be addressed. But this piece leaves a lot out, too.
2
It's intellectually dishonest to belittle a 28-seat swing toward the Democrats amid a rosy economy in 2018 because the Republicans had a 62-seat swing in their favor in 2010, a time of widespread double-digit unemployment and a decimation of home ownership induced by the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. If Mr. Stephens can't make as elementary a distinction as that, one wonders why he's entrusted with such an important platform as the NY Times opinion section. Raise your game, sir, or step aside in favor of someone who has at least some ability to make honest, apples to apples comparisons. Also: one of the most resounding impacts of this election may well come from Florida voters' long overdue restoration of voting rights to non-murderous felons who have paid their debts to society. There are a number of other states, including Wisconsin and Virginia, that are now on the spot to explain why they can't follow Florida's lead.
5
The left wing "did not convert" because they were not allowed to. The debates and the so-called "dialogues" that were held prior to the election had little seriousness or genuine intellectual involvement in them. Instead, there was much demagoguery and posturing to "win, win, win." It was all about "the race." Democrats at least tried to elevate the discussion, but the presidential campaign failed badly.
This is the problem. In this country, we cannot come close to solving problems because there is no way to conduct a series of meaningful dialogues on a diverse array of issues. It simply does not comport with the American way of doing things. Until this country gets serious about an issue - which is now starting to happen re: the ACA - there will be no bridges built. We have to figure this out or it won't happen.
2
Doublethink: “The Midterm Results Are a Warning to the Democrats” When you lose the election, declare victory. When you lose the election, the victors are eager to hear your advice about how they can win. Bret Stephens does not even try to hide the fact that he is writing a propaganda piece for the Republican Party. It’s exactly like Trump calling Yamiche Alcindor Racist for asking a question about his empowerment of racist White Nationalists.
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, 1984. If Stephens can get readers to think that Democrats need help despite taking the House he has undermined the truth.
6
"shrewder and humbler" Not with the feminist and their sycophants running the party. We can expect more hysteria, disproportional judgments, and a lack of political self-control.
2
the other america has proven itself incapable of rational thought and revealed itself as filled with hate and fear of anyone who looks different, believes different, or thinks different
they are deplorable, they are dangerous, and they used to be contained but the current administration has set them free
they need to be tamped down and reminded that abhorrent behavior is abhorrent
6
Bret,
Full disclosure...I like and respect what I know about you so this isn't a left wing screed.
Now, from what you know about Mr. Trump and his abuse of power, his denigration of the norms of the office and just everyday decent behavior, his chipping away at Constitutional rights and freedoms (1st amendment, 14th amendment, emoluments clause, etc), if this is not the moment in our history to "man the barricades" then what will it take for you to want to erect a barricade?
Aside from all that, why is it always the Democrats who are expected to go hat in hand to the Republicans and beg for compromise?
Unfortunately, we have gotten to this point because we have become a country ruled by land rather than people.
6
@Laird Middleton
It's medieval.
1
There's no conversion of small minds.
Bigots and racists and peddlers of prejudice will not change their hearts either.
So the only way to get to where we need to be any way near balanced is to convince the population that is sitting on the sidelines to get out and vote.
Even in these heated elections we barely go over 50 percent of the eligible voters - and that is a shameful state of the greatest democracy on earth.
4
For Republicans, losing the House of Representatives is not "meh".
2
Meh?
On Monday the Republicans had a flush.
On Wednesday they were holding a king high.
While they have the White House, Supreme Court, Senate, and a lot of governor's mansions, they might as well be holding 4 clubs and a heart.
Taking the House was huge. We're back in the game!
3
And why is it the Democrats' job to solve this problem by themselves?
5
A 'very modest rebuke'? The number of flipped House seats now range from 35 to 40 and Sinema just took the lead in the AZ Senate race.
Suggestion, Mr. Stephens: read Hillbilly Elegy which is an especially accurate picture of the state of rural America based on the author Mr. Vance's experience growing up in rural communities.
How do we reach and help rural America? Even Mr. Vance hasn't a clue other than to say 'work the margins' which means helping people like himself who have the intellect and drive to achieve a better life elsewhere.
The challenge is humbling. Rural citizens are angry, terribly uniformed, and easy pickings for the Limbaughs and Hannitys of the country who know how to sell their schtick to these people. Perhaps you should focus on providing some worthwhile ideas about how to climb this mountain beyond humility.
5
The "other America" will build bridges to the Democrats in 2024 if things keep going the way they have.
2
"The Midterm Results Are a Warning to the Democrats
Stop manning imaginary barricades, and start building real bridges to the other America."
Is that a joke, Mr. Stephens?
After all Trump and the GOP has done over the last 2 years, Democrats are supposed to "build a bridge"?
How's that to be done exactly?
When the GOP consistently demonizes everyone who opposes them until the Fox News watchers, the Rush listeners and the Breitbart addicts are foaming at the mouth against the "libruls" that are "going to destroy America!!!"
Get real. This is a battle against those who cannot be convinced, will not be swayed and can only be defeated by more of US at the ballot box.
6
Bret, that is inane. How can you bridge a gap with people who wish to deprive us all of civil and human rights and who are content with imposing pain, suffering and death on others—including themselves?
5
I’m tired of you and David Brooks telling us how we must reach out to the right and the GOP. I for one am repelled by the ethos of party. They espouse racist rhetoric, they attack voting rights and they out right cheat— Kemp in Georgia. They’re the party of hypocrisy— pro-life, but allow NRA to flourish— look at the tragedy we just endured less than 24 hours ago. Part of the reason trump runs amok is the GOP won’t lift a finger. And don’t get me started on those red hat rallies—wanting to lock up anyone who doesn’t agree with hate monger in chief. Sorry Bret I’m convinced it’ll take more than reaching across party lines
9
In North Carolina, Republicans won 50.3% of the votes but a whopping 10 of 13 congressional seats.
In the same state, Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) elected an all-Democratic Board of County Commissioners for the first time since 1964.
Kansas elected a Democratic governor, not the notorious Republican liar Kris Kobach.
Texas booted numerous Republican congressmen-yes, men.
Bridges-if we even want bridges to benighted America-run both ways.
Despite our 19th century Civil War, there's really nothing that requires us to remain one country.
2
Yes, a warning and a wake-up call.
Liberate yourselves from cop-out political correctness and foot-shooting tokenist identity politics, find something substantive to fight for, and get backbone transplants. Should have happened 25 years ago, but better late than never.
3
Rather disingenuous Mr. Stephens.
It's very hard not to think you love having Trump and his tribe whooping it up because it gives you cover as a "moderate" by comparison.
You'd like the right side of America's political brain to stretch all the way to the horizon so the middle is shifted towards you and it camouflages as moderate what in fact is reactionary right.
You're not writing for the WSJ editorial section to entertain smug corporate rightists. This is The NYTimes and we're a mob of skeptics when you play the middle against both sides.
You're less wrong than just wrong-headed.
9
The head of your party has smeared us with epithets like "mob" "enemy" equated us with criminals, jeered at us as "paid for by Soros." And you think we need to work on bridge building? Gall is the only word that comes to mind.
8
As an outsider, reading the comments feels so tragic - like watching a nation eat itself to death. There are powerful people who have a lot to gain by seeing the population divided and refusing to see their own common ground.
The idea that half the country is made up of die-hard Trumpists is an illusion - the 'I don't care how bad he is' Trump supporter is a minority voice. A lot of Trump voters have the same concerns as Democrats: they are fed up with Washington grid-lock, they are fed up with a system rigged against the non-wealthy. And they also think that Trump lies and tweets too much, etc.
Sure 25% to 35% will not budge from Trump, but there seems to be a lot of evidence to suggest that Republicans have shaky support among lower- to middle-income people. It seems like these are the folks to whom bridges can and should be made.
4
Mr. Stephens, good thoughts,but ,in your assumptions, or presumptions, you evidently think that all of us are la-de-da liberals. On the contrary, many of us are blue collar workers, we are carpenters,plumbers,postal workers, electricians, truck drivers. Yes,many of us see the hypocrisy of some of our Democratic representatives,we see how they have overlooked the "working class" ,(as though that is a meaningful designation) , but in the nuances, many of us have ,sometimes reluctantly, recognized that the Democratic party is a steadier and more reliable ally than the gop. What many of us don't understand is, why must it always be us to understand the "other America?" Why is the responsibility on us to build "the bridges "? Many of us vote on a variety of issues,not just one or two. And sometimes, we don't need to personally benefit. Sometimes,Mr.Stephens, people don't want to cross a bridge,even if it will lead to a better place. The Democrats have been more than willing to compromise, (Bill Clinton was a centrist Democrat), but the gop keeps moving the goal posts and many of us are sick of compromising our rights and ideals.
8
We won more seats than any time in the last 40 years! Stop this nonsense plea for Democrats to bridge anything. People want Democrats in charge. Tell Republicans to moderate themselves.
5
Whoa there Hoss! "It didn’t convert when it nominated left-wing candidates in right-leaning states like Florida and Georgia. It didn’t convert when it poured its money into where its heart was — a lithesome Texas hopeful with scant chance of victory — rather than where the dollars were most needed."
Last I checked, Mr. Stephens, Florida and Georgia were still undecided, Beto put the fear of God into Mr. Cruz in a contest that should never even have been close, and there was no shortage of dollars being spent where they were needed. You remind me of every "Conservative With A Conscience" I've ever met, Mr. Stephens, tepidly afraid of upsetting the apple cart and actually having to take stand that could personally "cost" you. History, they say, favors the bold. Time for the Democrats to go for Trump's jugular. If Trump is re-elected in 2020, so be it, but he will be a much more bloodied and reviled person than even he is now, and it will be just that much clearer whether we will continue as a Republic or a Dictatorship. If the latter, don't expect there to be a country to call home by 2022.
6
Amen. Democrats need to stand FOR something that is coherent, decent, and inclusive, not merely against Trump, as appalling as he is.
1
We read article after article about why the majority of America needs to reach out towards Trump's supporters and understand them. Nobody addresses why: a minority of the population, through gerrymandering and voter suppression, has the ability to speak for the entire country. They cheat, then the pundits tell us to understand them and go back for more. Personally, I'd take the time and effort you recommend we use to embrace a Trump supporter who sees people like me as "other" and "inferior" due to my skin color and sex to fight against the true reasons they currently have so much power. If we are able to make a difference by defeating these illegal practices, we will finally, FINALLY have true democracy.
7
Stephens reminds me of the conservative who says he hates Trump on liberal threads to get your intention but has every intention of voting for him. What he minimizes or fails to realize is that gerrymandering had a lot to do with minimizing the gains, but more important you have half the electorate blinded by the lies of Fox News and this president. Please don’t insult me by saying that the Republican base votes the way it does because liberals condescend to them. If that actually were the reason, they’d be as childish and petty as the president.
6
Violent screaming liberals and paid activists who shout in politicians' faces are not going to make me want to vote for you. If you want to capture the center, consider reasoned discourse.
I am a liberal who was so disgusted by the behavior of the so-called resistance, that I could not bear to vote Democrat. Just hoping that the Republicans would restore some order to the streets, I voted for them this time.
2
Mr. Stephens, affirming that “Liberals are free to bellyache all they want,” then expounding on that at some length seems pretty smug. That’s also unfair to the general, bipartisan notion of “the health of liberal democracy.”
Better for all of us might be to advance a notion of GOOD GOVERNMENT that bridges both notions of so-called “liberal” and so-called “conservative” “democracy,” because what we really have is an ironic American aspiration for both, and neither are really democratic (We’re Constitutional), neither really republican (ditto).
The more local that one’s frame of attention is, the more democratic. City councils or employee-owned companies might be regarded as truly democratic.
The more regional that one’s attention is, the more republican. The Senate is purely republican (via democratic process—ideally). The House is an aggregate of republican districts via democratic process.
We might all serve the so-called American Idea better by working together in light of the ideal of a democratic republic whose bipartisan conception of good government keeps sacred Our fidelity to Constitutionality—to a Constitutional patriotism that we all do share (ideally).
In this instance, Mr. Stephens has his punditry so far up his backside that the reader can only sputter. Perhaps Stephens and his fellow Conservative should look to the raging dumpster fire that is this atrocious administration and GOP majority before castigating the only politicians in the country looking, in good faith, for real solutions that would serve the American public and our common good.
8
I disagree with what Stephens has to say about the condemnation of Trump supporters. Those supporters--from the high captains of industry and the Republican Party to middle class MAGA-hatted screamers at Trump's infamous rallies--have steadfastly ignored every one of Trump's many faults for going on two years.
Trump, by every responsible account, has stood for: lying and falsehood as a way of life; misogyny; xenophobia; small-mindedness; virulent racism and race-baiting; environmental degradation and destruction; loss of national monuments and assaults on public land; plutocrats and tyrants like Vladimir Putin; a huge and needless federal deficit; denial of medical care for the poor; antipathy to constitutional protections and to the Constitution itself; antipathy to journalists and a free press; and antipathy to teachers, learning, education, thoughtfulness, and facts.
This is an unprecedented time in America, and it is a time for good men and women to speak plainly about the values, like truth, we see being trashed by the president. Here is the crux of it: character matters. If you continue to support this sad excuse of a leader despite all of his patently plain sociopathy, all of his betrayal of our values as a nation-- your character should be called into question as well.
8
Bret, I beg you to go the rural parts of America with the rabid Trump supporters and ask them what would they like to see from their government and in their country? What programs? What policies? I'd love to know because I usually only hear these folks saying what they don't want. These are some of the same folks who protested the ACA and then said, 'don't touch my Medicare!' How do you connect the dots, or even have a conversation about policy options when they don't believe real science, or real journalism, or real numbers? Once you've done that, and compiled the answers, then come back and see if you'd write the same column to us Dems. I'd love to help rural America, having lived there for much of my adult life, but how can you help them if they won't help themselves?
P.S. -- Once again, I highly recommend that you listen to Scene on Radio's, "Seeing White" podcast from 2017. Listen to every part, please, if you haven't already done so.
3
Dems and its voters, stand steadfast. There is no need to reach across the aisle because there is no bridge to build. This is the time to isolate the party and its supporters who peddle hate and bigotry. If all the regions in the country that turned the page over for the Dems to put more of them in the House did so because it was a repudiation of Trump, then there is mathematically zero chance of Trump repeating his victory in the 2020 elections. Let us just ice it by encouraging even more of our diverse population to go to the polls.
"Dump Trump 2020"
6
Oh contraire: The campaign Beto ran was EXACTLY what Stevens says we need: positive, engaging, nonthreatening, and definitely and completely disassociated from Trump-bashing. And he almost won. THAT'S what Democrats need to do, and sadly it still might not work. As long as Fox News and Rush virtually CONTROL the minds and hearts of a third of America---yes, rural America---then Democrats have almost zero chance at winning them over. We may be doomed, because Beto represents the perfect spirit of an American patriot trying to move the nation back to reality and reason. And it's not working.
4
Hi from the Red States.
In my opinion, Fox News is a major problem. This news channel has a huge impact on every person I know who is a so-called conservative. It is an entertainment channel, not a news channel. Many of my friends who take Fox News seriously have explained the facts of life to me. I'll enlighten every one so they will know the "facts".
- Hillary Clinton is still being investigated
- Democrats steal votes
- The Left is full of "mobs", the Right gives Jobs
- Crime is worse than it has ever been
- Christian ministers are not allowed to talk about God in the media
- Fox news is against the "main stream media"
Instead, isn't Fox the mainstream itself?
It is part of a network of conservative commentators who simultaneously spout the same falsehoods. It becomes "truth" because it is said so much.
After investigating several stories, my conclusion is that Fox does not actually lie. They twist the truth. For instance, when there was a controversy over men in women's bathrooms, they went back 15 years to look at all the attacks at Target stores and found a few. They did not compare with other stores and many of the attacks occurred BEFORE any bathroom controversy.
This is off the top of my head, so some of the details may be wrong, but Democrats cannot prove their point until this fountainhead of twisted truth is more carefully examined. My friends will listen to facts, if they know them.
1
No bridges are possible with people who reject objective reality. Jonathan Swift said "Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired." Trumpsters are a cult, plain and simple, supported by the most successful propaganda operation in human history (Fox/Rush/Sinclair). When their hero is finally brought to justice for his crimes, I doubt they'll reconsider their support even then. All that remains to save US democracy is to beat the party of Trump in elections and remove them from power everywhere. I hope we're up to the challenge.
5
According to conservative "thinkers" like Mr. Stephens, Democrats must always learn to compromise or build bridges and move their thinking to that of conservatives. It would have been refreshing if this columnist said that Republicans and conservatives must learn from the drubbing they took on Tuesday. And that lesson, should have been that they should give up their racist attitudes and embrace the real America.
5
Bret -- you're missing it.
"It doesn’t take a lot to get the average voter to tell you what he doesn’t like about Donald Trump: the nastiness, the divisiveness, the lying, the tweeting, the chaos, the epic boastfulness matched by bottomless self-pity. "
If that is true of the "average voter" it is certainly not true of the Trump voter. If it were, they wouldn't vote for Trump.
To Trump voters everything that you mention, along with the groping, the adulteries, the pay-offs to keep the adulteries out of the press, and his overseas business practices ... all of this is a feature, not a bug.
Bret, your problem is that you are one of those "urban elites" Trump voters despise ... (I am too, though I am not like you in many other ways, and don't agree with you on many issues).
You think people ought to have morals, indeed expect that most people do, and you unconsciously assume that these are the morals of modern western thought. Trump voters don't. They may be nice to their families and friends, but they have no larger sense of moral responsibility, and no sense that anything at all is owed to those they don't like. This is tribalism in its most naked form.
Being humble will accomplish nothing with it. Trying to reason with it ditto.
7
This is absurd. A party seizing control of a house of Congress with a gain of three dozen seats is never a 'Meh." Democrats would have had more but for gerrymandering.
3
Bret, did you ever really follow Beto's campaign strategy? How could a Democrat have worked harder at building bridges? He visited areas of the state that Cruz took for granted without ever thinking of setting foot. His rhetoric was invariably inclusive, welcoming not only Independents but Republicans. Yet today some Trumpist woman was fantasizing on the Texas Tribune page that zillions of illegals had voted in the election. Given my native state's draconian voter laws, more likely quite legal Hispanics stayed away from the polls!
3
The right is quite hypocritical with their complaints about "restaurant heckling." The GOP heckles and excoriates Democrats and liberals from every conceivable angle and in every conceivable venue. The protesters are just driving home the point that when one injects so much hate and ignorance into the body politic, one should not be comfortable eating their filet and lobster.
4
Many if not most Republican voters have no problems with a mean, obnoxious, lying, cheating president, who wants to rule like an autocrat or Saudi prince, as long as he's THEIR autocrat/prince. The US will become like Turkey. Ergodan enjoys majority popular support as he shuts down the press, the judiciary, and imprisons dissenters. The difference is that our system has a design flaw, augmented by Republican tinkering, to permit autocratic rule with only numerically minority support.
4
Ya know, what I am most offended by in your column, is the sense of contempt you communicate for those of us who are appalled by what we see with the Trumpists and what they are doing. You seem to be contemptuous of us even though we have pretty calmly navigated these hate filled waters. Its on US to make the bridges to ignorant, haters? Sure, I want us to find a way to reconcile with those who support this, but its a hard hard sale and it is hard to choke back the bile I feel in my mouth. The pain and horror I've experienced watching this horrible man incite murder and yet see his supporters lap it up and vote for him? And WE get the rebuke? Yeah, it may end up our responsibility, but you could at least show US a little respect for that important but repugnant duty to try to hold this country together! Sheesh!
7
It's looking more and more like it will be closer to 40 house seats and two more Senate seats this year. It also looks like Michigan and Pennsylvania at the least are back on the side of angels. Florida will be on in 2020. It looks like Scott will likely go down and DiSantos is in trouble. And that is before the 1.4 million ex-felons(and a full 20% of African American voters) are reenfranchised. If you think the GOP was hanging on for their lives this year, wait until they have perhaps another million votes to overcome.
3
Bret, you are wrong!
The "other America" is wrong!
Why would we build a bridge to them?
What we need to do is stop voter suppression, reset congressional districts to remove gerrymandering, and expose Trump and Trumpism for the liars they are.
Then the "other America" will be a small - and dying - minority.
3
Stephens? Meh.
2
Brett: There is an element of truth to some of what you say, but the thesis that the Dems have to start building bridges to the other side rests on the premise that the other side would welcome a bridge. When the Trump people wear T-shirts that they would rather be Russian than Democrats -- is there much hope for building a bridge? The evangelicals are non-compromising on abortion and gays; the gun nuts are non-comprising on any sort of gun control legislation; and the "no taxes" types (i.e., the ultra wealthy) are equally non-compromising. And then you have all of the people who, similar to our president, have mental health problems, for whom policy issues are meaningless. This is why Trump's poll numbers never fall below 35% -- he indeed could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and they still would support him. The intent of our Constitution (by means of the electoral college and U.S. Senate apportionments) has been inverted -- it was designed to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority, but we now have a country where the majority is ruled by the tyranny of the minority. The Dems could build the most beautiful bridge imaginable (and by the way, you are long on opinions, but short on solutions) -- but Trump and his people would blow it up.
4
"It also underscores that while “the Resistance” is good at generating lots of votes, it hasn’t figured out how to turn the votes into seats."
-Democrats just won the House. There is little difference between the ~230 seats Democrats will have and the 242 GOP had in 2010, and Dems won the House popular vote by a larger margin.
This kind of thinly-veiled cheerleading for the Republicans is just stupid and makes for bad opinion material.
7
Brett's an expert on shaming Democrats. Which is really easy. See, this is how it works: you punch someone in the face and then you tell them it's their fault for getting punched in the face because they didn't do enough to not get punched in the face and in fact they should be ashamed of themselves for what they did to make such a good, kind person punch them in the face.
6
"The day Democrats take charge in the House would be a good opportunity to stop manning imaginary barricades, and start building real bridges to the other America."
The day Obama took office he started reaching across the aisle, only to be spat on by the GOP, over and over again. Reaching across the aisle simply does not work with these people, who care not for the country.
You just don't get it, Bret.
5
Mr. Stephens - you ask the impossible. This is no ordinary political dispute. Trump does not represent "the other side" of any aisle. He engages in blatant abuse of power. He is a demagogue and wannabe strongman autocrat. He and his followers are in the process of destroying American democracy as we know it. We are witness to a pivotal historical moment that seems to have arisen completely out of the blue. Extraordinary, frightening, bewildering. So many people seem to have voluntarily abdicated their sense of reason. And you suggest we start a dialog with them? What would we talk to them about? We share a language, but we do not share any underlying concepts. Unfortunately, I am quite certain that the only way forward is to abandon this ghastly mess and start afresh - a new society in some form - conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal, and that ordinary Reason is the only legitimate currency of public discourse.
42
I believe different persuasion techniques may work on different types of Trump supporters. Democratic strategists have two years to work this out, they shouldn’t waste a single day. I used to think that using the facts and data could win arguments with Trump supporters. Unfortunately I even failed to convince my relatively intelligent relatives in Florida to vote Democratic. Even my emotional pleas to do it for their grandchildren’s future failed. I hit a brick wall – facts, logic and emotions simply bounced off.
2
I agree with Mr. Stephens' analysis. Unfortunately, as former President Jimmy Carter pointed out, we no longer live in a democracy. America is now an oligarchy disguised as a democracy. Building bridges to the other America, would require that mainstream Democrats take positions on issues such as universal healthcare, immigration, corporate regulation, prison reform to name a few, issues that they have been reluctant to support and, in fact, have exacerbated over the past 25 years. The Democrats already know that the intensity of "The Resistance" sends the wrong message. But, they are firmly committed to the cynical strategy that righteous indignation over Trump and standing for nothing will leave voters with no other alternative but to return them to the White House. And they're right to adopt that strategy. In a system where there are only two political parties to choose from and both parties are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the same interests that are now profiting off Mr. Trump. where else are voters going to go?
I agree that many on the left, or" Resistance" need to be more humble. But disdain and contempt truly run both ways. Many people on the right, especially rural, and the leaders they follow hold so-called urban elites and their education in full contempt. We often hear calls for liberals to get a clue and better understand their conservative, rural fellow citizens. Why do never, ever hear anyone asking for rural conservatives to get clue and grasp why some of their fellow citizens disagree with them about immigrants, the role of religion in government and more?
@Bret Stephens I agree with you that Republican voters have "priced in" Trump's faults for the reasons you describe.
My questions about 2020, which you don't expressly address, is what do the Dem's stand for and who has the strength and character to stand against Trump? I agree that the Dems have to convert many voters, like some of the commenters on this thread, who don't like the man but like his policies. To change such a person, the Dems have to say what they are for and what they will do if elected, AND they have to have a candidate who will not back down, a la Rubio, in the face of Trumps inevitable attacks.
No one was more humble than Obama, after being elected. None were more shrewd, when it came to catering to tradition and respect for the office. Where did this lead the Democrats and the rest of the country? Stephens's path will lead the Democrats and thus the country (i.e. the real world as effected by policy, not rhetoric) further into decline. The time to fight for aggressive, progressive policy is now.
3
Obama sent thousands of people back home. No one really thinks that people should just burst into the country without some kind of vetting and respect for our laws- just as Canada and every other country does, so Trump did not invent a strong border he has just created a story about it. As a Democrat, I admit that I struggle when I hear stories about full ride scholarships given to undocumented students when students born legally here in the US are struggling to have food on the table- even if they are not 4.0 students. Also, Americans in rural areas have indeed lost jobs so what will the Democrats do to help protect American industry? I am a Democratic woman that kinda gets where they are all coming from and feel that the new story from the Democrats needs to be everyday without fail- we are here to help the middle class all across America. The progressive idealists need to have a sense of understanding about reality- and it might be someone else's reality.
1
As a voracious print media consumer with nothing but respect for the work done by professional journalists, I must say that I took pretty much all pre-Election Day prognostications with a grain of salt. The Blue Wave, the repudiation of Trumpism ... it all sounded like so much wishful thinking. So I'd say the midterm results were less a warning to Democrats than they were a reminder to the media to never forget to exercise a little humility, and to those who consume it to not take it as the word of God.
1
Here's the real task: Let's assume that Trump holds all of his 2016 voters. Let's assume that whoever the Democrats nominate holds all of Clinton's 2016 voters. (Dems, don't blow it -- don't turn any of them off.) Then, to swing the Electoral College the other way requires picking up 30,000-40,000 votes in Wisconsin, ~40,000 in Michigan, 60,000 in PA, and a similar number in OH. Clinton surrendered those without a contest, and so lost. It shouldn't be terribly hard to make up those numbers -- better turnout among women who aren't committed Republicans, and better turnout among African-Americans, would do it. In turn, that means making some effort, but not an impossible amount, and don't turn off anyone who's already halfway inclined to vote Dem. Sounds do-able to me.
2
I am a Montanan through and through, and for the most part, they have always voted for common sense, and whether a Democrat or Republican Governor, they have to balance the budget each year. The people of Montana have spoken, in that they prefer those who are Montanans making the decisions. Montana over the last 4 decades has had those will millions come in, drive up the cost of real estate, and housing, and now they want to decide what the politics of the state should be. Most are not having it. Montana is a moderate state, which just came to its senses by voting in Tester over Rosendale. That says it all, and Arizona almost elected Hillary Clinton in 2016, and I believe will vote for a Democrat for President in 2020. The younger generation is changing the landscape, and not fast enough in my opinion. You can't build bridges with those who don't want decency, and common sense, when it comes to many issues, including immigration, guns, healthcare, trade and tariffs, etc.
4
A lot of people think Democrats should exercise restraint and not go crazy themselves with impeachment, lots of subpoenas, nothing but payback and more destruction in our government. I agree, but worry that as in the recent past, whenever Democrats "give" anything in the name of bi-partisanship, they get played, as someone else has said. It is a real concern.
Democrats need to be more assertive about introducing legislation that means something and would require the Republicans to give something, too. If they won't participate, Dems should be on a position to make it clear who blocked the bill or whatever. For example, nobody that I remember brought up the fact that we were very near an improved (not perfect) immigration bill twice in recent years and it was Republicans that blocked it.
It will be very discouraging if the Dems play the Republican games. Go forward, sure, but drop the hysterical venom. Look at the younger Democratic winners across the country and how they won. Ignore trump and focus on the American people and what they need!
1
Although I agree we should listen to what people who voted for Trump have to say, and treat them with due respect (to me that means, at a minimum, presuming they’re acting in good faith unless they show otherwise), I disagree completely with your take on Georgia, Florida, and Texas.
To me the important thing with the Democrats isn’t moderate versus progressive, in the center versus too far left. It’s useless or not useless; making an effort or not making an effort; standing up for the people you’d expect the center-left party to stand up for or failing to do so.
We can discuss issues on the merits. For example, to me it makes sense to spend government money during recessions and then get the finances on a good fiscal footing when times are good. I don’t care whether that idea is progressive, conservative, or moderate.
The important thing in Texas, Florida, and Georgia is that the Ds made a real effort and did their job. If you don’t think it makes a difference that the Ds showed they can make a strong effort and come close to victory in those states then I don’t think you’ve thought it through. You have to try before you can succeed. And by playing it straight, by being forthright and authentic and coming close to victory, the Rs will now ignore the voice of D voters in those states at their peril. That will make a difference.
4
I disagree as well with Stephens' suggestion that Texas, Florida, and Georgia made missteps in the candidates they nominated for governor. I can speak most directly of Georgia, where I live (in a particularly red county) and have worked very hard for Stacey Abrams. We Democrats couldn't take the gubernatorial race in 2014 with moderate, appealing Jason Carter, President Jimmy Carter's grandson. He lost to Nathan Deal, garnering 44.9% of the vote (Ballotopedia). Also in 2014, Michelle Nunn (Sam's daughter), also moderate and appealing, lost her Senate race to David Perdue, gaining 45.21% of the vote. We have had no luck in this red state even with such supposedly appealing moderates with huge name recognition. It was time for a different approach. I have loved Abrams' fresh strategy and knocked on many doors to support her candidacy. She has energized most Georgia Democrats in a way the others have not. She has traveled all over the state, including coming twice to my county, not a hotbed of even moderate-ism, let alone liberalism. And it HAS paid off. We will see what the final results are, but she currently has 48.2% of the vote. As Jack says above, we should be proud of these campaigns, their forthrightness and authenticity and energy. I am.
2
I don't doubt Bret Stephens' bona fides as a Never Trump conservative. But I do think he uses Democrats' disappointment at the small size of the blue wave--they did win the House, after all--as a hobbyhorse to ride against progressive Democratic politics.
I flew to Texas to volunteer with the Beto O'Rouke campaign. Naturally, the election-night results disappointed me. But here is what did impress me: Hundreds of volunteers from both coasts and in-between who helped Democrats come as close (-2.6%) to winning a statewide election as they have come in decades, helping to create a new national political star.
Read Manny Fernandez's NYT article on the Texas election. Texas Democrats flipped 12 State House seats, two State Senate seats, two congressional seats. They also managed to flip the largest county in the state — Houston’s Harris County. Not a single Republican county-level elected official remains there.
The close gubernatorial races in Georgia and Florida, both subject to recount, indicate something else: that Democrats should consider nominating more progressives-of-color in order to increasingly mobilize these communities.
The diverging results of the House, Senate, and Gubernatorial elections in 2018 incontestably prove one thing: that Donald Trump's polarization of American politics remains a permanent fact, not a one-cycle fluke. Averaging out the two extremes into an average "meh" hardly does justice to this reality.
3
The idea of bridge is Pollyanna. And I would say turf, as it were, is so irremediably staked out by now, that that's not the way forward. Finding areas of overlapping interest, perhaps. That strategy is (kind of, entra alia) what seems to have worked in Kansas. And maybe also in Lamb's district earlier this year.
I personally cringed when I first heard about the "deplorables" reference. As much I might feel like I actually loath those who seem to vote only in their narrow self interests (or to restore a mythical past), I could never think of anyone as deplorable. That was unfortunate-- both for Hill and for progressives.
Mr. Stephens fantasizes that there is any actual left wing in the Democratic party - perhaps, vaguely, Bernie Sanders, and vaguely some of the newest members of Congress. What Mr. Stephens carefully ignores about turning votes into seats is the extreme gerrymandering done by Republican governors and legislatures. Ohio's 15th district - Columbus and much of its suburbs - is like a great tapeworm from Columbus all the way down to Appalachia. Steve Stivers, who represents this district and lives in Upper Arlington, an upper middle class and close-in suburb , could not even carry his own heavily GOP suburb. So basically, the Columbus metro area is being run by the rural vote, gerrymandered by Kasich and his legislature.
1
It will take years to understand this period with a clear perspective, but I think this is a fairly astute assessment.
I want politics to be a lot more boring again, but I'd like to see politicians who see to it that what _really_ needs to be done _is_ actually done.
1
Bret, why are you presuming that Democrats would have fared better had their candidates been more to the right?
The evidence seems to suggest otherwise:
Claire McCaskill lost a Democratic seat in Missouri by 6 points, and she wouldn't stop spouting about how much she agreed with Trump on some issues...
Center-right Democrat Joe Donnelly got trounced in Indiana.
Meanwhile the unabashed liberal in Deep Red Texas came within a hair of flipping Tea Party Ted into retirement.
The conclusion I draw is that Democrats cannot win by trying to out-conservative the reactionary right. Democrats do well by laying out a clear liberal vision.
6
This article and Mr. Kristof's are a bit unfair to Democrats who ran strongly in very red states. True, Mr. O'Rourke didn't win this time. But what about next time, now that his name and ability to raise money are known? Similarly, in blood-red SC, James Smith, a moderate Democrat, didn't win, but he gave the incumbent a good run for his money. In my county, Democratic voters increased by 95% over 2016. Democrats picked up a House seat they lost in 2008, with two Democrats now in the state's delegation.
So far, Democrats have picked up 30 seats in the House and counting. That's not meh, not when the economy is booming. That's near the top of expectations.
3
The idea that the Dems have to convert large numbers of Trump voters is not correct. All that is needed is to get just enough votes to win an election. That is the singular lesson that Trump and Bush (can't forget Florida) should have taught the Dems. Focus on each individual district and each state and tailor the message and candidates to what is needed to win. We need to build bridges between progressives and moderates in order to create more wins over the Trumpers. Let the individuals running for office create the bridges to the independents as needed, but put winning ahead of ideology.
4
Actually, what it means is that despite widespread voter suppression & a gerrymandered rigged system, Democrats won or lost by miniscule percentages.
Just imagine what would happen if our system was honest & all votes counted.
6
The 90s called, and they want their political strategy back. The Democrats' 2018 victory was muted because Trump was able to mitigate Democratic intensity with anti-immigrant intensity. It's ALL about intensity.
1
Bret Stephens has fallen into the same ditch as many commentators---on both the left and the right---per the results of Tuesday's mid-terms.
Here are the numbers: In House races across the country, Democratic candidates polled 15.6% more votes than Republican/Other candidates---as of this moment. In Senate races across the country, Democratic candidates polled 6.1% more votes than Republican/Other candidates---as of this moment.
Now, as I look at the total number of votes cast and take into account the differences between House and Senate races, 15.6% and 6.1% represent a right clear distinction as to what voters wanted and what they didn't. A. Right. Clear. Distinction. Or, better, a distinction that goes a bit beyond "meh."
Furthermore, his dismissal of the effects of gerrymandering (which were made clear in House voting) and his dismissal of the Republicans having a clear leg up in Senate distribution both go against the historical record.
The "average voter" spoke on Tuesday. And the "average voter" spoke with far more volume than Bret Stephens is willing to admit.
9
Question for Bret Stephens - If Trump "survived his first major political test more than adequately," then why was he so unhinged on Wednesday?
People who get through their first major test do not normally behave like a 3 year old in serious need of a time out.
A President who has survived the first mid-term elections does not normally turn around and fire his Attorney General the next day and then have a major meltdown at one of his rare news conferences.
Those of us who care about our country's future should stop worrying about what the Democrats are or are not doing and start worrying about when just when one of Trump's temper tantrums is going to do serious and irreparable damage to our country.
Instead of worrying about the Democrats Mr. Stephens, start worrying about when the Republican Party is going to put our country before their party and their money making deals. When are they going to apply the breaks to the emotionally unhinged man currently sitting in the Oval Office thanks to the GOP.
8
So after almost a decade of Republican scorched-earth tactics it’s up to Democrats to build bridges?
After a Republican House that still maintains the “Hastert rule” whereby the Speaker won’t bring up legislation unless it can be passed with a Republican majority only? After Mitch McConnell doesn’t even allow a hearing on Merrick Garland’s nomination? These were statements and actions by Republican leaders, not some tea party backbenchers.
I seem to recall that ACA legislation started out with good-faith bipartisan negotiations, until Chuck Grassley and Sarah Palin torpedoed it after the 2009 summer recess.
Republicans obstructed everything Democratic for 8 years, achieved virtually nothing of significance that moved the country forward and were rewarded with just about everything they could possibly ask for. Why should Democrats conclude that building bridges will get them anywhere?
I truly, truly do yearn for bipartisanship but it can’t be a one-way street. And until there is more reward for working across the aisle than for being a party loyalist, I am gloomy about the prospects for the U.S. to move beyond the current political climate. Loathed as they were, earmarks provided an incentive to push past partisan positions. Perhaps their time has come again.
7
Trump won in 2016 because he won Pa., Wisc., Oh., Mich. [64 total EV] by narrow margins. Obama had won these states in both 2008 and 2012.
The Democratic Senate candidates won these states in 2018 by wide margins.
HRC lost in part not because of the electoral college system but because of the winner take all electoral vote in each state.
One might consider a proportional allocation of a state's electoral vote as done for example in Nebraska and Maine.
So I disagree in part with Mr. Stephens but I agree the Dems must appeal to rural America.
HRC ridiculed rural America and called them "de[plorables" and told them they must accept a permanent loss of economic status.
The Dem party is now split between those who believe HRC's dismal forecast is correct and those who believe fundamental changes to capitalism can improve the economic status of rural America.
There are economic programs that do NOT involve reviving coal or guttng environmental regulations that could restore much of this lost economic status.
HRC did not propose them and she lost.
Trump did not either. But he provided false hope with his snake oil.
A WAMC-FM program
http://wamc.org/term/tom-vilsack
explains Obama's Agriculture Secy.'s analysis of why HRC lost rural America and what the Dems must do to regain their support.
Mr. Stephens joins the chorus of pundits who are trying their best to downplay the Democrats victories on Tuesday. Once again, popular vote counts of the Democratic Party exceed the GOP and yet due to gerrymandering less seat gains are the result.
The GOP and their media voices don't like that fact and don't want to focus on the change in voting. Look, the Democrats have a ton of work to do every day for the next decade and beyond. That reality hit home on Tuesday with a rewarding result which wasn't a grand slam but we'll take it.
Mr. Stephens and Fox Noise Machina want to spoil the party and take focus off of the popular vote counts. And Trump gets upset if he isn't adored and isn't in the news cycle.
Hey, we get it. We need to get back to work and we will. It was a nice 12 hours.
5
Excellent article which nails the challenge on the head.
While the democrats should be content with winning the house back, the overall election was tepid at best. Most salient was the loss of far left progressives with heavy funding in FL, GA, and TX. Republican victories in 2020 swing states was impressive.
Democrats have to realize that going further left, especially on immigration, will result in further electoral losses. The data from all over the world (UK,Germany, Hungary, Poland, etc) all demonstrates that the voting public is strongly against illegal immigration. The dems either will live in their fantasyland where data doesnt matter or continue to lose.
There is a reason Trump keeps baiting the democrats on immigration, his signature issues. The dems have no actual policy on how to deal with illegal immigration other than allowing amnesty to all comers, which is an absolute no among the voters.
3
The arguments Mr. Stephens' uses are specious, at best. If what he's saying is true, why would it be that so many Conservative Republicans have voluntarily resigned and were then, as non-politicians, critical of their party? Why have John McCain, George W. Bush, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and many other Republicans been so critical of Mr. Trump and their fellow Republicans? Not because Democrats aren't building bridges or using bad campaign strategies, I assure you. It's because Republicans have created an animal, and Trump is their animal trainer. This Trump base is Plato's worst nightmare. They don't just look past Trump's behavior, they admire it. Republicans have been encouraging this type of thinking for decades and we are now seeing the fruits of their labor.
3
I can't answer for the disdain that progressives allegedly feel for Trump supporters. However, I have noticed that red-state Trump voters express absolute certainty on a wide variety of issues. They seem to understand, so they say, the blue-states perfectly and know politics and politicians like the back of their own hands. Well, I don't see how such hubris--personified by Trump to the nth degree--can be wooed back to the reasoned exchange of opinions. They are not listening because they think they have a lock on the truth. And they tie their identity to their opinions, so that if they had to change their mind, or were proven wrong, a massive identity crisis would ensue. But nice try, Stephens.
3
To paraphrase you, Mr. Stephens: it seems that just calling people hysterical doesn't change their minds.
It seems that dismissing urban democrats' anger at having, essentially, three fifths of a vote in the Senate as (and I quote) "bellyaching" does not change their minds.
Oh, look at that fraction, three fifths-- where have I seen that before?
3
Excellent opinion piece. Trump is a menace, but the best way to combat the menace is to be as truthful, fair, and even-handed as possible. Trump's empire is built on lies and disdain. It will surely fall, but the Democrats can hasten its demise by recognizing the need for secure borders (instead of "No human being is illegal"), agreeing that shooters are the major gun problem, and losing the arrogance. Then most Americans will reject Trump's narcissism, dishonesty, and cruelty.
2
I think the record participation of eligible voters coming out to perform their civic duty was a huge win. Americans have become complacent and have allowed greedy people to languish in office building their war chests and rewarding corporations while destroying the middle class. In my state there were eleven house seats open and seven of them went to the democrats. There was one senate seat and the democratic incumbent won. I'm not disappointed by the win especially since the republicans tried so hard to bend the votes in their favor by using dirty and illegal tactics to disenfranchise voters who would vote against them.
And many of those votes for democrats were cast by former republican voters.
1
Trump is a symptom of the conservative backlash against liberal policies and liberal internationalism that began in the late 1960s and led to the election of Ronald Reagan. Many ordinary Americans have been confused and upset by the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the advances made by the LBGT community, same sex marriage, and the liberal internationalist wars that the U.S. fought and lost in Viet-Nam and Iraq and in which the majority of the soldiers who were maimed and killed were the sons of working people.
Trump will face continuing investigations for the next two years. It is doubtful he will run again, because of exhaustion and age. But the conservative backlash is far from over.
1
Bret, you and Frank are spot on. I fear not only for the Resistance if that's your preferred label for those of us in common cause with you, or the Democrats, or the Liberals, or whatever people call us; I fear for America herself and all we ever have stood for. I fear that your worst fears will materialize, and the Democrats, having won the House, will revert to the politics of confrontation and retaliation rather than recognize their unique opportunity to adopt those of cooperation and accommodation.
Asking Trump's supporters to explain how they can support him despite his many obvious deficiencies is one thing; accusing them of fecklessness or stupidity is quite another. Michelle Obama had it right when she famously told us, "When they go low, we go high." Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder got it wrong when they said, "When you go low, we'll go lower."
If we're to stop the vicious cycle of infighting, dirty play, and character assassination for which Donald Trump and his Republican cohorts have plumbed new depths previously thought to be unattainable by genuine Americans, somebody needs to assume the initiative, step to the center of the merry-go-round, and pull its stop lever. Just as Paul Newman, as Henry Gondorff, did in the 1973 American classic with Robert Redford as Johnny Hooker, "The Sting."
If the Democrats fail to step up, act as the adults in the room, and forcefully state that they're putting a stop to this nonsense beginning with their watch, we'll lose it.
I oppose Trump’s racism, form of nationalism, incendiary rhetoric, lack of moral character, contempt for the law and constitution and, to use a MLK quote, his sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Democracy is built upon compromise, however, Trump’s staunchest supporters, H.S. educated white men from rural areas are not interested in compromising with whom Trump refers to as enemies of the people (Trump’s people) and just outright evil democrats, again as constantly echoed by Trump. To compromise with groups that are uninterested in fact checking if fact checking contradicts Trump’s onslaught of specious statements and tweets. This is a group that does not want to hear or attempt to understand groups of people whom are not in lock step with themselves.
Our political system is sadly not functioning in the manner our writers of said system in their wildest dreams would have imagined. Or then again, they had lived through tyrants and did their level best to prevent that recurrence in America.
His base will not compromise but Trump will pass and hopefully the scales one day will fall from is flocks eyes as doubtful as that is, after all, Trump proved rather prescient with his notion that he could commit murder on fifth and still have the loyalty of his followers.
Sadly for his acolytes, Trump is bad for the entire nation not just the democrats.
The main issue keeping Trump afloat is the perceived economic growth. Once the economy dips or tanks, as the Trump trade war and other policies may cause, Trump and his followers are done. "It's the economy stupid" still applies.
1
Sadly, many Trump voters _are_ deplorable. Go to a bar frequented by Trumpists, start talking about climate change, and see what happens. It won't be pretty. So the answer to winning more seats, it seems to me, is to try to engage the non-voters who don't feel invested in the current political world, and try to convince them that they need to vote as if their lives depend on it. Because they do.
2
Why is incumbent on the Democrats to rid the world of the scourge of Donald J. Trump? The GOP foisted this guy off on the nation as he vanquished the deepest bench of candidates ever assembled for a primary. The Republican controlled House and Senate failed miserably to restrain Trump. Arguably a few members of the House are complicit in obstructing justice.
There is no longer any institutional GOP. Trumpism now the guiding philosophy of the party. In the midterms Republican voters had a chance to reclaim their party by rejecting him. No, winning is all that matters, sell your soul but keep control.
House Democrats have an obligation to right the ship, act responsibly and assert the right of the legislature as an equal branch of government. Something Republicans failed to do.
Trump will make life difficult for Democrats. Hopefully they can keep us from harm and lower the political temperature in Washington. The GOP needs to heal itself and I see no sign of any willingness to do so.
1
If Democrats can only be successful if they convert rural
Americans, especially those who are drunk on Fox and Friends and think all news is Fake, democrats can forget it. Until columnists and those who are always talking about how the Dems should convert folks who, in their minds, feel they are being helped by DT, begin to do the converting themselves and find out how impossible it is, will be more understanding. Recently, I heard two men talking about
how wonderful DT is. One remarked that he had never heard of a President who gave his annual salary to help reduce the national deficit like Trump has done.
It is not bridges that Democrats must build to Trump’s base that will return the Dems to power. It is the bridges that Trump will burn with his loyalists that eventually will their political alliance.
2
It's crucial for Democrats not to eagerly accept the notion that "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Just because Bret Stephens (or Ross Douthat) complains about Donald Trump's manner & character doesn't make him your friend.
What Stephens wants (and what Douthat wants, and what every other conservative wants) is not what Democrats (or liberals, or progessives) want.
What Stephens & Douthat (and every other conservative) want is Trumpism without the ranting and the racism. Trumpism without Trump. Otherwise, they're fine with tax cuts for the rich' with "originalists" on the Supreme Court; with unlimited money in politics; with health insurance only for the affluent; with restricting reproductive choices for women; with regime change in Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Lebanon etc; and with voting prohibitions for everybody except white citizens.
Is that what you want?
When somebody who has spent his career smearing every civic value you hold dear, it's not smart to trust him when he says he's now on your side.
5
It is unfortunate that Stephens found the midterm results so ho-hum. Here's the current tally:
7 Democratic governorships
31 (and counting) House seats
At least 1 Senate seat
And since Trump's inauguration, 367 state legislature seats
This is the biggest shift since the Watergate era. While Democrats didn't sweep all in their path, they overcame significant structural disadvantages (gerrymandering, voter ID, other voter suppression) with sufficient turnout to achieve these results, which alter the balance of power and end one-party rule in Washington and a significant number of states. Here in North Carolina we are still suffering under radical gerrymandering, but even here we managed to take back our state assembly from the vetoproof GOP majority.
Take a breath, Mr. Stephens, and perhaps look again at the results of the election and the conditions under which they have been achieved. I think you're underestimating their significance and the breadth of the achievement.
The Democratic Party in Texas—Texas!—has been revitalized after being left for dead for too many years. This might not have been the year Texas turned purple, but the work has begun. If it continues, that time will come. Democrats have been organizing and are now competitive in places they have not been in ages. We have a LOT of work to do, but we are seeing results.
Don't be so jaded, Mr. Stephens. These things take time. But we're on it.
2
Me thinks Bret Stephens doth protest too much. Sure, it wasn't on the same level of shellacking, but it's hardly "meh." The sad part is that so many American remained enthralled by and to, and manipulated by, Republicans and the president.
It's a bit much, Republicans without a party telling Democrats how they should campaign. The Progressive losses of which Mr. Stephens writes were in deep red states. If anything, the fact that Progressives got so close where "moderate Democrats" have long failed, calls for more not less of the same. Clintonian double-speak "triagulation" for a moderate middle that does not exist is a proven loser. Claire McCaskill. Better than attempting to pander to all is to speak forthrightly, genuinely, and organize to persuade.
4
The indignity of aspiring to an inhuman attitude towards immigration aside, there is a democratic view that all things ideological are 'equal' and must be accommodated as such. Fact based reality was abandoned in postmodernist thought. Trump was by no means the first. Liberalism needs to blame it's roots for what has grown into a tree.
There is identity politics where Desire to 'identify' is placed beyond biological reality. Persons are not what birth bore them as if Belief triumphs empirical evidence. Science can go up in smoke. The intelligencia, academia, stoked our present day fire some plain simple 'I am a man, your a woman and this is a human family' hopes to smother. The globe did not turn crazy by Trump or republican resolve. We are well and truly as western man already dissolved. There are some earthy people who refuse to rewrite all of life. And some of those might hold their noses and support those who don't vicariously vouch for such.
This guy is struggling to claw past his prejudice. Like a man hauling a heavy rock up a hill, weighed down by his obligation to hoist a red flag, the effort to say something, anything, is almost painful to read.
By any standard the election was a positive result for the Democratic Party and provided them with a roadmap to more victories in 2020.
The lies, hate and fear didn’t play for the GOP. Unfortunately for them, they still have to carry water for Trump. There’s a grim couple of years ahead for the quasi-conservatism currently infecting Republicans.
3
Mr. Stephens loudly proclaims his opposition to President Trump, yet ironically espouses Trump's views, blaming liberals and lefties for dividing our country and its politics.
3
This column seems to be full of advice to pundits and upper middle-class armchair political warriors on Facebook and such. It is fully oblivious to the actual politics on the ground in 2016, which produced a Democratic victory that overcame carefully erected GOP gerrymanders and gained as many seats as the 2006 wave which effectively ended GOP control of Washington under W -- all during a time of relative peace and widespread prosperity, no less. Bret Stephens bothers to quote pieces by his fellow editorial page pundits, but did he bother to read the long Times article about how the Democrats actually won these elections - not by running against Trump or cultural divisiveness but by focusing on health care and other pocket-book issues? If he did, he shows no sign of it in his punditry - which makes his punditry fairly worthless.
1
Trump doesn't have a single idea in his head of what a human being is. And for some..that can be perceived as less dangerous, as an alternative to the 'alternative' dogma. All things fall apart. Whether by the thoughtless madman or thoughtful man.
The word equality has been adopted. And by this I mean literally dumped on a statement of being and calling it that. This then renders any questioning of 'equality' as a questioning of real equality. It's an unreal state of affairs by which nations are encouraged to run their Affairs of State. At the shaking of what are perceived as the foundations of life...persons vote to shift courts...though it is too desultory to mention the Supreme at present - A step too far in sickness for the sake of God knows what how dare you mention his name as part of your game.
Before you mock your Op-Ed colleague The Apocalyptician, you might want to think a little harder about the significance of Trump's yanking the credentials of a reporter for asking hard questions, and Trump's moves to take direct control over the Justice Department. It's not the coming of The Actual Apocalypse, but The Necrosis of Democracy is pretty alarming in itself.
What a nerve Bret Stephens has to refer those who "pompously style themselves “the Resistance”.
I am registered Independent because I am open to good ideas from either side. For a long time, good ideas have been as scarce as hens' teeth on the Republican side. Denying climate change, denying thousands of Americans access to healthcare, gerrymandering, insulting and patronizing women, trying to stack the Supreme Court, scapegoating immigrants.... the list goes on and on. I draw the line at the corruption, crassness and incompetence of this administration. The one good thing about the Trump regime is that it has made me realize that we do have to resist. Unfortunately, the barricades are all too real and being humble is not going to restore good government.
2
The big takeaway here is that Dems have won over suburban women, the dfference-maker, especially in vital Midwest swing states like WI, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. The coalition that got tRump elected in 2016 no longer exists without sunurban women, and they are not coming back.
2
"it didn’t convert the unconverted."
Note that the Republicans had to flat out lie, because they realized that their own voters supported the Democrats' position on issues important to them.
So, for example, in Missouri, the very Attorney General who brought the lawsuit to destroy Obamacare (there was no protection for pre-existing conditions prior to Obamacare) claimed he was a huge supporter of protection for those with pre-existing conditions. This happened in other states too. The GOP people won by flat out lying.
1
Bret, you need to review the empirical evidence more carefully. Democrats are likely to win about 38, not 28, seats in the house, by a popular vote margin of 7-8 points. This is a higher margin than the Republican "shellacking" of 2010. Gerrymandering is effective, but the evidence does not support your claim that the 2018 election was a "non-wave" election (whatever that means).
1
Spot on Bret, with this caveat. With one House of Congress there is a brake on the runaway train known as Donald Trump. Mostly he needs the Senate to be a menace. But he can't accomplish the damage that he might otherwise have done without a full rein on Congress.
All:
I will be brief.
This was not a wave.
It was not even a ripple.
The Republicans actually gained senate seats!
The gains in the house are historically modest.
Mr. Stephens is spot-on.
2
In the Senate elections, Democrats outvoted Republicans overall by about 12 million votes. If it weren't that the populations of the states were so disparate, (half a million in Wyoming vs 40 million in California), they would have lost control in a big way. And despite the gerrymandering and voter suppression, the Democrats still won the House. If the gerrymandering hadn't so strongly favoured the Republicans, the swing would have been many more seats. Given these results, and unless something really dramatic happens politically during the next two years, there is no way Trump can get an electoral college victory in 2020, since the college, while it does favour small states, isn't as out of line with the popular vote as the Senate. I wouldn't say it's a "meh" election at all. It showed a large majority of the voting population think Trump and the Republican controlled Congress has been a disaster.
3
Really? This again? How many more times does "the other America" need to say they like Trump just fine and don't want any part of the Democratic Party before the old guard finally figures out that they mean it?
News flash to Bret Stephens: Those voters aren't coming back. This isn't about Trump's personality or even about the economy. It's about race and identity. In other words, we can't change their minds because what is keeping them voting for Trump isn't what's in their minds. It's who they are and what it used to mean in America to be who they are. America has changed, not to their direct benefit, and they're going to keep voting against it till their dying days. But the facts and the demography are against them. They're simply outvoted, and they're losing more ground with every passing day.
5
As many have said, gerrymandering is the reason we gained only 31 seats. If not for supreme court upholding the GOP gerrymandering efforts, we would have gained over 60 seats as well. Just to remind you, we had a wider margin of victory. It is just the GOP is good at cheating.
We are fighting back
2
The real difference between this midterm and past midterms is the voter participation. Trump made a real effort to turn out his base. Obama made almost no effort to turn out his base in 2010 which in retrospect was a big mistake. Then on top of that difference the house seats are highly gerrymandered in favor of the republicans. Your "meh" is really a right on.
3
Why is this need to understand and build bridges a one way street? Republicans seem to understand that they need to get and hold power. Democrats want to get along.
It's about power. Gain and hold power. Then start talking to the other side, the conversation will be more friendly.
1
Every time I read something declaring that trump will be reelected in 2020, I look for an explanation of which electoral votes he will get that he didn't get in 2016, and how he will defend his very narrow wins in PA, MI, and WI when his opponent is not under a federal criminal investigation (with an "October Surprise" 11 days before the election as the cherry on top). I have yet to see any explanation of these points.
2
The other America doesn’t want a bridge. They have found a savior, champion in a fraudster named Donald Trump who fakes prayer and promises to end abortion and civil rights for all but certain whites. That America voted for a black man when a white one named Bush let them down. But that black man was too slow to pick them up and wanted to pick up black people too. So here we are divided, angry, wary and so far apart. So why aren’t you asking them to build a bridge to Democrats? Because you know it’s a big waste of time.
3
I agree. Just do the arithmetic--making an issue of supporting illegal immigrants (who don't vote) and transgender persons (.3 percent of the population) doesn't win elections. Reaching out to the MAJORITY of Americans who want better healthcare would be a winning strategy.
2
Democrats do this all the time, turns out conservative voters don't want government run health care.
I couldn't agree more with this opinion piece of Bret Stephens.
Democrats have migrated to the left, leaving the center empty.
But I would also go a bit further.
I think the Me Too movement is a step backward and that it is costing Democrats support. It smacks of vigilantism. Justice should be decided by the courts on an individual basis. Individuals have rights including a presumption of innocence.
I think the Democrats need to take a stand against open borders. Yes, we need to treat immigrants humanely. But it does nobody any good to pretend that the US has infinite resources. We should not be giving benefits to citizens of Honduras when we can't provide health care to our own American citizens.
I think the Democrats should respect the constitution. That means local governments should not declare this or that city a sanctuary. We are one nation and every community should be committed to upholding Federal law.
I think the Democrats should stop tearing down monuments. Let's appreciate diversity of viewpoint. Some people like Robert E Lee. Not everybody, but some people. Why not allow differences of opinion? Why tear down monuments instead of building your own?
We need to allow freedom of speech. That includes what is often called hate speech. We need to allow freedom of religion even if some people end up regarding homosexuality as a sin.
We cannot force the population to have perfectly uniform views.
Appreciate and support different viewpoints.
7
I don't know. Just before the election, I spoke with. Trump-supporting friend about the economy. He said that Trump and the Republicans have done a wonderful job boosting the economy. I pointed out art the trend started ten years ago. Later on that evening, I sent him simple graphs (GDP, employment, etc.), and related quotes from both liberal and conservative economists.
His reply? "Yeah, everyone puts a spin on things, and you can't trust anything you read." How do you talk with people like that? It is exhausting.
6
Cruz won his Senate seat by 16 points last time up. This time, he won by under 3 points. In Texas. By no measurement is that a "meh" response to anything. The Dem pickup will be in the mid-30's, not 28. This piece is shading these and other facts about this election to reach a conclusion. Not necessary, not helpful. There are some places that no bridge can, or should, reach.
4
I don't see "meh" at all. I see two large, very distinct factions coming out -- angry, frustrated, and determined -- to ensure their version of America is the lasting one. This was no snooze-fest. Conservatives and liberals are equally energized, equally determined to win, and equally determined to oppose each other, not work together. We'll see this play out over the next two years.
I'm on the liberal side, and I woke up Wednesday morning so disillusioned that half of America wants to follow Trump. No "meh" for me!
4
Thanks, Bret, for bringing common sense to these pages. You and I do not like Trump, to put it mildly, yet he sort of won the mid term election. Over the last 21 mid-term elections Wickipedia reports, the party in power lost 30 seats in the House and 2 in the Senate. Trump, unfortunately, is at worst average in his losses. You know, if a few politicians in the D party had bolted on things like Kavanaugh and a few other things to show some middle ground bravery, instead of hewing to the extreme left positions on cultural issues, we might have actually seen a "Blue Wave"instead of a purple putrid result. The 2 parties are so extreme. I went into the voting booth ready to vote a rebuke at our awful President but I could not vote anywhere near a straight ticket. The D's pushed extreme people onto their ticket, just as the R's did on theirs. Where is the third party we need where candidates can stand for whatever they really thing is best for the people instead of what is best for more reelection dollars?
3
You are exactly correct. Empathy and not condescension will win. Ironically Trump demonstrates by what he proposes, however vulgar, greater emotional empathy with rural voters. They live on a lot of land that their predecessors worked hard to provide and are not interested in sharing with those who "haven't earned it." Think a little bit about how you might respect that and still achieve liberal goals.
Red states were offered medicaid expansion and raising the minimum wage, which they happily voted for along with Republican representatives who oppose these things. These are bridges that the red voters need to move past.
5
Perhaps Democrats could go out of their way to become more aware of the concerns and attitudes of rural voters. I think Bernie Sanders does so well in Vermont (and with rural voters elsewhere) because he travels in Vermont constantly meeting and listening to voters. Tact is often a matter of understanding whom you are talking to, and it's very easy to blunder outside one's usual environment. This can cut both ways. (If I remember correctly, Bill Clinton kept telling HRC's campaign to spend more time in Wisconsin and Michigan.)
1
@Barbara, he does? I live in Vermont and Bernie has been noticeably absent from the state for quite a while. When he does show up, it is for photo-ops with the Vermont National Guard. He avoids Vermont media, like Seven Days, and refuses to ever answer questions about his die-hard support for Lockheed's budget-busting F-35 fighter jet and basing it in Vermont's most densely populated area. Regardless of negative impact to the health and home values of his most vulnerable constituents, including the working poor; working class; immigrant refugees; the elderly, etc.
Take it from someone living in Vermont who previously voted for Bernie and even attended one of his election night victory parties back when he was serving in Congress. Bernie Sanders was a good mayor of Burlington who got the roads paved and proved back then that the Progressive Party was a real alternative.
But who Bernie has evolved into during his time in Washington is all talk. Just talking the talk, but walking the military-industrial walk whenever he actually has a real chance to make a real difference in the lives of his constituents regarding something he has control over (such as the F-35 basing).
2
@Barbara Bernie never plays to our worst fears, prejudices and religious beliefs. He is a kind, caring man who addresses real issues, not overhyped imaginary threats
Weather pro Dash or anti-tromp, Republicans can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim on the one hand that “in a year when so many red-state Democrats were up for re-election” the Senate results mean that it wasn’t a blue wave, while at the same time pointing at the same map and minimizing the significance of the Democrats’ pick-ups that enabled them to take the house. As Nate Cohn notes in The Upshot, only 9 Republicans were at risk in districts that tilted Democratic in the last two presidential elections. Yet the Dems still managed to pick up THREE TIMES that many seats. In 2010 there were 67 such vulnerable Democrats - and the GOP picked up only 63 seats. Look beyond the raw numbers at the context of the districts where seats were won or lost. It WAS a wave election, and the wave went much further up the beach. The lesser Republican wave in 2010, which didn’t even pick off all of the weak lambs, proves the point!
2
Ordinarily I would spend some time crafting a point-by point rebuttal to this kind of repetitive "we already have read 1,000 versions of this" article. Not today. No, I WANT Democrats to worry, to fret, and to be exceedingly anxious for two years. Take nothing for granted - not demographics, not economics, not social issues, and CERTAINLY not any of the state and federal offices that were just won - especially in the House races. The more anxious the Democrats are, the harder they will work to register voters and bring them to the polls, and the harder they will work to field and support winning candidates. To paraphrase Churchill, the recent election certainly was not the end or the beginning of the end, but it just might be the end of the beginning.
4
Democrats won an almost identical majority of the Congressional vote as Republicans did in 2010 (+7-8%), but the reason that they netted only half the House seats that Republicans did is plain and simply gerrymandering. To garner an equivalent number of House seats, Democrats must exceed the national share of the vote won by Republicans by nearly 10%. Given that he Democratic wave in terms of votes was entirely comparable to the Republican wave in 2010, the problem is not with Democrats' attitudes or messaging but rather with their chronic neglect of state legislatures that have controlled Congressional redistricting, a systemic problem that is being addressed at long last by ballot initiatives and Democratic politicking at local levels.
Democrats are growing tired of hearing that they have been too dismissive of Trump voters and need to cater to their demands in order to guarantee greater success at the ballot box. Was Republicans' take-over of all branches of government predicated on listening to and accommodating Democratic voters' views? No, on the contrary, Republicans have pursued a scorched-earth campaign strategy that neglects any and all interests beyond those of their base. On a national level, and often at the state level, these are almost exclusively minority viewpoints. Democratic pundits often forget that conciliation has to be a 2-way street.
4
Bret Stephens' point ignores that the Democratic Party did win big on Tuesday night by every measure, except the seat tally. In 2016, a considerable majority of American's unsuccessfully expressed their will to keep Trump and his supporters away from our levers of power. Suggesting that this was due to the Democratic Party's failure is like blaming the bank robbery on the teller for having so much money in one place. Yet Stephens suggests just this, arguing that Democrats used to win in this very same system. But this system has been corrupted. Stephens' argument misses that point entirely. The Electoral College has only ever elected Republicans in dereliction of the cumulative will expressed by the voters. For genuine democratic governance we must overcome gerrymandering, disproportionate representation in the Senate, and a Republican-favoring Supreme Court (probably a consequence of the former.) Belaboring the earlier metaphor: Stephens' argument overlooks that while reaching out a hand to robbers conceivably might get them to hand over their gun, it is far more likely to get you shot. The operative factor in the analogous situations is the highly emotional--but starkly distinct--points of view between the players. Republican tactics prove that popular outrage is one of the best tools to work political change. Grabbing the House of Representatives is a commendable first step: it offers a bullhorn to whip up the fury. Democrats should now move to step 2.
2
This article draws misguided conclusions by ignoring a confluence of factors that led to this election, and it ignores the significance of the actual results--which should greatly please liberals and Democrats. I'll skip over the federal stuff which has been covered to death.
Democrats took 7 governors' seats, flipped at least 4 state Attorney General seats, and captured trifectas (full state-level control) in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and others. This is significant not only for Americans' daily lives, but because it means the 2020 redistricting will look a LOT different from 2010.
We won big in the Midwest: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan--the three states which put Trump over 270 in the Electoral College. So it turns out, our handwringing about the forever-lost Midwest was premature. At the same time, we continued our strong performance in the swing states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Democrats are notorious for navel-gazing and self-flagellation, but we should not fall prey to that temptation no matter how Stephens tells us we should.
4
I almost threw up reading this.
This was the most elitist snobbish thing that I have read since the election. I don't even know where to start. For Democrats it was an experiment to see what voters responded to, social democrats or more moderate candidates with a more modest agenda. We got our answer.
The Democrats secured the house in spite of Republican efforts to prevent people from voting especially those most likely to vote for Democrats. Gerrymandering by Republicans also heavily favored Republicans in many districts that they drew up. The fact remains that 9 million more Democrats voted in this election than than Republicans but red state senators in low population states did not need the votes of New York to win a seat. In spite of this the Democrats now control the House. Whats a Republican to do. What can trump do, sign an executive order to prevent these Democrats from being seated in January?
The truth is Mr. Stephens that it is the Republicans who need to change. They need to be more civil, more honest, more moral and start governing. Stop calling us snowflakes and a mob, how deplorable.
10
"They measure their moral worth not through an effort at understanding but by the intensity of their disdain. They are — so they think — always right, yet often surprised by events."
A perfect description of the Trump voter. No idea how anything works, disdain for those who do, but confident it all needs to be burned down.
4
Bret - When all is counted the Dems will have 35 seats.
Hunter in NY used a racist ad and barely won. It is just the beginning.
100 women are headed to Congress. Among them, 2 Native Americans, a Palestinian, A Somalian, muslims, 2 African American women.. Eventually, with another 130 women, the Congress might start looking like the USA.
They will not need Texas or Georgia in 2020. The 1.4 million newly enfranchised former convicted persons who completed their sentences might make a big difference in 2020.
Trump still seats with 43% of the people approving of his dismal Presidency. We hear the media touting his Economy. Few have spoken about the Business News report in July - "By almost every measure, the U.S. economy is booming. But a look behind the headlines of roaring job growth and consumer spending reveals how the boom continues in large part by the poorer half of Americans fleecing their savings and piling up debt
A Reuters analysis of U.S. household data shows that the bottom 60 percent of income-earners have accounted for most of the rise in spending over the past two years even as the their finances worsened - a break with a decades-old trend where the top 40 percent had primarily fueled consumption growth."
When the 43%ers realize that his tax breaks went to him and his rich friends, they hopefully will turn their back on him and his ilk in 2020.
1
Mr. Stephens, again, misses or purposefully confuses the point, namely, that Democrats will take over the house in January 2019, and, probably the senate and presidency in 2020. He can misrepresent democrats as "liberals" or wrong meaning people but the fact remains that record number of Americans voted to place controls on a corrupt president. That's the American way. Democrats are patriots while Republicans have continually failed to keep their oath of office.
Democrats always are left to clean up after a republican majority, history shows us that despite claiming they are fiscal conservatives, they traditionally tilt the playing field toward the wealthy 1% of our nation while drowning us in monstrous debt and international discord.
How is it that once again a republican majority in the house has failed to deal with immigration, gun control, social safety net, and despot nations and then expects the other 99% of us, including those most vulnerable citizens to fill in the revenue gap they created by their constant revenue reductions through tax breaks for the rich.
Mr. Stephens, will some modicum of respect, I implore you to stop demonizing the party of patriots. "Have you no decency, sir?"
6
Thanks Bret for the lesson in humility. Hmmmm...... bridge building ? Actual bridges (a much needed infrastructure program) and metaphorical ones (reaching across the aisle). Sounds wonderful. And I think it could come to fruition with one minor concession to Trump's ego and megalomania. Every bridge, tunnel, highway, airport, transit system, and school built would be required to be named in his honor. Same goes for national parks. The healthcare system and all hospitals. I imagine he would even sell out his wealthy supporters by reversing their tax cuts to so aggrandize his legacy. His name permanently embedded into our daily senses and sensibilities forever more. So there you go fellow Democrats and progressives. A way to get everything we want. All we have to do is swallow our pride.
2
Oh, you've never been more wrong, Mr. Stepehns.
Democrats flipped seven statehouses; GOP lost six. In the House, Dems flipped twenty-nine districts, GOP flipped three. Dems made gains in places where there are lots of people. GOP gains all in places where there are hardly any people. Democrats made inroads and were competitive everywhere. Almost everything the GOP gained/hung onto were in states won by Trump in 2016. Many of the districts that the Democrats flipped were in suburban areas that have voted Republican for my entire life. Yesterday was a big win for the Democrats, and proof that Trump does not have the country with him. Feel free to continue to be extremely wrong. I look forward to posting quotes from this column on the NYT facebook page when the Democrats take back the Senate and the WH in a couple of years. Until then, we are too smart to take advice from people who want us to lose.
5
@Patrick There are a fair amount of people in Florida. Third largest state population wise.
Trump supporters are folks, as Trump noted, who would not change their opinion of him if he shot someone on the sidewalk of 5th Avenue in broad daylight. How can democrats change that, let alone even assimilate it? It makes no sense. So how do democrats appeal to people who gravitate to (and vote for) senselessness?
4
If Trump and Trumpism wins, that's on the country, not on Democrats. The difference between the two parties couldn't be more stark. The fact that this election wasn't a complete rout for Democrats shows that the country is a lot more comfortable with racism, misogyny, xenophobia, fascism, religious fundamentalism, etc. than anyone cares to admit. Let's face it: If Americans could look at their own country without the rose-colored glasses, they'd see a lot of the things that they look down upon in other countries.
2
The Democrats are not one party but several. Trumpism has distilled the GOP down to its essence (which isn't pretty) but the Dems are trying to cobble together a big tent of people who don't fit together. Dems have also failed to recognize that despite Trump's failings, he has astutely recognized several valid issues that Americans can see and Dems ignore. 1st - the other NATO countries aren't pulling their weight and have been taking advantage of the USA by giving their citizens free health care and free education but pleading poverty when the NATO bill comes due; 2nd - America needs to control and secure its borders (Russia annexed Crimea by infiltrating a few thousand Russian troops on "vacation" into Ukraine - open borders are an unnecessary and foolish risk to America) as we have many enemies and fewer and fewer friends (mostly due to Trump); 3rd - the average rural-American is falling behind economically while others (i.e., the educated, the urban, the well-connected, the residents of coastal areas, many (but not most) immigrants, etc.) are moving ahead in the global economy; 4th - a merit based immigration system (which is a feature of most, if not all, other Western countries) is a reasonable idea and isn't inherently racist. It is unfortunate that Trump's racist message (he claims not to be a racist but is apparently the preferred candidate of racists and anti-semites who have almost uniformly supported and praised him) obscures his mention of important issues.
1
The ones that should learn to build the bridge is "the other America", not the Democrats.
1
Bret,
Some points well taken here but you're way off the mark on Trump's tax returns. Folks care about them because of what they will reveal about the degree to which Trump's businesses intersect with the way he is making policy.
3
"... And unless Democrats change, he should be seen as the odds-on favorite to win in 2020. […] I want Trump, and Trumpism, to lose. But if the Resistance party doesn’t find a way to become a shrewder, humbler opposition party, that’s not going to happen. …"
Great article.
But what I can't wrap my head around: Why is any kind of 'resistance' party of any description needed at all to deliver an effective message against that which is manifestly self-evident, that Trumpism is an utter and obvious catastrophe for this country. Why does any party need to spell this out to another party? Is it the case that trump supporters truly don't get this? Or perhaps they do get it but vote against their own self interest to spite other groups(s) (eg. liberals, minorities, etc)?
2
We need to seriously consider Bret's points here, because unless the popular votes can be transmuted to electoral votes, we will have Trump redux in 2020. As Bret posits here, the key is to persuade and convert, not ridicule and alienate. I got few of Trump supporters I know to watch Nancy Pelosi's presser after the midterms (after I had seen it). They were so surprised that she came across as "so reasonable", "so normal", they had no idea - all positive stuff. Now, I know they are not all going to run out and vote Democratic, at least not yet. But give them couple years of Bret's points and a good Democratic candidate, then we'll all be in clover.
1
Well said! I agree with the sentiment and thoughts expressed. Intensity in political actions is limiting unless combined with honest empathy to the people on the other side of the argument.
Do you know any republicans that have empathy for the other side? No I didn’t think so.
1
Hogwash, Mr. Stephens. And how dare you! I refuse to build a bridge to (what can only be described as) an existential threat to American Democracy!! Maybe you were too busy to watch Trump's press conference yesterday?
4
You're going to spin yourself into a deep deep hole, Bret. The right wing is so dirty they will be able to fill in that hole even it goes all the way to China. If they did as great as you and trump think, it won't last. Just as you talk about the savvy of the American voter, eventually they will recoil at the sight of your meanness, duplicity and widespread and completely documented attempts at vote suppression. Enjoy it while it lasts, cause it won't.
1
Having lost their GOP to white supremacists and con men, conservatives now want Democrats to listen to them and become the new GOP.
That makes about as much as sense as hiring somebody who went bankrupt playing the stock market as your investment advisor.
No, thanks, Bret Stephens. Why don't you go try to take your party back instead?
4
The only accurate word in this piece is "meh," if that's a word.
The deplorables are deplorable. Sugar coating bile doesn't make it taste better. Being "nice" and trying to understand racists and intentionally dishonest people is not a strategy.
And Bret, please!! "But that's the system in which everyone's playing." To channel Johnny Mc, you can't be serious. It is rigged. The GOP has gerrymandered and suppressed beyond anything imagined in the last 100 years. We're not all playing in the same system.
1
Trump is a cunning master of the dark art of appealing to his base’s worst nature. Anger, fear, and vindictiveness are powerful emotional lures, and Trump has connected with and fanned their flames much to his advantage. These people are well beyond the reach of reason, no matter how long the bridge.
1
Sure, let's build bridges to people who exhibit nothing but scorn and disdain for us? Over and over I read that nothing makes Trump's supporters happier than "libtard's tears" Please stop blaming democrats for not being republicans like you were, Bret.
1
It's really troubling to me that there are so many people who STILL have not come to love our President. I hope more people will come around over the next couple of years. Thank you, Mr. President!
If the same voters show up at the polls in 2020, along with a new group of even younger voters, then Trump can't win re-election. He simply won't have the numbers. Look at how many more Democrats/Democratic voters voted in Senate races, House races, and even Gubernatorial races. Those aren't people who will go back to Trump based on something the House does in the next two year. Well, except if they were to try and impeach him perhaps...
This is no longer 2016 and HRC will not be Trump's opponent.
2
I have a hard time believing that political conversion is the only thing at stake hear. Listening to stories of Georgians waiting for hours at polls for voting machines to function properly or hearing last minute polling locations suddenly switch to places without public transport service available maybe gives a hint as to what is the deeper picture here. I hail from Ithaca, NY, in the 23rd district, a district that on one side (Tompkins county) is very blue, but on the other, contains nearly all of Western NY. Syracuse, Ithaca, and Binghamton are all in different districts. Was this done on purpose to dilute the bluer vote? I can't say for certain, but I think there is much more going on here than conversion ideology.
2
If more progressive candidates are failing Bret, it is because conservatives such as yourself, with the help of conservative think tanks and conservative media, have been telling folks they can get something for nothing for decades. That the solution is simply to lower taxes and unleash the power of the market. That we don't need regulations, or oversight or unions or any checks on the rich and powerful to make sure they don't abuse that power. They prefer a Federal gov't whose sole purpose is for the national defense. At the state level, they want governers who make their states attractive for business i.e. Low tax, non-union, low regulation.
They are succeeding because we have been shielded from the excesses of corporate and greed by the great progressive legislation of the 30s, 40s and post WWII era, and people don't remember what it was like before food stamps, welfare, Medicaid and Medicare. They don't remember the orphanages or the orphan trains, the mental institutions, the Great Depression. And for some of those who do, they don't care because they got theirs.
Many things can be pointed out in the Republicans war on good gov't, but how about we start with cutting funding for the IRS to fight tax evasion? More cops may reduce crime but when it comes to white collar crime, apparently less is better!
Now we have a President who has spent his whole life buying his way out of trouble and lawyering his way out of paying taxes, and you want Democrats to be quiet about it.
4
Bret, just to point out - you do realize that the races in Florida and Texas for governor and senate respectively were the closest Democrats have come to capturing these seats in decades? I'm sick of hearing the tired reasoning that democrats should be attempting to appeal to this mythical centrist voter with milquetoast candidates. Trump didn't win because he appealed to moderates; Democrats aren't going to get further by appeals to the center. Voters appreciate a display of genuine passion and vision on the part of candidates.
2
Obama tried playing really nice to the other side during his first term, often meeting halfway. All he got was obstruction and his hand slapped away. The time for playing nice is over. The Republicans have been twisting the rules of the game for their own advantage (e.g. filibusters, Judge Garland, gerrymandering); Democrats need to do the same even it comes down to their own gerrymandering to nullify Republican gerrymandering.
3
While I can agree that it is seldom a good idea to generalize about any group of people, I think you are underestimating the amount of prejudice that still exists in so many people and how difficult it is to combat it. I am a 69 year old Southern white Christian liberal female who has lived in the South for the last 59 years and I have seen racism and still see it everyday first hand. Most of my friends, extended family and many old working colleagues are Republicans. The majority of them are entrenched in their belief system about 'the minority others' and not inclined to wanting a conversation about it. They don't want to change.
If you or other conservative opinion writers think that the problem most of these same people had about Obama had to do with anything but race, then you all, for the most part, are mistaken. It was first and above all about race and the prejudices built up over years in regards to what characteristics defined a particular race.
Providing exposure at a young age to different people and cultural differences will be vital to changing these prejudices for the sake of our future. It really is a matter of changing hearts and minds. As for now, it is important for my grandchildren to see me standing up for what I think is right in a world where it continues to be okay to demonize others based on skin tone. I will do it with kindness, but I won't worry about hurting someone's feelings. There is no fence-sitting on this issue for me.
3
I'm getting tired of the "Everything is the Democrats fault" Bret Stephens columns. What were Democrats supposed to do during the Kavanaugh hearings? Do nothing and risk deflating their base? Many, though not all, liberals wanted to see a fight. Many, though not all, women wanted to see a fight. Senate Democrats needed to resist for their constituents. How much more are we supposed to listen to MAGA Republicans? Could it be, that actually it's not the fault of the Democrats, but a result of the GOP conniving to gerrymander districts, suppress the vote, and let in billions of dark money into our political system?
5
Democrats not only won suburban seats in places like TX, OK, SC, IA and UT but also the governorships of KS, MI, and WI.
The GOP won the Senate because North Dakota will fewer people than many counties gets two Senators. 55% of Americans voted blue in the Senate.
2
That's some pretty weird logic that the Dems loss in 2010 counts against them, but Romney's loss in 2012 also counts against the Dems. Huh?
1
The real message? Democrats received more than 12 million Senate votes than Republicans, yet Republicans gained more seats - proving that rural conservatives are the biggest beneficiary of affirmative action in America, yet again losing the popular vote but gaining more power.
In essence, the Donald was partially correct. The system is rigged... in favor of conservatives.
6
You can't build bridges when the other side is building walls.
7
First, you will get no argument from me that Chuck Schumer is a very weak leader. We need somebody like Amy Klobuchar to make the case to the American people.
On the other hand, I often read praise of Mitch McConnell which is laughable. With the exception of Trump and Newt Gingrich, no American has done more to defy the will of the American, serve the needs of special interests, and damage the faith Americans have in government. I will take Schumer.
With that said, the mid-terms were exactly what we expected them to be. Democrats took the House and, because democrats were defending so many seats in the Senate, they lost seats. In light of gerrymandering, Russian provided tailwinds, and voter suppression, it is a remarkable achievement.
I agree with Mr. Stephens that this is no time to be complacent.
Still, Mr. Stephens ignores the Mueller report. Nixon was similarly secure when he was re-elected for his second term. But eventually, the public caught on.
With respect to Mr. Trump's supporters, I hope Mr. Stephens will admit that a third of Trump's supporters are racists. No, not all of them, but a chunk. Write them off? Absolutely.
Those who are not? Well, an effort must be made to formulate a message that appeals to them that is both sincere and humble.
But I think the long-term problems democrats must address are small in comparison to what the GOP must face. In the knowledge-economy know nothings will perish.
5
This election was going to show if Trump is a "bug" or a "feature". Is he a mere fluke who was handed a slim win by antiquated, 200-year-old rules -- despite being three million down in the popular vote? Or is he an accurate reflection of where the country is now: mammon-worshiping, anything-goes opportunism, less kind, less caring, rubbed raw by decades of perceived exploitation by the have-nots (and you can't even criticize them: that's not PC!); ready to idolize anyone promising to whup the peckerwoods and the parasites and the degenerates and put the country -- and themselves -- back where it / they should have been all along?
So the election happened and Trump is a "feature". His rage-fueled "base" isn't going anywhere. The limited Democratic successes stoke their anger, and they're done with hunkering down and waiting for better times. They want improvement NOW. But even if Trump could wave a wand and improve their lot overnight, why should he? They're much more use when they're mad.
It took decades, the Depression and a couple of wars for the "robber barons" to relax their stranglehold on the country, for a more egalitarian climate to develop -- but that's gone now. With most of the wealth accruing to the top 1% or 1/10%, dissatisfaction will increase, discourse will become more strident, and society will become more fragmented.
It's going to get worse before it gets better.
2
This take completely ignores the Occam's Razor of election results: significant chunks of the wins/losses column are shaped by comically overwrought gerrymandering.
While no party escapes original sin on that count, the GOP drew themselves an advantage in recent years, and in that context, Tuesday's performance is substantial.
While it's never a bad or unwelcome suggestion to find common ground and listen to the needs of constituents, it takes two parties to tango on that front for it to yield any positive results.
In any case, diminishing patriots who are fighting the totalitarian creep in this country by calling them "antifa thugs" betrays the author's biases.
1
Bret - I think the Resistance did fine. The fact is that those who are truly in Trump's camp are part of a cult that the rest of the polity do not have the ability to deprogram. When the total Senate vote gets millions more votes for the Democrats while losing a couple of seats, that has to do more with the rotten borough feature of the Constitution rather the widespread appeal of Trump. Yes, Beto lost, but his energy helped flip several safe Republican seats in Texas. Every year the Republican's hold on Texas and some other red states slips a little - and they know it. Some of the "other" America are getting it in places like Kansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Utah. Working to de gerrymander congressional and state government districts, expand the natural majority of potential voters that the Democrats have including fighting voter suppression, and put forward proposals that make middle class lives easier are the best way to defeat this Trumpists scourge. Trying to achieve some sort of comity with Trump and his minions is a futile effort and as my Dad used to say, like talking to a brick wall.
3
Every right-leaning pundit tells me that I disrespect, if not desdain, white working class and rural Americans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. However, I do not respect racism, bigotry nor ignorance-by-choice.
Policies pursued by Democrats, like rural electrification and road building, gave the parents and grandparents of the “other Americans” the chance to be something other than dirt-poor sharecroppers. So if I agree to respect them will they agree that they are not victims?
8
The Midterms are a wakeup call to Bret Stephens. How do you think we turned so many state houses, won 7 Governorships, and took over the House? We had no national leaders. We had no charismatic leader to inspire us. We had no real help from the DNC. After 2016, grassroots organizations formed all across this country with the purpose of resisting what had happened, listening to the people in our local community, and doing intensive grassroots organizing. Obama had hollowed out the Party by not promoting or building any organization. Hillary was riding the insider Washington consultants to help her fashion vapid messages devoid of real substance or meaning. We were all left out here by ourselves but the day of the woman's march that ended. Groups formed everywhere and we worked very hard. The Democratic politicians coming to the House are not the ones selected by the DNC but by us. We recruited. We talked people into running. We supported them with small donations and now we've won our first battle. However, this isn't the end. This is just a beach head. We landed on Normandy. This is the beginning. We've got to restore the Republic before it's destroyed for good. We're all getting back to work starting tonight. Our march to Berlin lies ahead.
3
The midterm elections are the beginning of the death spiral for the Republican Party. Florida just added over one million voters to their rolls. No Republican is going to win a state wide election in Florida in the foreseeable future. The Democrats have won back Wisconsin. In addition Republicans have alienated women. The net result will be that in 2020 the Democrats will take over the Presidency and the Senate. Then the real fun will begin!
3
You mean winning the vote for the House 53-47 and winning the 57% of the votes for Senate was somehow a repudiation of Democrats? ok, sure. What you're describing is that rural America has a massive distortion that lets them hold the country hostage, so somehow urban educated people are supposed to kowtow to a small minority because otherwise they'll wreck the country? That's called extortion.
How long to these rural people think the majority of Americans will tolerate being ruled by a minority that holds values that are entirely foreign to the American ideal?
5
It cuts both ways. Newt declared defiance to anything and everything big-d Democrat. Rush declared on the day Obama was elected, that he was committed to seeing him fail. In fact, it was GOP pompousness that produced many of the names we now call one another.
But it is true that it gets in the way of Democratic party progress.
More in the way, though, is the Democrat donor agenda, which goes against the core reforms needed to stop and reverse the concentration of wealth and power among the few.
1
Why should democrats take your advice or any Conservative/Republicans’ advice for that matter?The democrats are doing just fine...all they have to do is wait out the shrinking MAGA crew and play the long game. We may lose a battle here and there but we always win the war on progress, whether it’s gay marriage, civil rights, and eventually gun control. Georgia and Texas will be blue within the decade based on demographic trends. I’m good with the long game that Democrats are playing.
1
One point to consider, in response to all the folks asking why we should be building bridges when the other side won't, is that the other "side" is gifted with a structural advantage by our Constitution. So, like it or not, for the Dems to get the Senate we need to find a way to pick off a few red state senator spots. Griping gets us nowhere.
Democrats need to get better at economics.
Here are a few facts the Trumpers might be swayed by if only Democrats understood and could explain them:
In Jan. 2018 the NY Fed estimated that the value of total US investment in publicly traded stocks currently is $ 98 trillion. The value of cash on the sidelines is $ 14 trillion. Of this, the richest 1% owns 83% or $ 93 trillion. In addition they also own 90% of US govt debt or $ 19 trillion, bringing all assets (excluding real estate) owned by the top 1% to $ 112 trillion. What does the bottom 99% own?
We own the debt. $ 21 trillion, plus the unfunded portion of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to 2035, which brings the total to $ 50 trillion owed to fund programs vital to the American people.
Thus, Dems need to argue that taxes on the rich and on corporations need to go UP for the financial benefit of you & me regardless of where we live or what we believe.
We have suffered for 40 years under supply-side economics that has redistributed wealth upward. Unless Dems can make the case for a return to demand-side Keynesian tax policies, and get voters to prioritize those changes, all of us-- Trumpers and non- --will continue to become poorer relative to the richest & the corporations, and political turmoil in this country will worsen.
Trump supporters are reacting to their own ongoing financial insecurity without understanding where it comes from.
Democrats could explain it, show how to fix it, and win them over.
5
To the degree that Democrats should not be overconfident, and that outcomes in 2020 are uncertain, this writer's point is well-taken. But it's simply wrong to describe this election as a "warning" to Democrats. It's a misreading of the evidence.
The writer fails to account for the impact of turn-out on Tuesday. What was Dem turnout in 2010? Pretty low, and Reep turn-out was high. Throw in gerrymandering and there you have your "red wave." President Trump and the Reeps are still able to count on a passionate and active base, and they turned out to vote on Tuesday. But Dems were just as passionate, and, meeting strength to to strength, they won back the house; they won governorships; they improved representation in state houses all over the place. And that's with a good economy! If turnout is this strong, or stronger, Trump is in trouble in 2020.
And, aside from gains in state government, the Dems made gains against the pro-Reep skew in the electoral playing field. Florida law now restores voting rights to hundreds of thousands of Black and Latino men. If that law held sway two years ago, we'd have a Madam President for everyone to hate. And a Dem Governor and a Dem Senator in the Sunshine State. And don't forget, several states passed anti-gerrymandering laws, which will erode the Reep advantage.
So stop the hand wringing and think about how to work to improve on this momentum into 2020 and beyond.
2
This is spot on except for one thing: Beto is being mis-characterized. He went to EVERY county in TX. Deep red territory that Democratic candidates don't tread on. And the fact that he lost by a way smaller margin than the candidate in previous races shows that he had more than a "scant chance of victory". This isn't the last we've heard from Beto!
2
I think two years from now we will see Trump's support erode significantly. Beyond that, Democrats are up to 30 flipped seats right now and look to perhaps wind up with perhaps 35 -- this is the face of horrific gerrymandering. In North Carolina, Democrats took 50 percent of the congressional vote and won just three of 10 seats, again. The numbers are similar in Ohio. There is no reason to be nice to Trump or to Republicans. Obama was nice to them. Looked how that turned out.
3
One should not compare 2010 - 2 years into the worst financial collapse since the 1930's - with 2018 - the tail end of the longest march to prosperity (consecutive quarters of growth throughout the Obama presidency). Obama engineered a steady extraction from the misery created by Bush, Goldman Sachs & Co. a misery so great it prompted the Sec of Treasury under Bush to say in 2008: the world financial system is on the brink of total collapse.
The "in's" are punished for bad times even if they did not cause them. That is what happened in 2010.
By the way, the term blue wave refers to a "wave" which is a body of water moving in one direction while gaining size. It is not a "breaker" which is what we are still waiting for. The blue wave is alive and well. It didn't break in 2018, that's all.
3
I yearn for the days when there were bridges. For example, when Senator Ted Kennedy crafted legislation with Senator Quayle that has been a successful labor law. But when we now have an American Pravda (Fox News) that blatantly and explicitly collaborates with the Administration to foment division, to propagate mis (and dis) information, it is difficult to imagine how bridges can be built. How can a Party (The Republicans if you couldn't guess) claim to love America and work so hard to divide us.
The answers to our political problems cannot be mutually assured political destruction. But believing that Democrats can play nice in the sandbox and everything will be fine is not realistic.
4
Sorry, I don't want to "build a bridge" to the past-- back to whenever it is that Trump thinks was great. I want to move forward, and we can't do that by alienating our allies and imposing tariffs. There are grown up, diplomatic means to working with other countries. Threats and blustering are not the way. Trump turns his back on globalism because he is afraid it means he can't be the most important person at the table. He's never learned to share or cooperate. It's just all about him, which is why he prefers his "nationalism," which just means he's the big cheese all the time. That's not a part of any future I want. If that's what the other side is offering, they can keep it. I'll keep resisting.
4
Mr. Stephens- You criticize the campaign donations sent to Mr. O'Rourke, but isn't he exactly the "humbler" alternative you are
calling for? Here was a candidate who travelled to all of Texas' far-flung counties and attempted to make connections to small-town America, to discern commonalities while presenting his differing views in good faith. If this is not the approach you are arguing for, then what?
7
@Skeptical Observer Amen! Beto, Stacey and Andrew were bridge builders extraordinaire. And they are the future!
2
"But that’s the system in which everyone’s playing".
Not really, when you consider gerrymandering and voter suppression.
11
Much as I want to shout, "No!" I find myself agreeing with almost every sentence.
The most salient point is the Democrats need a champion, and they haven't found one. The lithesome Beto lost, and champions do not lose.
As absurd as Trump sounded claiming "total victory" he was closer to the truth than most of his critics. The fewest state houses swung this time than any time since decades ago.
Red states remained red and got redder as they shucked off their few remaining Democratic Senators.
Thankfully Montana showed some sanity, and WV was interesting, but Florida is now a red state and much as we Dems want to believe it, Georgia remains red.
We keep forgetting as we see the browning of America, the old White men are still in charge, and structural realities of the electoral college and the Senate being apportioned by acreage rather than people means Republicans, the White Nationalist Party will remain in power.
1
In Florida my local paper announced today that Desantis beat Gillum for governor thanks to “record rural turnout.” “Rural” should be understood to be pretty much synonymous with “racist” in the south. I’d bet that a lot of those “rural” voters were motivated to vote this year so they could vote against Gillum. There are a lot more racists down here than there are progressive voters, and they turned out. Especially in small towns you see them, with their confederate flags on their trucks, motorcycles, flying in their garages. The racists here are still fuming over Barack Obama. My handyman put it like this, without any shame, “the country wasn’t ready for a black president.” The record rural turnout probably helped every republican on the ballot, including the big money guy Rick Scott who defeated of our fine senator Bill Nelson. I just wish the left wing activists would study the Florida election and reconsider their disdain for centrist democrats in the south. You compromise to win. Doesn’t that matter? This isn’t New Jersey or Massachusetts. We had a red wave here.
1
It's been 2 years but at last it seems people are getting to the final stage of loss. Acceptance. Now please come up with a way to see the humanity in the erroneously labelled 'Deplorables' and come up with a sensible, adult way to win a presidential election.
1
That the majority of people don't see Trump as a fascist and danger to our democracy and values, does not mean he is not a danger. We need to talk to the other side and try to understand them. This doesn't mean capitulating to what is unacceptable.
1
"Liberals are free to bellyache all they want that they have repeatedly won the overall popular vote for the presidency and Congress while still losing elections, and that the system is therefore 'rigged.'" Bret, the system truly is rigged against the Democrats through GOP-gerrymandered House districts and every state getting the same number of Senators regardless of its population. And then there is the unfairness of the Electoral College, all of which results in our current tyranny by a minority.
7
@Bret Stephens:
This is not the way to be an effective shill for Trump.
Let me help you to do better: To be an effective shill, you've got to gain some trust from the anti-Trumpers. That means you have to criticise Trump when he does something that's clearly indefensible. Yes, I know it's hard for you to criticise him, but trust me, you'll earn some credibility with his foes.
And then you'll be a better shill.
1
WRONG. Only reason Dems didn't pick up more seats cnsidering the 8 point win was because Repub-cons gerrymandered and voter suppressed and dirty tricked. Now that the state landscape has changed with majority Dem AGs and close to 50-50 governerships and state houses, and considering the demographic trend and disgust with trumpism, Dems will reverse the Con stranglehold increasingly in each election cycle until they're gone like the Whig Party. Stop spreading misinformation please.
2
Bret, You are a Republican and supporter of Israel's Netanyahu and everything he does so not exactly the sort of person to have the right to tell liberals and progressives how to behave. I'm married to a ninety year old Trump and FOX news obsessed former clear thinker and if I even mention Trump's latest lie I'm accused of "hate speech." It is not easy when a former openminded person becomes narrow minded and fearful, less concerned about mass shootings than "caravans" of scared and hungry people marching through Central America.
1
We could all benefit from the simple act of demanding that the President start actually doing his job. Enough of the pep rallies and golf games. As many have pointed out here on these threads, this administration has accomplished very little if you measure its results: no real immigration reform, no infrastructure plans, no real health care reform, no tax reform for working people, no coherent trade policy, no real education reform. And where, may I ask, are all the good-paying manufacturing jobs (or any good paying jobs)?
Make Trump work for once in his miserable life. What if the Dems demanded that all of the above issues actually be addressed? Certainly, the Republicans won't do it because they too would have to start working for a living.
Everyone knows that if it doesn't get measured, it doesn't get done. Time to hold this administration to a higher standard based on the numbers.
2
Sorry to say, but perhaps Trump's America is America. Yeats said more than a century ago, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
Perhaps we can say the conviction of the best is misplaced. But the worst are certainly full of passionate intensity. I wish you all the best, I don't see this ending well at all.
Thank you for the mea culpa Bret, but if you read the comments section, especially those chosen by the editorial board, you can see that it did absolutely no good whatsoever.
It is important for the resistance to believe that the rejection of progressivism is all about racism, greed and ignorance. That way the resistance can continue to self-sermonize about its moral superiority, while refusing to even consider whether progressive policies are wrong-headed and destructive. With their moral superiority meme, progressives also get to ignore the obvious fact that the economy has accelerated under Trump, and that some voters might want to keep that going rather than return to the Obama era anti-business/anti-growth agenda.
OK, so there was a MeToo primal scream in the mid-terms, the self-marginalized have had their televised temper tantrum, and the Democrats have won the right to install some of the craziest people in America as heads of Congressional committees. Please, more TV appearances by Maxine! At some point in the next two years people will look to the substance of this Presidency, and not the social failings of President. People are not going to vote against, peace, prosperity and reduced government interference in favor of Robin Hood wealth redistribution, mandatory political correctness and economic malaise. We had 8 years of the latter, and it made everyone miserable, even the people it was supposed to help.
Bret when you're right you're right.
3
So you believe that "progressive policies are wrong-headed and destructive".
Yet you don't give any example of such policies.
In the meanwhile, you claim that the economy "accelerated" under Trump. There is not ONE single economical graph backing up that claim.
I suppose you imagine that that must be the case because we just had a quarterly GDP growth of 4%, and that you ignore that that often happened under Obama too?
I agree that no American should feel superior to another human being (contrary to what your GOP leaders and pundits constantly tell us), so IF one or the other progressive feels that way, I'll be the first to disagree. But in the meanwhile, you guys are being horribly fooled by Fox News and your pundits and politicians. That you're so vulnerable to fake news is not your fault. I do believe that the day that you start doing some fact-checking yourself, you'll see that your "news" and party are terribly betraying people like you, both when it comes to "message" and when it comes to what they're concretely doing in DC.
Obama's Recovery Act part 1 turned Bush's -8% GDP into a decade-long, steady economic and job growth. It could have happened faster IF the GOP would have blocked part 2. People's wages would have gone up too IF the GOP wouldn't have blocked such bills and imposed a "sequester" when the economy still needed a stimulus. In the meanwhile, Obamacare will soon have saved half a million American lives - and Obama cut Bush's deficit by 2/3.
Wake up!
3
@AR Clayboy The economy grew more under Obama. Anyone who tried had their wealth increase under his tenure. And he did it without a SALT cap or 12BN in handouts to farmers.
2
It is usually not a good idea to generalize about any group of people. I am a perfect example. I am older (69), white, Christian, a woman and I live in the South (and have for 55 years). My political beliefs are mostly liberal with a few moderate leanings. These evolved over the years through my experiences, Christian faith, and observations. My choice of political party changed, as well, as the Rockefeller Republicans became extinct and the bigots in the Southern Democratic party became Repubicans. other conservative states.
2
Why aren't we listening to rural America? Why aren't we asking them what they need to keep their towns vibrant, their kids from leaving, their family members healthy, a good job, that they are proud of and supports their family. Why aren't we listening to their solutions for drug abuse and the destruction of their environment?
The Democratic party, my party, used to be the party of labor and the needy. I agree with our multi-cultural, inclusive, environmental, open and liberal policies, but I don't think they prevent us from understanding and taking care of rural America. But we don't seem to be listening to them.
Many of my cultural beliefs are at odds with rural America, but I still want to understand and help, and I don't understand why we (liberal, progressives) don't seem willing to listen to their economic plights.
I was certain the country would repudiate the narcissist in chief, but they haven’t. I’m relieved we won the house, but we didn’t prove the structural support across the country is in place to win the Electoral College in 2020. That’s depressing, but true. I’m not sure we will survive eight years of Trumpism. We had better start listening to rural America, so we can understand what they need, so we can help, and maybe just maybe win enough them over to win the Electoral College in 2020.
2
The more the right degenerates into an ethnic and cultural faction, the more the left must commit to universal inclusion -- or there will be nothing but warring ethno-cultural factions left.
The more the right commits to know-nothing demagogues and science denial, the more the left must be the party of knowledge and expertise. But one that takes seriously it's obligation to persuade, not scorn and over-rule, those less educated.
The more the right commits to making its Hobbsean myth of a state-mediated war of each against all into reality, the more must the left commit to a vision of all Americans as one family, and to making the United States a home for this large family, instead of a war zone.
We do have to build bridges, try to understand what motivates right-leaning voters, and try to meet them where they are. But the bridges have to lead somewhere worth going. That's the real imperative behind Michelle Obama's 'we go high': if everyone descends to zero-sum, destructive tactics, we can't possibly realize a common good because there won't be anyone left even trying to achieve it, just grabbing power for themselves, to enforce their own peculiar vision on unwilling neighbors.
Even the vanishing few politicians who still call for 'bipartisan' solutions don't seem to remember why: so our opponents are also at home in the world we create; so that they too can see it as something to be preserved and not torn down.
2
This is a rare occasion when I agree with part of what Stephens says. Democrats need to come up with a message that reaches a significant proportion of rural voters. It should not be hard, as they are the only reality-based party. A reality-based message in support of farms, rural jobs, clean energy in rural America, education, health care and reduced income inequality should be easy. Democrats will be the only party with an honest plan, but they do need a plan. But the other part of the equation is one that Stephens and many others continually fail to recognize. Some substantial percentage (50%?) of Republicans believe the alternative universe peddled by Fox "news" and the other right wing media. Democrats need to find ways to reduce the power of those fact-deficient, right-wing media voices, so dominant in rural locations, and to counter them with other media sources (NPR or PBS, perhaps?). Absolutely nothing will change significant numbers of minds in rural America until this happens.
As I see it, if there are lessons to be learned here, first it is that if the dems (or repubs for that matter) put forth moderate candidates they can win against radical left or radical right. Second, the country's demographics have changed and will continue to do so, and as long as repubs favor the 'old white guy' strategy of trying to turn back the clock on social and immigration issues, they will continue to struggle in a national election. I think the dems did pretty well here, especially if you look at state elections where they picked up a number of governorship and legislative seats. But they often lost when they put forth progressives like in GA, which was ripe for the taking. Moderates continue to matter, and whichever party works to get their vote will tend to win imo...
1
Sadly, I have to agree, in fact have been saying this since before the presidential election, when it seemed I was one of the few who thought that Trump might actually win.
There's a curious blindness among my fellow Democrats, an unwillingness to ask whether Trump's supporters might have some reason for supporting him more valid than racism or stupidity.
As Trump takes us ever further down the road of authoritarianism, I despair that they will ever catch on.
1
The midterms were hardly a "meh".
The Democrats, indeed, should have expected to gain more House seats under ordinary rules. And the Senate gains (given that only 1/3 of the seats were in contest) shouldn't have expected a gain under ordinary rules.
Still, the passage of the House to the other party was a far more important violation of the "ordinary rules."
This was an important, but small, encroachment on Trumpism. As a president who cannot get legislation thru Congress (the tax bill being the exception that proves the rule), he is still confined to issuing Executive Orders, and he is totally at the mercy of the judiciary.
For a president whose only assertions of his business acumen have only involved litigious intimidation of little people, I would say that alleged "meh" is more like a warning to Republicans.
1
Agree to disagree.
There is the very real practical matters of obtaining power in the short term (i.e., wanting to control the present Senate and, obviously, defeat Trump in 2020), but I am most interested in 2024 and beyond.
Although they do not often care to discuss it, the Republican Party has been creeping towards the limits of what can be done as a minority representation party. Their answer (and Stephens' honestly expressed answer) to the critique of their consistently shrinking and aging constituency is essentially: "quality over quantity, liberals!" And they've put on an absolute clinic. Like a ruthless business consultant, they get incredible results while downsizing personnel.
But the the rebuttal of the "quality over quantity" lecture has always been that "quantity has a quality all its own." Eventually the ratio is simply insurmountable no matter how one crunches the electoral math, draws a district or drafts voter ID laws. The Republicans ran their own "autopsy" on this matter and they were correct in their conclusions. They needed to diversify their base. That is MORE true in 2018 than ever before.
1
Stephens suggests that the Democrats campaign not by addressing the person, but rather by addressing the problems.
Where is the downside to that?
4
When Midwest/Southeast produce rots because of Trump's tariffs and Midwest/Southeast farmers still vote en mass for Trump, ya gotta wonder, "What are they really thinking? What really are their priorities?"
Is it worth the proverbial cutting off one's nose to ensure that an Other will also suffer?
2
Democrats must run pro life candidates, at least in red states. Problem solved. Liberals refuse to accept the fact that a pro life candidate automatically gets the conservative voter. Give those voters a chance and a choice, and a lot of them will switch sides.
2
We are the majority. Something like 56% of voters voted Democratic for the Senate, while only 43% voted Republican! The system is rigged. I agree with Mr. Crabtree.
1
Trump is beyond despicable in his thug, assaultive, dishonest and immoral character. And he and his supporters (including powerful Republicans) are wrecking this country.
But sadly, I fear that Mr. Stephens is correct in his warning.
It is true that Democrats won a number of House seats.
But of grave concern is that people in Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota and Florida – who know about Trump’s despicable character - did not vote for their moderate Democrat Senate INCUMBENTS!
Instead these people voted for Trump-endorsed Republican candidates.
This is a really bad sign.
Democrats need to work to re-establish common decency and a shared bond.
Democrats need to focus on core issues such as income inequality, tax fairness, education, repairing infrastructure (jobs), safe water and air, environment/climate change (jobs here too).
Democrats must determine a sensible immigration policy. It is not possible for everyone suffering person to come to the U.S., especially when they are uneducated and unskilled. Democrats must develop policies that will assist people in their own countries and relieve suffering – this means giving aid to those countries.
Democrats also need to reach out to non-voters and independents.
2
Listening to NPR this morning, I was astounded to learn that a great voter turnout is considered to be one, when a little over 50% of eligible voters, VOTE. I am now 65 and I have never missed a chance to vote as Democracy may be based on that one freedom.
Now, after 40 some odd years, I find that I'm in the minority.
Pathetic
1
No, Bret.
No bridges to people who demand to nullify reality selectively.
No bridges to people demand that they can elevate any grimy prejudice to the status of a religious conviction and then demand that their religion be accommodated.
No bridges to people who insist that they and only they are Americans, that theirs is the only valid interpretation of the Constitution.
No bridges to people who demand that their folklore be given a place beside empiricism in classrooms and laboratories.
No bridges to people whose ideal America is the one where their inherent superiority is the law, and where said law makes other people less.
No bridges to people whose fear compels them to be armed and menacing in the public square.
No bridges to people who view life as a war and who demand "humility" when their thinking has been defeated and rendered obsolete by demonstrably better thinking.
No bridges to people who love their bitterness, thrill in their ill-will, and hate for fun.
No bridges to people who will take gestures of gracious conciliation and welcoming and once again betray their own country and try, try again to force America to embrace their bigotry and backwardness.
We've had this fight one way or another since the Founding, and no matter how much you hate it, it's always come out the same way. You don't get your own facts. You build a bridge back to America and join us here.
8
All fair, but if you wander over to the comment section of the Wall Street Journal, you see a mirror image of these issues in a disturbingly clear symmetry.
I really don't understand why people let President Trump bother them? Just go about your daily business. Live and let live. It really isn't that difficult to get along.
2
Sorry, Brett, I lost you on this one. What bridges are we supposed to build exactly? How do I have an intelligent conversation with a MAGA head screaming his head off about a caravan of helpless, bedraggled immigrants, insisting they constitute a full-scale invasion of the United States funded by George Soros? Am I supposed to politely listen to excuses for putting children in concentration camps while nodding my head sympathetically? What are we supposed to say when we watch the President of United States try to silence our free press and call legitimate journalism "fake news" while using the State Run News Network (a.k.a. FOX) to spew lies laced with self-serving, destructive and disingenuous propaganda? Why must the "left" (an antiquated term that long ago ceased to mean anything other than "anti-trump") always be meek, polite, behave nicely and play by the rules while the unhinged GOP and their billionaire benefactors behave like bulls in a china shop and destroy our democracy? And don't even get me started on Sara Huckabee Sanders. What makes you think that offering up polite, meek, middle of the road candidates will have any success at all given the current political climate? People won't notice candidates like that, let alone vote for them. You are a very smart man Brett so I'm asking you; what would you suggest we do exactly?
454
@wildwest
What Mr. Stephens is saying is that no matter how repulsive you find President Trump's policies, you should ask his supporters why they support them. Take immigration, which is probably the reason Trump won the election. Ask his supporters: "Why are you frustrated by immigration so much so that you support family separation?" More likely than not, you'll find a genuine sense of cultural loss or anxiety (i.e. I don't share a common religion, language, sense of history, etc.) with these newcomers. Or perhaps it's a more practical reason: Their child's local school, which used to be strong, is now struggling with a massive influx of undocumented non-English speakers that it is by law required to educate but that doesn't have the resources to do so. Or perhaps it's simply disgust at the seeming acceptance by Democrats that the rule of law doesn't matter when it comes to immigration. Is it really surprising that when for the first time in decades a President does take illegal immigration seriously that many U.S. citizens with will take what they can get, no matter how extreme? Democrats first and foremost need to acknowledge that there are genuine reasons to be concerned about illegal immigration. From that starting point, they might be able to pick off enough Trump supporters with more reasonable policies to win back the White House.
201
@wildwest
The point is, for the foreseeable future at least, Democrats need to peel votes away from Trump to have any hopes of maintaining control of the House, gaining a majority in the Senate and winning the White House in 2020. And if you believe the rules of the game are unfair (gerrymandering and the Electoral College), majority control is needed to change those too.
This will not happen unless you convince less strident Trump supporters that you offer a better deal. I spend much of my alone-time watching CNN and other cable news, screaming at the TV about the latest Trump affront to civility, moral leadership and facts. I also think these top-of-my-lungs soliloquies make very good points. Would they win any converts? Not a chance.
We have two choices: developing better-sounding policies for enough red state voters to win some over, or waiting it out, until the demographic wave overwhelms them. Baby boomers like me were supposed to be that wave in the 1970's and 80's. I'm still waiting.
18
@John I have never met a Democrat who does not support requiring immigration to be legal. And seeking asylum is one of those legal processes, that donald and his cult seem to not understand. Selective application of the law. .
But demonizing immigrants and also selectively attacking immigrants of color, while leaving untouched 40,000 illegals from Ireland, let alone all the illegals from Slavic countries, is racist policy.
As to your public school system point, that's not a valid argument. The public schools in lots of places are totally underfunded with our without working class immigrants. How good are the schools in places like W.Virginia where there are few immigrants? ( i dont imagine you refer to all the immigrants Ph.D.s from India. And where i grew up, the Sicilian kids, children of recent immigrants, were all the bottom of the class, without exception, IF they were working class. I bey you many of their children or grandkids went to Harvard, or at least own large construction companies that worked with the Donald in NY....
25
If Trumps actions from yesterday (not the Acosta fun, for Trump anyway) doesn't make Mr. Stephens article appear Pollyanna'ish at best then you are still hanging on to the delusion that we live in bipartisan times. Drastic actions call for drastic reactions in a political sense. I suggest the Dems out of the gate come up with a couple pieces of legislation on healthcare and infrastructure so we can see if the other side has a stomach to legislate. If they don't then there is no point and let the hearings commence just like the freedom caucus has been doing for the last 8 years.
1
On the day after the midterms, reaching across the aisle to Republican relatives, I stated two points on which I agree with President Trump. I asked my relatives if they agreed with anything about the Democrats' platform, and they do. Then I sent messages to my two US senators and US house representative stating the same and asking them to work with their colleagues to find better solutions. We have to use the next two years with the House majority to cooperate across the aisle and find better solutions than either side could reach alone. Now is the time to start the healing.
3
Thus far, only Bernie Sanders has been able to bridge the gap between the left and the right. This was proven by his supporters during the 2016 campaign. Bernie's main messages address income inequality, health care, and education. His entire platform revolves around the basic unfairness of America's rigged, capitalist system.
- His message has broad appeal.
- His message does bridge the two sides.
- Why? Because these are the critical issues almost all Americans agree must addressed.
2
Let's say a Democratic voter wants to pursue the strategy to recommend. Could you name names of who they should consider in order to do so?
Names I have in mind include: John Delaney, outgoing Congressman from Maryland. The largest indication to me that he would do so is that during one retreat with his fellow caucus members, he suggested having a town hall with Republican voters to try to learn first-hand what they want.
Steve Bullock, governor of Montana. He won statewide in Montana, twice for AG and once for governor. Must have some ability to appeal to conservatives to do so.
John Hickenlooper, governor of Colorado.
Are there others? Would these be successful vehicles to appeal to rural America? Exhortation to make that appeal without any suggestion of how is unlikely to be helpful.
1
@Scott Bernie Sanders. He proved it in 2016.
@SalinasPhil Sherrod Brown
At a practical level, you are right: given the Senate and the Electoral College (not to mention gerrymandering), Democrats need to build bridges to Trump voters even if these continue to be an overall minority.
You are also right that telling people they are bad rarely wins hearts and minds (unless the words are backed by brute power).
But please stop moralizing about this. Are there people on the left who are holier-than-thou and extreme in their views? Sure. But tarring ALL Democrats with the same brush is at least as bad as Clinton's basket of deplorables (only half of Trump voters, remember!) comment. Moreover, I don't see any essays aimed at convincing Trumpist Republicans to stop demonizing their opponents.
We should always aim for the Golden Rule, but what makes it a necessity for Democrats' campaigning is the cold arithmetic of the Senate and the Electoral College, full stop. Right 's got nothing to do with it.
2
Two years before the presidential election, it seems that all of the Times's columnists are beginning to make the same argument they made in 2016: progressives must stop advocating progressive policies, and adopt the views of liberals and centrists. Why don't these columnists ever advise the liberals and centrists to consider moving in a more progressive direction?
4
I hate the term "resistance", it implies defeat and inferiority to ones opponent. I do not view the democrats position as being as weak as being part of a "resistance" suggests. The midterm results validates the strengths the democrats have --money, energy and voters. The midterm results also shows how the red states have an unfair and undemocratic advantage that will likely haunt us forever. Most importantly, the midterm results show how to the democrats can defeat Donald Trump in 2020--VOTE!
This is a pretty shortsighted column, but I’ll make this observation. There is no reason to sneer at Beto’s funding, because every single Democratic candidate was absolutely swimming in cash. There was literally no federal race where the Democrat was hurting for funds.
Here is an important note pundits seem to have missed: Democratic grassroots funding neutered Citizens United.
2
Should Democrats reject big donors, and play down identity and wedge issues? And try to win broad support from the vast majority of voters who just want an economy with high wages, low unemployment, and affordable living? Should they run on balanced trade, and *not* nominate candidates with the stench of money from the banks? And by winning, get the chance to pick SC justices, and actually have influence on a wide range of policies? Should they show that they can be more reasonable than corrupt, obstructionist Republicans, and that the Fox News caricatures of liberals as corrupt extremists is just propaganda?
Nah.
Let's impeach Trump instead!
I can't *wait* for president Pence! I am sure we will like *his* Supreme Court picks much better!
The heck with trying to have broad appeal across the nation. Let's just abolish ICE, and make sure our DNC approved candidates run on wedge issues that divide voters. Then, once elected, let's have Democratic congress people go behind closed doors with establishment Republicans, to cut SS in some "grand bargain", make more terrible trade deals, and cut more financial regulations, while workers find it ever harder to get ahead. And even while workers get pay cuts competing with foreign workers making a small fraction of a living wage, they will be happy to pay more and more taxes!
Pay no attention to the growth of fascism in response to the fallout of Globalism on first world wages. Globalism is so popular!
Sounds like a winning plan!
1
Pitch perfect. If Democrats don't do as Bret suggests, they will effectively elect John Kasich-(R) Ohio as the next President.
1
The founding fathers were east coast intellectuals...also a democratic republic is a very abstract concept... clearly susceptible to being usurped by the more easily understood concept of greed.
1
Bret Stephens seems to have forgotten that Obamacare WAS such a bridge, a HUGE bridge.
What did the GOP do with it? Use it to make their voter base believe that it would do the exact opposite of what all studies showed it would do and in the meanwhile did: covering 20 million more Americans, curbing overall cost increases, and saving a whopping additional 40,000 American lives a year.
As long as the GOP decides to flee from reality and create a fake news world for their voters instead, Democrats won't be able to do anything to recuperate votes that without massive GOP cheating they would have recuperated a long time ago already.
Even when three red states just forced their governments to adopt the Obamacare Medicaid expansion too, after the GOP went to the SC to try to gut that part of the bill, those voters will still believe too many lies about liberals and socialism and immigrants and Muslims and women and LGTB Americans etc. to even consider voting for a Democrat.
The only way for Democrats to restore sanity in DC and for the sake of America as a whole, is to do what they did this time:
- refuse to go low and behave in an immoral, insulting, racist way too
- continue to focus on real, fact-based policies that help the American people
- increase voter turnout by making those who still stay home understand just how progress is made, in a democracy, and why their vote matters tremendously.
It's what made them win now, and you don't give up a winning strategy.
3
Bret, I am thinking about this all the time and your points at first seem valid.
And I live by it and try to reach out. Bit I miserably fail. The sole reason for my failure to find common ground is that the Trump voter and I are claiming a different reality.
When I see immigrant children separated from their parents, they see a plot by the left to discredit Trump.
When I see sea levels rising due to global warming they see scientists looking out for themselves to get grant money.
When I see "this". they see the "that" - usually the opposite.
The single biggest problem is that we have not commonly shared reality. How we fix this I do not know. But without shared reality I cannot even begin to be convincing.
3
I have not belonged to a political party for some time, but in recent years I have been very put off by the divisive rhetoric of the Republicans. Democrats should adopt "renaissance" instead of "resistance" as the one word description of what they can offer America. Most of the country is longing for a rebirth of community and looking for solutions to everyday problems -- We worry about our kids and our aging parents. We are concerned with soaring healthcare costs, the opioid epidemic, the affordability and accessibility of high quality education. We worry the country is moving in the wrong direction, becoming more unequal, more divided and that our children will not live as well as we do and that the power to change any of it has been taken away by powerful interests. Make people feel heard.
1
Although it's those who lose elections who should build bridges, so in this case the GOP, in the meanwhile the Democrats actually never stopped building them, which is precisely why they won.
An example?
Obamacare. A centrist bill, that benefits tens of millions of Americans (including a LOT of white old conservative males).
Democrats have extended their hand to Republicans for a decade now, when it comes to healthcare.
And GOP voters are starting to get it, rather than believing the constant and immoral demonizing of "liberals". That's why Tuesday, THREE red states saw their voters force the state government to install and Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.
Progressives want single payer (which, as other Western countries have shown, actually has nothing particularly "progressive" at all, but as the GOP opposes it, in the US it happened to receive the label "progressive") or Medicare for all. Ron Desantis told the people of Florida that that would destroy their healthcare, just like the GOP continues to say about Obamacare.
But look, GOP voters are starting to wake up and accept the hand extended to them.
THAT is the lesson that the GOP now better learns if they want to avoid more defeats in the future.
And having GOP pundits like Stephens openly admit that saving half a million lives a decade through a market based bill like the ACA is a WONDERFUL achievement would certainly do more to build bridges than imagining that Democrats are the ones who should do more ...
2
Many of the comments here, either willfully or misguidedly, misinterpret the point of this column. Stephens is not suggesting that progressive voters cave in to the values of the Republican platform, or abandon their own, or make nice to the hard right elements in Trump’s support. But that is not Trump’s largest constituency. Many people who voted for him were voting against the excessive orthodoxies of the Left, and the sense that the “woke” given their way, would send those who disagreed with them to re-education camps. I didn’t vote for Trump, and can’t imagine the circumstances where I would, but I agree with a lot of what Stephens is saying here, and am often dismayed by the seeming inability of those on the Left to read a column like this and self reflect on its valid points.
1
@arden jones
With all respect, most comments don't misread this op-ed.
They simply disagree - and back that up with tons of evidence - with the central thesis that Democrats would have gone too far left to be able to convince GOP voters to vote for them.
For most of them (myself included), the only reason why so many GOP voters and conservatives have such a horrible idea of "the Left" is Fox News' and GOP pundits' constant barrage of fake news.
Let's take Obamacare for instance. You cannot possibly come up with a more centrist, market-based approach that similarly achieves what not only a majority in this country but even a majority of GOP voters want, on healthcare.
And yet, the GOP called it "socialism", a government takeover, a death panel etc.
Likewise, instead of focusing on what Democrats really stand for, this op-ed talks about antifa, an obscure group of students that extremist conservative websites adore to write about but that most Democrats don't even know, let alone support.
So you can actually only agree with this op-ed IF you already have a completely distorted view of what "the Left" has done and is doing.
And THAT's where "bridges" become impossible, you see? You need reality as common ground to be able to build something. Obamacare is clearly such a extended hand. Where are similar GOP bills? They don't exist. Why isn't Stephens taking Obamacare as the perfect example of such a bridge, once bridges are the topic of his op-ed ... ?
3
Another superficial article. Look at the numbers: the Democrats won by 7-8% in votes. As pointed out by Nate Cohn (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/upshot/2018-midterms-blue-wave-democrats.html), this is a lot. Without gerrymandering and a stacked deck timing of senate seats we wouldn't have these articles. With changing demographics and everything else the Democrats should not change much to be in a good position for 2020. Avoid a bit of the hyperbole and fight back on every untruth from the Republicans. Focus more on health care, social security and medicare. Moving further to the center and doing anything that Bret Stephens suggests only helps the Republicans.
3
I wish I could be the sort of kumbayah Democrat you idealize, but it is really asking too much. I am to respect people who don't care when the President equates good people and Nazis? And who vote for him anyway? How am I to manage that without losing respect for the fundamental American ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence, in the Preamble to the Constitutiomn, in the Gerttysburg Address? I can't do it. I do NOT respect these people. They are the American equivalent of Good Germans.
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There will be no bridge building. The current "president" and his spineless party have made it their business to burn them all. He is driven by nothing so much as fear and can engage only with toadies.
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They sound like a bunch of snowflakes to me. Stop making excuses for things that are inexcusable.
1
Ok. Let's start with the easy bridge building :
Republican leadership admits (the pizza place!) child pornography ring didn't exist.
Republican leadership admits that Obama is not now, or ever, a secret Muslim
Republican leadership admits that the Clinton's haven't murdered anyone.
Republican leadership admits that the press isn't the enemy of the people.
Republican leadership admits there's no reason to lock up Hillary.
……. (hundreds of more examples)
So, while Stephens lays out the theory that Democrats need to reach out, the President and/or people appointed to his staff, have all at one time or another promoted this kind of nonsense to rack up votes.
How do the Democrats build a bridge to people believing this drivel, when elected officials and appointees tell them it's true! Starting with the President!
Mr. Stephens. Your column is way.... way.... off base.
4
Shame on you Mr. Stephens. Antifa are not thugs. Can you provide even one example of a right-winger killed by Antifa? I didn't think so.
4
Bret, you seem to forget that the GOP is nothing without the racist southern voting bloc. And what possible convivial basis is there for building bridges with racism .. or, anti-semitism, if you prefer something more familiar?
4
Waste of virtual paper and ink Bret. Conservative gibberish as usual!
4
Someone gets it.
The Democrats are a collection of too-smart-for-their-own-good connivers who are more and more undone by their own scheming. They scream about corruption and unsavory sexual behavior, but not if it’s someone like Menendez.
Bret, you are hypocritical with the statement "Derision gets you nowhere..." You directed it to the Democrats but T has unfortunately employed it in his playbook! Enough of this nonsense."
3
In other words, do Democrats want to be right, or do they want to win? Writing off all Trump supporters as Nazis, white supremacists, bigots, xenophobes and racists is counter productive politically (even if makes you feel better). A sizable number of Trump voters also voted for Obama, and painting them with the broad brush of "Racist" is a good way to ensure they don't vote D again.
1
What "other America?" Remember "e plurabus unum?"
We are all Americans, even the "deplorable." Lacking is a creative purposeful government offering an expansion, and improvement of our American way of expanding life's opportunities for all. Think of expanding national healthcare, education, communications, and opportunity, for everyone. The Republicans keep us in a less than zero sum society and every one (except the rich) fighting for scarce or shrinking resources. The Republican cure is to offer neighbor to neighbor exploitation, on race, religion, and pretensions of aristocracy, as the means of survival. Dwelling on Trump is not progress. The Democrats must go to work, like FDR did and expand the economy. To begin as a necessary first step, the Democrats must explain why the Federal Budget is not a household account and how its progressive use by budgetary surplus is necessary to expand the economy and opportunities for all, to the detriment of the rich Republicans.
Get to work Democrats and start practicing "government."
1
Mr. Stephens,
If you want a Never-Trump conservative party, you're going to have to look at your fellow Republicans to create it. Democrats are not going to abandon their policy goals for the ever-diminishing votes of center-right opinion columnists. I'm sure you'll continue to write more columns scolding the Democratic party for not accommodating you, but perhaps your efforts would better served by looking at the people who supposedly share your values.
Perhaps you can take a break from scolding the Resistance for their smugness and inflated sense of importance for a little self-reflection that addresses why you cannot see those same qualities in your Never-Trump movement.
I hope at some point the NYT will recognize that we all would benefit from more opinion columns that critically assess the writers' own view points. I think we can get enough of people criticizing the other side through other mediums. Or perhaps Mr. Stephens could write a column in which he describes the path the Democrats could take that would cause him to say they did it right. I'm far more interested in Mr. Stephen's positive prescription than his countless complaints about his opponents. There is nothing new to learn there.
5
Yes the Dems have control of the house and that will mean investigations that the right can't stop. But there isn't much more they can do because the GOP still holds the Senate and the White House, and no laws will get passed without their cooperation. I don't look to them to further much extra for the people but they can refuse to go along with any sort of reduction to SS, MCard/Maid, etc. They can block any more nonsense from the GOP, like that tax bill. but that has to be enough for the time being. It's a check on Trump and that's a good first step. A lot of people voted that way. Next opportunity is 2020. Not that far away.
Before the left despairs too much about the purported lack of results in the midterms, they should head over to 538 and see the write-up about how Tuesday's electoral map was a closer match to that of 2012 than 2016 (so, good news for Democrats). Then they should remind themselves that the so-called "shellacking" dealt by Republicans in 2010 came with a popular vote margin roughly equal to what the Democrats achieved. In sum, the Democrats performed as well as they needed on Tuesday, and voting patterns appear to be trending in the right direction for 2020. So, no, Democrats needn't change their message. Their message was embraced by the electorate on Tuesday; a difficult slate of contests just gave the appearance of a "meh."
1
Sure, we as Democrats have some things to work on, but this article really downplays the effect that gerrymandering has had on fair representation in our government. In NC, our voting map got ruled unconstitutional and we were still forced to go through our election with it anyway. The result? Democrats received 50% of the vote. Despite that, Democrats control only 3 of 13 House seats. This is not fair representation.
3
This may not be the beginning of the end of Trumpism, but it is the end of the beginning. Democrats need to play the long game as the Republicans have do since the Powell memo.
2
While I agree that the "Bleu Wave" was... meh. I don't think one can dismiss picking up House seats FROM Republicans in what has to be one of the most gerrymandered house district maps ever. It seems to me that winning in "red" districts, even if recently red, suggests that the message resonates if voters torun out. The conundrum is the Senate. I live in FL, and I am very disappointed Rick Scott, criminal CEO, won as did racist Ron DeSantis. What this tells me is that I live in a state where overt racism can be dismissed by white voters especially if the other candidate is black.
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Slight correction: there are parts of Florida where racism is not just dismissed, but rather, is rewarded.
1
I am one of a group of women (and two men) who meet weekly to write political postcards. The week before the election, we sent out 1000 postcards. 1000 from one tiny group of women in one tiny coffeehouse in one small neighborhood. Multiply that by the millions of women who are fed up with Trump and his racist, misogynistic, repellent, bloviating views. Not to mention all the teenagers, who are fed up with the lack of gun laws from this administration, and who will be voting for the first time in 2020. We will be working our tails off to get this monster out of office.
1
Don't blame the Dems. In fact, they won big against huge odds in biased gerrymandered districts and with a behemoth POTUS amping up his base with fears of bestial bottom feeding hordes storming our southern border. Talking to folks who have baked in the cake that the fact-phobic leader heading their party is a God-send - despite the bit in the good book about 'bearing false witness'- is a fools errand. Having a civil conversation with someone who isn't a voter so much as an acolyte, who has traded their reason for mob 'lock her up' thinking: not an option. What does work, however, is staying the course with hope however it appears: for how Kobach - complicit in the disenfranchisement of 30K native Americans in Kansas - lost; for the many women who will head to D.C. and the thousands of young new voters. Above all, know that history is on the side of right.
3
It's hard to execute a Blue Wave when gerrymandering is the order of the day for the GOP. Here in Ohio the GOP won 75% of the House seats with 52% of the vote. They did that by having packed the Dems into 4 districts and cherry-picking the voters in the other 12 districts to ensure they won. Ohio isn't the only state facing that handicap. And Bret somehow fails to mention that the Dems picked up 7 governorships too. Maybe it wasn't a tsunami, the wave was more than the gentle swell Bret is making it out to be.
3
That's right Bret, we Democrats also didn't convert the 56,000 people who voted for the neo-Nazi in Illinois' 3rd district. But, no, don't say those people are deplorable.
5
Absolutely perfect Mr Stephens. These election results totally dashed the Democrats fevered expectation of a year ago. Hard to see how they could have done worse.
Look at any picture of the electoral map and it is obvious that people living in 85% of all US land thing democrats are a bunch of flaming idiots. The Democratic Party is simply not a national party.
Allowing Pelosi to be made the picture of the party is like throwing meat to the dogs. Nancy, Hillary, Maxine, Bill and ugly folks like Soros is enough to get republicans in every state storming to vote. In much of the country democrats are so totally out of it that most stay home
In my 75 year lifetime only Carter did not get re elected. Today there appears exactly 0% chance that Trump will be a second. Zero point zero
1
Let's see ... 35+ House seats and the majority when all is said and done ... 7 new Governors ... 6 more states with unified Dem control ... a gain of 330+ new state legislative seats ... 12 state legislative chambers flipped ... 27 Dem Attorneys General ... GOP supermajorities lost in NC, WI and MI ... Harris County TX now entirely blue through and through ... double-digit losses for the TX GOP in the state legislature ... MediCaid expanded in three states, with more imminent ... Marijuana legalized in four more states ... 1.4 million new voters enfranchised in FL for 2020 ... minimum wage raised in AR & MO ... black candidates in FL & GA and a Dem in TX improbably coming within a whisker of winning ...
That is a pretty good night for Team Blue, in my book ...
2
Your colleague Nate Cohn wrote a piece explaining why most of you have to say here is wrong. You should read it.
1
An "effort at understanding" what, exactly? White supremacy?
2
Bret writes as if we are on the same side of the bridge and those others are on the other side of there bridge. I don't feel all that much closer to him or that much more separate from "them". There is a chumminess that the more conservative of the columnists adopt while they continually lecture us on how best to get to somewhere we don't want to go to.
2
"It doesn’t take a lot to get the average voter to tell you what he doesn’t like about Donald Trump: the nastiness, the divisiveness, the lying, the tweeting, the chaos, the epic boastfulness matched by bottomless self-pity."
I am with you so fa - and this is very transparent for all to see, but what are we supposed to think of people who would vote for someone like that?
1
I'm usually open to argument on any topic. I'm interested in testing my opinions and welcome well founded opposing views.
I have to confess I did not read past the subhead in this column. After "Stop manning imaginary ..." I sighed, "Oh man, this same old garbage."
No bridges need to be built to morons. Stop this nonsense Stephens. Have you no pride or self respect?
Democrats need to learn to ignore your foolishness and get on with their business.
2
Bret should ask republicans the same questions. It’s the height of hypocrisy we disdain, and you just displayed it again. Ask yourself who disdains who the most. Trumpkins I know have utter and complete hatred of anything with a wiff of being libruhl.
Please Bret spare us the sanctimony.
3
Mr. Stephens, what do Trump supporters want? It seems that so many commentators dance around issues that are frightening to the American dream of equality and a successful and meaningful life with effort and determination.
Instead, my take is that Trump supporters fear change (consistent with religious and conservative manners of thought), easily blame others- usually those of different races and cultural backgrounds- for their failures, and possess a narrow and self-centered vision of society. How does a liberal find common ground with such people? What am I missing?
@Banner1
They want to be left alone. They want others to stay out of their pocket. It really is that simple.
Bret, why do the Democrats always have to build bridges? Your Republicans, sorry Trumpicans never, ever seem to do so. Perhaps you should ask them to build a bridge rather than a stupid wall.
3
Why don't conservatives ever have to build bridges to people who don't vote for presidential candidates who are endorsed by the KKK and nazis?
590
@Jacob Crabtree I was about to make the same comment.
15
@Jacob Crabtree: This answer to your question is meant in all respect and sincerity: Because they won.
I am taking Mr. Stephens's advice as practical and strategic rather than moral. We lost in 2016, and we need to be shrewd in picking off enough perhaps wavering Trump voters next time—not the screamers in the MAGA hats; they are a lost cause—to ensure we don't get a repeat. They are out there, not in great numbers, but we do not need that many. And I suspect the waverers will be more ready in two years, when the folly of tariffs and billionaire's tax cuts, etc. all become impossible—or at least far more difficult—to deny.
13
@Jacob Crabtree (and Alex): Whining, sneering, and name-calling (here in the disingenuous guise of a rhetorical question) are pure gifts to Trump, helping him polarize the country and demonize the left, which has worked to his benefit. At the same time, attacks on Trump and his 'deplorables' divert Democrats from the work of formulating and publicizing practical alternatives to Trump's policies.
The short answer to your question is that Trump, and the loathsome Republican leadership that enables him, have found an abhorrent strategy that so far has won. Democrats are out of power in the White House, the Senate, and the federal judiciary, and the House of Representatives could easily flip back in 2020. So it is incumbent on Democrats to 'build bridges,' and all the more so because Trump's persona, pronouncements, and policies provide so much opportunity to do it.
I'll pose a question back: Would Democrats prefer a base-building strategy that wins, or a high-moral-ground strategy that falls short? This Independent sincerely hopes for the former.
2
Maybe, its time for the GOP to back down from their fat old white guy "oh woe is me" stance ?
fat old white guy
2
This election was not a testament to Trump's success nor a harbinger of Democratic failure in 2020. The House vote was a true nationwide ballot, with astonishingly high (and therefore representative) turnout. It is a good preview of 2020-- far better than any telephone poll about voting intentions. It was-- as Trump said and most voters agreed-- an election about Trump himself more than anything else. And the Democrats won the popular vote by over 7 % nationwide. That difference, with the high turnout, should chill Trump and his circle.
Here is an exercise for the hotshots at the Upshot: superimpose the state-by-state popular vote in the midterms on the electoral college map for the 2020 presidential election. I bet the Democrats win in a landslide. Sure, the exercise is imperfect but it will bring Mr. Stephens' "meh" assessment of Tuesday's results into focus.
4
If the election represents the will of minority, ignoring the will of majority, it is the sign of dysfunctional democracy. And in this case, it is more appropriate to discuss changing the system, rather than to lecture the Dems how they should cater to minority ignoring the majority. Remember, the true democracy is not a dictate of minority, but the government of majority with protection for minorities.
2
The “other America” is Fascist America. The one depicted in Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America. Only that parallel universe 70 years later.
Resistance is the way to go. In 1933 the SPD and liberals in Germany did not resist. They offered bridges to the “other” Germany. Adolf Hitler did not forgive. The rest is history.
The Times does not like this type of comments. Even though they express a legitimate opinion, they either don’t publish them at all or let them through hours after they have been sent. Let’s see what happens this time.
1
It's really hard to imagine building bridges based on anything logical with the extreme policy as well as stylistic differences now evident in our toxically polarized political atmosphere. Logic is clearly the wrong tool. Here's a hopeful and true recent story that may illustrate another way forward:
A married gay couple, male & Jewish, recently attended the wedding of their adopted son in a large southern city. Their new in-laws, Evangelicals living in a multi-generation enclave, hosted the multi-day event at their home. What sort of mayhem do you think ensued? None! They danced, ate and celebrated together. Some prayed, some laughed. The result was not merely detente, but surprised and joyous celebration.
How did this happen? They found common ground in that occupants on both sides of the aisle had positive military experiences and status, as did the bride and groom. And all wanted a happy union to commence. Religion and politics were set aside to meet on higher ground. I don't think anyone had to moderate a view or debate facts to keep the peace. Some tongues may have wagged privately, or been bitten, surely. Lots of things probably had to be ignored.
Until we can demonstrate the self-control to ignore red flags, we remain helpless bulls at the mercy of the masterful toreador. Like these families, we must be both brave and calm, which is not to say unafraid. But it still takes two to tango. To get good, one must practice. We have lots of space for that.
1
Bret Stephens speaking of "intellectual honesty" as he plays every false equivalency and cherry picks his facts is exhibit A in how fat the mainstream media is descending into nothing but propaganda organs.
There are about 4 articles on this page today claiming all this election did was sharpen partisan divides. How is it that when Democrats win in Utah or Kansas or Arizona or South Carolina, flipping seats, it is sharpening and not dulling the partisan divide?
When the GOP had their blow out in 2010 the media called it a mandate; a clear signal by the voter, a desire for change, etc.
When the Democrats pick up a yet to be determine number of seats due to inconclusive races, which Stephens incorrectly under states as "28," it is called "sharpening the partisan divide."
Conservatives are masters at manipulating language (Rove, Luntz, Conway).
When the leading media organizations in the country do it, it is propaganda, pure and simple.
4
I say "meh" to your "meh," Bret. The outcome was about as good as it could have been for the Democrats - they will take over 30 seats in the House, and flipped a number of governorships and state legislatures to help with the problem of Republicans gerrymandering away voting rights. Yes, it would have been nice to have the Senate as well, but only 1/3 of the seats are up every two years, and as it happened the ones up this year were not favorable to the Dems.
On the point re building bridges, I think there is something to it in some sense. Specifically, a better approach to rural voters would be helpful. But, let's be realistic. The right has shifted right and the left has shifted left. At this point, Trump Country just hates Democrats and liberals because it is a core part of their identity to hate Democrats and liberals. They watch, listen to, and tweet/post about hating liberals all day every day. It is far beyond some rational choice based on policy preferences. There's no bridge to build to these people. They just need to be beaten, and the way to beat them is by turnout, especially among voters under 40.
3
New York City political observers can't even get Upstate New York right; how do you expect the Democrats to get "the other America" right? Upstate New York is purple, not red... and most Upstate voters -- Democrat and Republican alike -- voted for "anyone but Cuomo." I myself, a lifelong Democrat, found Marc Molinaro a more acceptable candidate! Other of my friends and family voted Green or Libertarian. The biggest problem we have with the national Democrats? We Upstate New Yorkers don't feel like we're part of your family. Glossed over, ignored, dismissed as "flyover country," New York Times reporters would rather fly out to Wisconsin or Ohio to find out "how the other half lives" than cover their own state. We're Greens, Democrats, Republicans and independents, and the day will come when you won't be able to take us for granted any more. Just keep ignoring us and you will get a big shock.
Your problems are many and attacking Trump doesn’t solve any of them. Speaking from the vantage point of a lower middle class citizen I’d say I don’t much care for being told I’m morally deficient for not sharing a liberal set of political views. It’s noble to have compassion for the less fortunate, but wise to understand you need to take care of your own people before you can care for everyone else’s. It also isn’t positive that’s the people screaming the loudest about equality and open borders are overwhelmingly financially secure, well educated white people who are coming across as self appointed morality police who seem to be missing the cold,hard realities of what will happen to this country if we simply open our arms and accept everyone and everything without considering and preparing for the safety and cultural preservation of existing US citizens.
Bret - You are asking Time's readers to empathize and connect with voters who enthusiastically support a president who reeks of George Wallace and Joseph McCarthy. I know rural America is in pain, and I know old white people want to bring back 1950's America. I also know that facts and reason are irrelevant to Trump supporters (just watch Fox News). As you imply, Democrats need to be clever. We also need to be moral. Decent Americans can only compromise so much.
8
Democrats whinge, democrats whine, democrats bellyache... The Resistance is pompous, it aligns with antifa thugs and the -- news to me -- Farrakhan wing of the women's movement! The left is “always right” and disdainful. It is the left that “entrenched” Trumpism, not the Republicans. The Resistance party has to be shrewder AND more humble...
Wow, way to blame the party that is trying to move the country back toward democratic ideals. The Republicans have a free pass to go full bore corrupt authoritarian, because what exactly?
It’s not the Democrats fault that not everyone agrees that a multi-ethnic society that protects the rights of individuals and promotes freedom, equality and justice for all is what America is about. It is all of America’s fault that we have allowed economic inequality and insecurity to flourish. It’s been decades spanning both control by both parties we have been pussy-footing about our immigration policies and haven’t come up with legislation. And heaven forbid I whine about structural problems in our Republic.
This article is all about painting Democrats as extreme, out of touch, elites. Yes, Democrats did not take all of America with them in this election. But they sure got a lot more of the popular vote than Republicans. The country is deeply divided. It's ridiculous to task the Democrats with finding the perfect balanced message of healing and compromise. Obama tried to be that messenger - he was still reviled.
4
Good advice Bret. Unfortunately, as many of the comments indicate, the "kill the messenger" philosophy is alive and well on the Progressive side. As an Independent who despises Trump and generally sides with the Democrats on the issues, I hope that they also take control of the Senate and the White House in 2020. I think that they are poised to do that if they play their cards right over the next two years. However, based on past experience, like you I'm afraid that they'll screw it up.
I am so sick of these opinion pieces on how the Democrats are screwing everything up and need to change to save the country. The situation we are in is because of Republicans - the president and what their party has become is their mess - they need to clean it up. The midterms are a warning to the country not one political party.
3
I guess I have to disagree about the rigged system. There's a lot of power in gerrymandering and voter suppression. Enough to make a difference? I have to leave that to those who study the data afterward. But it sure seems to me that the Republican control of governorships and statehouses, where those things are controlled from, must have at least a bit to do with the outcomes.
2
"We might consider listening to them a bit more — and to ourselves somewhat less."
I have made a real attempt, on several occasions, to better understand conservative neighbors who remain supportive of Trump - no matter what rotten thing he says or does.
What I learned is that many of them watch Fox News as their main source of news information.
How do you suggest we "build bridges" Mr. Stephens, when many Americans live in an alternative reality, listening, watching and believing propaganda?
2
There's nothing quite as egregious as self-professed "Never Trump" members of the political right telling the left to "stop manning imaginary barricades" when basically everyone on the left is running on healthcare for all and money for education.
It's not the left that is imagining anything - the GOP ads about "liberal person X wants open borders", on the other hand...
2
The only reliable material with sufficient strength and utility to tie Blue America to Red America, thus bridging the gap that has divided our United States of America, is greenbacks. This is why the Democratic Party must embrace a comprehensive economic justice agenda that is bent on increasing the wealth and income of working Americans in the middle and lower classes who have been forgotten by the Republican proponents of supply-side economics at this, the zenith of this gilded U.S. economy the Republicans have created.
2
Bret, thanks for stating the obvious. Despite your facile diagnosis, you offer no prescriptive solution to the problem, and for good reason. There isn’t one. The further you travel into rural America, the less affluent and more conservative it is. That’s not my opinion; the election results maps show it in spades. In Iowa, where Finkenauer and Axne both flipped seats, both won by securing enough votes in a couple of urban counties to offset losses throughout the rest of the more rural districts. How in the world can the Democratic Party reach people who are deeply conservative on social issues, staunchly anti-abortion, pro-gun rights, and either buy into Trump’s lies and distortions or are willing to ignore them? In Il-12, Brendan Kelly could not have been a more ideal candidate to reach the people you are talking about. Even though he crafted an authentic, targeted message to appeal to Americans who are hurting the most, he lost despite the sizable sum he raised to get his message out. The urban-rural divide is the new fault line in American politics. Finding a way to bridge it will be a daunting task.
1
Bingo. The various factions of the Democratic Party had their fun and games this midterm season. I hope now they'll grow up and focus on defining common goal(s) - not each and every faction's favorite goal, but what are the top 2 or 3 goals shared across the Party - and work towards these focused goals in 2020. Otherwise, we're very much in line for the terribly dispiriting picture of a sneering, smug Drumpf and pumping his fists next to a smug McConnell in victory in Nov. 2020.
One side does not understand the other side and vice versus.
Until democrats find a way to talk to and with, rather than down at rural voters, we will be in this mess.
I completely understand the disgust that any civil person feels watching & listening to Trump and his supporters at rallies, but I have to admit that Mr. Stephens is right: judgments don't change their positions and if their voting doesn't change, we don't get the chance to return our country to more democratic footing.
What's unfair in the action plan, is that it will have to come from the liberal side - if there is to be any rapprochement - it will have to come from us.
Yeah, the bridge to nowhere. I find that Trump supporters almost always echo Fox News. I've watched Fox News (network news not local) and was appalled at what I was hearing. I truly believe the Fox News anchors should be in jail for Treason. The nastiest, meanest, and most vile untruths come out of their mouths. Then Trump call the mainstream media the enemy of the people. How can you build a bridge to that? Why don't you suggest some more truth in journalism? Thats what the problem is here.
2
Trump decided to make a naked and unvarnished appeal based on racism. It worked, and he turned out his base. Do you want us to "build a bridge" to racist America?
The Dems overcame a great deal of structural disadvantage to take the House, and won the popular vote by millions and still counting. You can't say they didn't convert there. They converted suburban, female, former Republican voters.
Beto? It's Texas. All the Republican strategists and plenty of the Democratic ones were saying behind the scenes that he couldn't win. This was exacerbated by the "caravan" and the last-minute Willie Horton ad. But he did turn out TX progressives who voted in other Dems downballot.
No, things aren't perfect, and I do believe that in nationwide races Dems must run a candidate who can win (or at least won't turn off) disaffected Republicans. But they can't win the racists. And shouldn't even want to.
368
@Kay Good points. But why do Dems have to win disaffected Republicans? They are in a minority. Moreover, the Republicans seem to have adopted Trump en masse, and trying to appeal to them just turns off Dem voters.
10
@Kay I canvassed for 2 solid months and talked with many trumpsters. After the pleasantries we can work together the immigrant bashing began. Veiled at first if I just listened than it gets worse...they bring diseases( not anti vaccine ppl causing up tick in whooping cough, but immigrants).
They will have to go thru deprogram ming. Our realities are different. They kinda know it's lies but that makes them buckle down. Don't take thier alternate reality away.
19
@Kay so this is like half the country. At bare minimum like 40%. 40% is racist America that Democrats shouldn't talk to? In most races it's closer than that. How many races were 51-49? You have to live with these people. Your narrow world view is THE problem, not A problem.
6
Maybe that bridge would be like those infamous Bridges to Nowhere? Some of those people who we would like to reach have a desire to restore past Americas -- like many colonial Williamsburgs. I don't think that is possible.
1
When an arena full of people, egged on by this president, ridicule his perceived enemies and chant "lock her up," what other word is there to describe them besides "deplorable"? I imagine some day most of the people in those rooms will look back on their actions and question why they were so gullible but fear that that moment may come too late.
4
Thank you so very much for your objective, honest take on this whole matter. You nailed it on the head.
Their acolytes keep saying this was a blue wave that will change the world.
The House was won by Blue, but Blue is fractured inside, between extreme left, left, a few centrists, the socialists, and not one of them wants to work with the other aisle.
Good luck getting the Blues to agree on anything at all before they even take the fight to Red who will block their every move.
They also lost the Senate, the governors, the SCOTUS, and every single Liberal presidential hopeful.
Honestly all that will happen will be a log jam in Congress. Anything they manage to pass will be shot won on arrival. Some win.
Winning the race by a buzzer shot should be a wake up call, not cause for a parade.
You’re right, the Democratic Party seems to have one objective – demonize Trump to get votes. This is not how to win 2020 at all. They practically set up the welcome mat for him already. Better try to aim for 2024 and hope Nikki does not run, or else the first female president, will be a Republican.
Many Democrats snootily condescend to conservative Republicans, and many conservative Republicans despise Democrats as if they were Bin Laden after 9-11. We've allowed this to go on for too long, and it's too deeply entrenched for "conversations" to heal it. If this ever does get better, it will require gradual adjustments that last for generations. The question is, will we last that long as a country? By the way, Brett is right, Democrats are wildly overrating the mid-term results. Which unfortunately is typical and indicates why Trump will be re-elected.
The billionaire class in this country, and the government that for the most part does its bidding--better hope that the resistance and the Trump voters never bridge the divide between them. That bridge would mean their discovery that we--the majority of us in America--mean nothing to either our government or the elite who buy them off. As long as all of us bicker, hate--and yes shoot each other--they can continue to hide. The billionaire class bleeds us through the financial industry, through the medical industry, through the military. It poisons our water, our air, our soil, our food, and it owns the media so we are rarely even told how it is destroying us. Yes, I know there is a for now happy class of professionals who think they matter to those at the top, and most journalists are among them. But just wait: when you are no longer needed, you too will be tossed under the bus. But, of course, when you go, there will be no pity for you, just as there is no pity for anyone who loses everything in America.
1
Why so rude to your fine colleague Paul Krugman? You don't see that autocracy is what the president is after, even if he doesn't know the word itself? And you dismiss voter suppression and gerrymandering (also unnamed) as if they are insignificant? Although both sides have used gerrymandering, it now favors the rightwing dramatically. No one who wants the entire country to vote and be heard tries to suppress votes, as the Republicans do. Still, many races proved the desire for diverse voices, in which the Republicans have little interest. And O'Rourke's campaign revealed that Texas is not as red-entrenched as has been assumed. On the issues, most Americans want what people under the label of "liberal" want. We have ideology and ignorance problems, exacerbated by powerful media. I don't see any actual solutions in your columns, just a lot of blaming.
2
Beautifully written.
I fear though we are about to see Inspector Schiff begin his nightly Russian series on CNN for the next two years, in which he plays the infant child's game of "I can see something you can't see!" -- and the collective "journalist" community hangs on his every doting lie.
1
In the meanwhile, back in the real world, the GOP is now no longer merely DEFINED by its lies, it has also been DEFEATED because of its lies.
Yes, in many red states voters are still living in the fake news bubble that the GOP and its pundits created in order to cut their voters off from what they do and what Democrats do in DC, and make them vote for them anyhow.
But as anybody knows, in the end the truth always prevails. You can't fool all the people all the time - even not uneducated rural voters.
THAT is why in a red state with a former presidential candidate as incumbent and the full support of the party that controls DC and its president who has a 80% approval rating among his base ... a PROGRESSIVE, not a "moderate" already came within striking distance.
At the same time, three red states just cut through all the "Armageddon" rhetoric and forced their governments to adopt Obamacare's Medicaid expansion - putting American lives before party.
This is only the beginning. Two years of Trump allowed many non-voters to start seeing the GOP's real face, and to start seeing the power of their own vote. It allowed Pelosi to accomplish the impossible, after the 2008 gerrymandering: taking back the House. Two more years of this GOP globalist (because THAT is what they do in DC) circus, and voter turnout among non-GOP voters will even be bigger.
THAT is the warning that the GOP should hear, IF they are still interested, once in a while, in real facts.
But, what do we do to get in touch with the racists, sexists, and xenophobes? The electoral college and the Senate is skewed toward rural GOP voters. It seems that we should work on making a fairer electoral system given that Trump lost the general election by 3 million votes.
1
There are no bridges to build. The mid-terms pulled away all the curtains and politics in America are not about policies but identity. The GOP is overwhelmingly white and really has no wish to share power with Semites, Asians, Brown or Blacks.
Liberal America is about a common commitment to a welcoming diverse community in which everyone who believes the country is made up of one people from one world and the GOP believes as George Orwell said "All are created equal but some are more equal than other."
Today's Guardian has the story of acting Attorney General Whittaker when he espouses the GOP doctrine of all judges being his definition of Christian. There are no bridges to build between the America of inclusion and the America of exclusion. The nomination of Kavanaugh was the outrage not the accusation.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/08/matthew-whitaker-acting-attorney-general-judges-christian
1
You make many valid points. However your point that "it didn’t convert when it grew more concerned with the question of how much Trump did not pay in taxes than with the question of how much you pay in taxes" is way off. If and when his supporters find out how little he pays in taxes, which is the only reason he refuses to release his returns, they will care. And they will feel ashamed that they supported this con artist.
Democrats did not fail. They used healthcare as an issue on which to build support and made some gains using that issue, one that a majority of Americans relate to. This "oh those Democrats better watch out" language and holier than thou prognostication is getting tired already. You want Trump out, but you want conservatives in. Ok, we get that. How about at least some writing about what is best for the country other than just getting rid of Trump? I like your last paragraph, but that is advice that is almost universal for any candidate or party anytime. If you want conservatives in charge, but without Trump, what do you see as a positive future for America under a more traditional conservative regime? Debt? Small Gov? States' rights? Fiscal conservatism? Jobs? Environment? Globalism? This endless advice to Democrats is already getting stale.
3
"The 28-seat swing that gave Democrats control of the House wasn’t even half the 63 seats Republicans won in 2010."
Absolutely false contrast, and I can't believe you don't know it.
Many of those 63 2010 House seats were gained because, and only because, Obama is black. The 28 seats gained by Democrats two days go were won against a man who's white as, well, as white as a dead man walking.
You got too caught up in your use of anaphora ("It didn't convert...," half a dozen times) to note that the Democrats now have 23 governorships, and won majorities in more than a few state legislatures (including the New York State Senate).
You're over excited, Mr. Stephens. Do calm down.
4
Bret
Please read your own paper. More companies are moving into the same metropolitan areas swelling their population with young and educated voters. These are the voters who have their votes devalued by the same system you suggest we have to play by forever. So the increasing majority of people will be ruled by the rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs of the Midwest and North. Their voters will have 100 times the influence of the voters in the urban concentrations. The urbanites who are paying the majority of taxes and who are disenfranchised. England got rid of their rotten boroughs years ago. We have to do it here or permanently entrench a ruling minority. The majority will have only one weapon which is gridlock and decentralization. The USA you know will soon vacate the world stage if this occurs. Think about it please.
To sum up: due to gerrymandering, suppression and so on, the Democrats have to figure out how to win races that they begin 20 yards behind the starting line.
How about moving them up to the line in the first place?
"It didn’t convert when it grew more concerned with the question of how much Trump did not pay in taxes than with the question of how much you pay in taxes."
Mr. Stephens, I find much in your critique of the Democratic Party one with which I, a Democrat, can agree. We've been arrogant, disdainful of Trump's base, and generally unwilling to search for common ground, however narrow and precarious it may be. I get all that, and I agree.
That said, I'm troubled by implications by you and other columnists that it is somehow wrong for Democrats to hold this Administration to account for the the swamp that Trump has not only not drained, but indeed has restocked with his own creatures. Why is it somehow wrong to expect that Mr. Trump should pay his fair share, and that if he has not, to expose him for it? Why is it wrong to shine a light on his acolytes, who have been inspired by his example, turning The Swamp into an open sewer?
I would like to see something positive and collaborative come from the next two years of divided Congressional leadership. I would also like to see a Democratic Party that has a coherent, values-based, visionary, inclusive, and across-the-aisle oriented program.
But what I'd like most of all is respect for the rule of law, transparency, accountability, ethical conduct, and an end to the lying and self-dealing that have been the hallmark of the Trump era. The only way to get there is through genuine oversight.
Here's a question for you, Bret. Do the President's followers have any obligation to reject an Administration message of hatred, divisiveness, and complete rejection of reality? Does the President have any obligation to stop lying to the American people? Finally, does the Republican Party have an obligation to alter it's radically anti-American agenda? We're ready to have an honest dialogue with anyone who's willing to do the same.
1
Again another column telling Democrats about the bubble, bridges etc etc.
Please advise me on how to find common ground with people who are OK with Trump's bullying, his falsehoods, his race-baiting, his cruelty. I need a specific how-to manual.
In the meantime, Democrats have flipped the House despite hugely gerrymandered districts. We shall persevere.
4
Read the opposite column yesterday in these pages by David Leonhardt "A Smashing National Win". We've been getting the same information since 2016 ,in special elections, VA/NJ in 2017 and the midterms. Democrats have successfully carved off a significant chunk of the Republican coalition (suburbs/college educated white women) and have moved their national vote total from +2/+3 to +8/+9. You need numbers that big to overcome gerrymandering (Dems would have +70 seats instead of +35/+40). But if Trump can't move those numbers back from +8 to +3 Dems, he can't win. Trump will not win a single Clinton state (NV- Jacky Rosen!) and PA and MI (Gretchen Whitmer!) have slipped away. Just looking at Tuesday's results, it's a narrow path where he has to run the board in FL, AZ, WI with GA as an outlier. But his baseline of 200 EVs in the crescent from AL to MT is unshakeable.
1
I'd like to believe every word Mr. Stephens utters. I'd like to believe that just out-reaching the Trump voter helps make the comity that makes our country work. greatly or otherwise. There is something to be said for a country vastly less paranoid, vastly more dull, utterly more focussed on quotidian issues than ours is today. But Mr. Trump has made the American people stop in our tracks--and focus on him. He will not let us be less divided, more reasonable, more flexible, pliable and transactional. This man is determined to make us see the whole truth, and here are two whole truths I see. The first is--as Norman Orenstein said this morning at AEI--the structural problems that make him possible, especially the absurdly dysfunctional maldistributions of the Electoral College and the U.S. Senate. The other is the man and what certainly seem to be his shamelessly criminal manipulations of the Executive Branch--and his recklessly foolish smashing of the traditional foreign policy orientations of the American people. There may be some hunker-down, bob-and-weave, rope-a-dope strategy that will propel the Democrats to power in 2020 even as they avoid direct, provocative confrontations with the man. I'd like to believe that, but at the moment I find that very hard going. God have mercy on our country. Somebody has to.
@David A. Lee
I agree with your observation about the perfect storm of structural problems and shameless criminal manipulations enabling the present national horror show. Just a reminder, however, before pronouncing GOP comeuppance 2020 DOA - Never underestimate the fury of women scorned. (MeToo?) Mama bears have been very rudely poked in the past several years. And they headed toward the streets and then the stump in historic proportion. Some will soon take office. And unfurl their well-manicured claws, perhaps?
A large number of women, many of whom were formerly relatively apathetic, not only boarded buses and donned pink hats, they ran and won in national, state and local elections. This could result in changes we are presently unable to predict. Or even hope for. But they could happen.
Let's wait and see what deep channels unleashed fury takes. It just may surprise and delight us. Groowwwl, mamas!
@Quite Contrary Well, since I'm not a Mama Bear, all I can say is that by any test of rational policy there ought to be a lot of very unhappy Alpha Males, at least in this part of the country where the Trump tariff catastrophe is driving farm income drastically down. The structural problems bother me greatly because they are at some point going to produce enormous political conflict and economic dislocations, especially as the large states get tired of shipping money to rural states whose political masters profess to hate the very government that doles out the goodies. That hatred, however, moderated this year when Republican malice towards Obamacare only advertised its benefits to the U.S. population. Ironies abound. But thanks for your reply.
Bret, I don't think there is a middle ground. Dems have tried to extend their hand for years only to be burnt by the GOP. While not as overt as 2016 and 2018, the GOP have run on fear, race baiting, and 'Real America vs. Democrats' for years. I have lots of family who have been on that train for years, they have no interest in getting off. And I have no interest in talking to them about it.
It's a pure base race now. Dems shouldn't waste time on talking to Trump voters.
2
Michael Tomasky recognized the same problem (also in The Times) but added pertinent information that Stephens ignored: "...Democratic Senate candidates garnered 45 million votes, and Republicans just 33 million (57 percent to 42 percent). Yet, the Republicans will gain perhaps three seats. That is not democracy."
1
The Resistence didn't convert into votes??
Ask the 277 women who ran for federal & state offices if The Resistence had anything to do with why they entered public life.
Ask the untold thousands of women who are now in city councils and on planning commissions who were never in public service before if The Resistence had anything to do with why they entered public life for the first time.
Then ask the newly-elected Muslims and Native American women if The Resistence had anything to do with their decisions to run?
Honestly, Bret, how privileged, white, male can you be?
2
"Meh"? Tell that to the more than 100 million Americans who cast vote - an extraordinary amount compared to the last mid-term.
Trump supporters stick with him because they think he's doing a good job. That includes juicing an economy with unneeded tax cuts and massive debt to go with it. The economy will inevitably slow down, along with the tax receipts and the deficit will explode, and hence, the economy.
Maybe what Trump supporters (and the nation as a whole) need is for this to happen, and see how he deals with it. It's a painful lesson, but, when you think the law of gravity doesn't apply to you and you jump off a 50 story building, everything is fine, even as you pass the second floor. It's when you reach the ground that the law and it's consequences take effect.
No matter what happened with Democrats' gains, I have a strong feeling Mr. Stephens would bat the successes away like an annoying fly going too close to his soup.
He needs to read the other columnists and look at the impressive stats, particularly in statehouses. He also needs a reality check on the Republicans' penchant for cheating and gaming the system, especially the influence of Trump's 24/7 propaganda peddler, Fox. Brian Kemp, anyone?
Then there was the untoward remark about Dr. Blasey Ford and the sham investigation. Hopefully, Democrats will order a full investigation and get down to the facts.
Mr. Stephens also says Democrats need to be more humble. I guess he thinks Dems should make less noise about the destruction of democracy.
In a word Mr. Stephens: meh.
,
2
Only in Bret Stephens reality is winning the house of representatives, picking up governors and state houses, and holding senate losses to a minimum are a warning to democrats. I know it hurts Bret to acknowledge when he is wrong, just like the president he worships. Sad indeed.
Mr. Stephens must think that he, other pundits and liberals in general have an awful lot of influence over how "the other America" votes. All we white liberals have to do is talk nice to rural conservatives, hold their hands, and whisper to them how we share their irrational fears of African-Americans, Jews and immigrants? That will restore the health of American democracy? I don't think so.
1
It's laughable that your diagnosis is that Democrats/Liberals don't try harder to understand Trumpers. Or that we're mean to them. So what, we should coddle them, baby them, enable them? Are they victims, really? Plenty of Democrats don't have money, status, property, and we don't blame it on others. Life just happens.
Shouldn't we hold them to the same standards we hold each other to? There's all kinds of willfulness nowadays, and your suggestion that we just accept misinformation, lies, and refusal to see they may also be to blame from people that hate us and treat us and others badly (prejudice, sexism, homophobia, racism) is a willfulness in itself.
I had a boss when I was very young and immature that used to get on me if I complained by saying "Deal with it, Debbie."
It worked, it really did. Let them deal with it, and stop moaning and groaning, and try to understand us for a change. Democrats care plenty about other people, but you're perpetuating this myth that we snub rural/suburbanites and the less affluent/educated. I protest that. I and many Dems try to communicate with Republicans in conversation and no matter how empathetic you are they don't want to reciprocate. That's been my experience. Not PC of me maybe but that's been my experience, and I'm sick of trying.
"a shrewder, humbler opposition party" is what Obama brought to the table and look where it got us. The left is not even that far left except perhaps in the world of Bret L. Stephens. Beto almost won in Texas. The times are 'a changin' and it's time to get on board the happy train to an honest political climate that takes care of its constituents and not the corporate elite. There is nothing radical about universal one-payer health care or taxing the super rich or controlling the proliferation of guns.
3
Figures from your newspaper:
Votes cast for candidates in elections for the Senate:
Democrats: 46, 198, 801
Republicans: 33, 633, 888
Votes cast for candidates in elections for the House:
Democrats: 51,674,560
Republicans: 47, 443, 737
It isn't clear to me that 'the American people' are saying that bridge-building is the need of the hour.
3
Neither Bret Stephens nor David Brooks have much to say beyond castigating liberals for being out of touch. We are indeed out of touch with conspiracy theorists, woman haters, Confederate flag wavers, science deniers and gun lovers. The Trump voter state of mind was summed up perfectly during days of rage over Obamacare. I paraphrase - "Keep your grimy government hands off my social security". That pretty much says it all.
3
” Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
- Winston Churchill
1
For me, the subtitle of this article hit home. Stop manning imaginary barricades, and start building bridges to the other America. At the present time, neither side is listening to the other - only just long enough to disparage and disagree with it, and to pat ourselves on the back for being so smart and better than the opposition. Take a look at Glen Goldstein and the thread that follows his comment. Some good ideas for starting now, today, to build bridges and get other ideas out to the base of all parties.
Bret continues the tradition of my entire adult life, wherein Republican pundits and politicians address the Democrats with the logic of spousal abuse: if only you changed your behavior, our life wouldn't have to be like this.
3
@Dominic It's called gaslighting.
1
Building bridges is a two way street, Mr. Stephens. You're not building bridges by deriding "media apocalypticians" - and by extension, their readers - who are worried about Trump's incessant undermining of democratic norms.
2
Mr. Stephens, are you taking this message of bridge building to your friends on the right also? Do you expect them to try to understand where the left is coming from? Do you similarly expect them not to condemn the other side's voters? They have agency, they have brains. Why don't you try to convince them to see Trump as you do? You act as if they are immutable forces of nature rather than human beings who can make a choice.
But, if you think the right is ready to build bridges, go read Fox News, including the comments section. Go listen to Limbaugh or Hannity. The Right is in a battle to defeat the left. They have no interest in compromise, from their average voters to Mitch McConnell vowing to agree to nothing Obama proposed, merely because it was coming from Obama. They are in a fight to win. Period.
Dems have been compromising since the Clinton administration (cap and trade and Obamacare for instance were once conservative ideas until the left said "okay" to them). It is Dems who have worked to make lives better rural people, offering government programs for retraining, unemployment insurance, medicaid, education funding and more. Yet conservatives rejected every program and compromise.
Personally, I am done trying to "understand" people on the right, and sacrificing my beliefs along the way. Bridge building can only work if both sides want it. When I see a bridge coming my way, I will begin building mine. Until then, I am at the barricade.
5
Why is it that GOP voters didn't care about the - entirely fact-based - warnings of most serious analysts?
Trump himself already explained this as a candidate during an interview, when he told us that his strategy is to constantly undermine the credibility of the media among his own supporters, so that when the media have real criticism, his base won't even hear it or take it seriously.
THAT is the only REAL meaning of the "meh" that the - constantly shrinking - GOP voter base just opposed to journalists who are still taking their job seriously.
Because frankly, in one day Trump fires both his AG for respecting the Constitution and one of America's most outstanding journalists based on fake news invented by the extremist and racist Infowars website ... and instead of denouncing Trump's latest move "off the road to autocracy", Bret believes that we should listen to those voters who "disagree" with that idea..?
You can listen to voters who have real concerns, and adapt real policies that really hurt them in such a way that they too start to benefit. THAT is what listening to the other side in a democracy normally means.
But you cannot possibly move towards voters who are totally deluded and have been made so scared of inexistant threats and totally false accusations of what Democrats have done and stand for that they don't even care about facts and fact-checking anymore.
So I'm sorry Bret, but getting those voters back to reality is YOUR and the GOP's job. YOU built this!
1
Ah, yes....but even though the Constitution is a (deservedly) revered document and foundation of our democracy, most everything needs an occasional updating......It seems reasonable that if you get the most votes, you should win...
2
Trump will be most likely be relected in 2020...Trump has a vision, with troubling racist and facist overtones, that unfortunately resonates with half of America. The Democrats have provided nothing to counter except " we love heathcare". The Democrats need to go very big on a vision. I would suggest focusing on the fundamentals that made this country unique...freedom of the press, freedom of religion, supporting and defending the US Constitution. Time for Democrats to get real, understand the true threat to our very democracy, and fight for the "patriotic" soul of America...failure is not an option.
Oh, please. Antifa barely exists. Yes, there are few violent protesters on the left - most adventurers who want to tussle with their opposite numbers on the right. The bare existence of antifa (like the pathetic stream of migrants around 700 miles south of the border and the Latino street gang in Long Island) has been blown up by our TV star president to terrify voters into voting against their interests. This is just right wing propaganda. Send Mr. Stephens back to the Wall Street Journal or the Jerusalem Post (or the Weekly Standard or the National Review). He is - or should be - an embarrassment to the Times.
2
"We might consider listening to [the American people] a bit more — and to ourselves somewhat less."
Sage advice. And I can't think of a better place to start than by ignoring the bleating of climate science denier and child of petrochemical privilege Bret Stephens.
2
Fact is, hundreds of GOP seats just flipped and became Democratic, whereas almost no seat held by the Democrats became Republican.
That, dear Bret, is called a VICTORY for Democrats and a DEFEAT for the GOP.
When that happens, it's the party that loses that has to do some soul-searching and propose a list of items allowing them to move more to the middle, no?
Instead, you propose that the party that won should move closer to the other party - knowing that it is more racist, corrupt, sexist and lying than it has ever been, by the way.
That of course doesn't make any sense. Not strategically, and not morally.
And it's because of the fact that Democrats know this that they just won.
So please go on talking about antifa, like 99% of the other fake GOP news. Most Democrats haven't even HEARD about it, so will reply "meh" and continue to fight for what's right for the middle class and America as a whole.
In the meanwhile, it's YOUR job as GOP pundit to figure out a way to turn the GOP into a decent political party again, and to convince GOP voters to stop voting for corrupt and racist politicians. And something tells me that continuing GOP lies about antifa etc. might not be part of a working strategy ...
Nevertheless, good luck!
1
I am tired of this country being stuck in a temporal world where those in positions of influence cannot bring themselves to work towards the common good. We hear from the top down too many voices attempting to instruct us as to who needs hating. That hating and demonizing is now a method of running the government is a measure of how pathetic politics has become. Lead by example and boy does our boy. The Commander of Hate tells the people they must love him or he will crush them. In this country that is how a president now initiates dialogue.
3
The difference between Republicans and Democrats boils down to "Me" versus "We". You can almost never get a "Me" person to consider the "We".
1
"Above all, it didn’t convert the unconverted.'
Not quite, Bret. You mean the "unconvertible." Bret, have you ever interacted with a hardcore Trumpist? Have you tried facts on them? Truth? Logic? They do NOT want to hear it. They do not want to believe you. They will not. They are beyond reasoning.
2
There is no amount of corruption apparently that will convert the "Resistance". Just consider the outcomes for Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins.
Stephens is the type of Republican who would go to a Jeff Flake cocktail party, in a ride share with McCain and Ryan, in a LandRover that costs 100k, discussing their Google stock.
Brett, you have no clue about what Trumpism really is.
tip: "I retired Jeff Flake ", Donald Trump, 11/7/2018
2
Like many modern conservatives, Mr. Stephens would do well to insert some evidence into his statements, on this topic in particular. He claims that the Democratic "wave" wasn't as big as the GOP "wave" in 2010. That is factually correct, if only barely...
**2010 GOP Vote Margin = 7.2%
**2018 Dem Vote Margin = 7.0% (and counting).
The seat differential comes down to one thing and one thing only--gerrymandered advantage. If the terrain map were similar to 2010 in its distribution of district boundaries, the Dems would have picked up 50+ seats. That, by any account, is huge.
Sorry, Bret...your partisanship is showing; your bias is hurting your argument.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/house-popular-vote-gives-democrats-something-brag-about
2
Meh? Betto O'Rourke came close to winning in a state which did not elect a Democrat senator in years. Unlike the president he was appealing to all Texans and offering a better life to democrats and republicans. Mr. Stephens, I am sure you will regret your uttering Meh when Betto wins someday the presidency.
4
The midterms are a warning to all of us that our democracy is at risk by a lawless party that believes in democracy only when convenient. The president is a cancer, but so is the GOP and it's mindless supporters, who opt for pyrrhic victory instead of sustained democratic government.
Build bridges? You need a partner who deals in good faith for that. The GOP, it's members, and Trump, and you as well, offer no such good faith.
4
We need a new hen house with sunshine orange hens, Hens that make decisions for the good of the hen house and let the other hen house self-destruct because that is what they deserve especially since they let the fox run their hen house.
1
Meh? You're so wrong, Bret. The last count I heard for the House was 37, not 28. And, don't forget do not forget the 7 flipped governorships and the many, many state and local offices lost by the GOP.
2
I just want to thumbs up this post.
The comments here are filled with disdain for Trump voters. That is not the way to win people. Take a page from Beto. Feel free to disagree. But show respect, even though the President has none.
Many, many Trump voters hate the man. But they will not support or join Democrats who dis them.
Glad to see his blind Trump hate didn't blind him of his own party's blind Trump hate.
Mr. Stephens is speaking to the wrong audience. He should send this column over to Fox, Breitbart, Infowars, and all the other right-wing propaganda organs, and to their audiences, because that is where 99% of the hate and lunacy is coming from.
The midterms have shown that most of America is saying "enough!" and "no more!"
2
I'll read this in depth if Mr. Stephens also pens a column, "The Midterm Results Are a Warning to the Republicans"
1
The Dem total is now 30 seats, not 28. Sorry, Bret! Hope that doesn't pierce the tiny bubble you live in.
1
Very sadly I read this total nonsense article and - after having a good laugh - thought a comment was in order.
The facts show *unambiguously* that my political views are, very broadly, supported by a large and probably growing majority of My Fellow Americans - especially the young and the educated.
So, contrary to the total garbage spouted in this article, the inescapable and logical conclusion should be: what is the - ageing, ill informed and possibly highly bigoted, *minority* going to do to reach out to and accommodate my views and the views of the vast majority of Americans?
I guess I'm not going to be holding my breath on that one.
2
Its a two way street Brett.
When those that push harming the poor, sick 'n elderly and kow towing to the rich, being two faced in the name of their g-d, destroying our only home...when they want to be PC and civil once again...then I'll extend an olive branch.
History says they will take my branch and attempt to hit me with it.
Gee...one wonders why I don't believe liars and their sycophants.
Et tu Brett?!!!
3
I agree that Democrats have a problem. But democrats also have a problem. Get the distinction? The problem Democrats have is that a good portion of the electorate doesn't seem to value democracy all that much. Not when democracy entails respecting the rights of the historically marginalized to participate, or the rights of a free press, or separation of church and state, or the rule of law, or other apparently expendable founding principles of a free and open society. As a democrat how do you compete with an opposition that happily embraces the politics of fear and loathing even when these work against their own best interests. Or, is it patronizing for me to maintain that jobs, wages, health care, and a livable planet are in their best interests?
2
I know you're correct about not respecting at all the people who vote for Trump. I did try to talk to many of those I know but that's not thousands; it's just a large handful. My experience has been it is absolutely impossible to have a reasonable conversation with them about almost any subject even if it doesn't involve Trump. So now I say: "How do you like your steak?" or "Which do you prefer, mountains, desert, lakes, or oceans?"
When a person asked me if I voted I refused to answer. When someone else asked me who I voted for, again, I refused to answer. I have some experience with this strategy. My Grandfather was always trying to make my Grandmother vote for his 'man'. My Grandmother would listen to him and then cast her vote for the opponent. Grandpa lived a long while believing he had talked her into voting for whoever he endorsed. They were in their 60's when he discovered that she had never once voted for the person he told her to vote for.
I am going to vote for whom I choose. I don't want to know who anyone else on this earth votes for. I can certainly promise this though, if some organization I belong too, or some affiliation I belong to tells me to vote for a certain person I will not only NOT vote for that person, but I will stop supporting or subscribing.
Like my Grandmother said: "My vote is mine and I am not going to allow anyone to take it away from me."
1
Not all democrats fit your label of "resistance,: yet we find the actions of this administration corrupt, vile, and divisive. You need to make yourself more aware of the gerrymandering that has gone on since 2010 not to mention the GOP efforts to suppress voters in places such as North Dakota and Georgia. Democrats have to outperform Republications by 9% to win in many cases, fortunately they did. Hopefully the increase in democratic governors with help to role back some of the gerrymandering that has gone on. It is time we move away from the "republic" idea of representation where an oligarchy is not taking control and back more of a democracy where all have an equal voice.
2
Google these:
trump "building bridges" site:nytimes.com
trump "building bridges" site:foxnews.com
They show that any desire for building bridges comes largely from liberals. The phrase is hardly in the vernacular of Trump's supporters. Don't expect any signs of construction coming from the other direction.
Newt Gingrich began the blowing up of bridges. Pure obstruction was calculated to convince voters--openly and mostly correctly--that total GOP dominance would get things done for them, not by failed bipartisanship, whatever may have caused it.
1
"It doesn’t take a lot to get the average voter to tell you what he doesn’t like about Donald Trump"
What SHE doesn't like about Donald Trump would be more accurate. And after last Tuesday, thanks to more women voting, more women are going to Congress.
1
The newly elected Democrats in the house should direct their energies to trying to "make a deal" with Trump and the GOP that can improve everyones lives , the USA and our relationship with each other.
The country needs big improvemments in the areas of clean drinking water, decaying sewers, out dated airports, safe electric grids and so on. Both parties and the President should be able to find common ground on these issues.
We also need to address the outrageous cost of medical care, the cost of the uninsured and the gouging by Big PHARMA. Both parties and the President should be able to find common ground on these issues.
We should also address securing our borders and defining what our immigration policy actually is.
If the Democratis House focuses on these issues instead of engaging in the reality TV , control the news cycle, look at the shining new object, the voters will know who is actuallly trying to mke their lives better.
The new group of women legislators the Democrats elelcted are well suited to do just this.
If we dems don't do that , we will not win period.
The Senate, an illiberal component of the initial comprises the founding fathers made to keep the colonies united against Britain, is an undemocratic branch of government. Unfortunately, we are stuck with it.
In their attempt to win the Senate, Democrats are at a great disadvantage. People in the imaginary universe of Fox news in Western states like Wyoming and North Dakota have less than a million citizens but have two senators. A state like California, however, with forty-million citizens has only two senators as well.
We can have all the conversations we want with Fox newsers, but that entire culture would have to be brought back to the real world of policies and their implications. We've seen no indication that it will happen anytime soon (e.g., farmers losing revenue selling soy beans to China because of Trump's tariffs who support him nonetheless).
Democracy should be one citizen one vote with no attempt made to equalise a state's influence without regard to population.
Abolishment of the Senate would increase the democratic nature of our government. Democrats routinely win the popular vote and yet a minority of the country rules almost all branches of our government and that's not democratic.
Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I think Europe's parliamentary systems of government are more democratic than ours, but, admittedly, we're stuck with the piece-meal cobbled together government we have.
1
@Truthseeker
Most European governments have a Senate too, and Senates are important to maintain a democratic legislative checks and balances system in place ... if and only if their members are elected democratically, of course, which indeed isn't the case at all in the US.
I don't see any other Western country, frankly, where mountains and lakes get a political representation equal to that of millions of human beings living next door.
And then we're not even talking yet about the fact that it's precisely the political party dominating in those mostly empty states that actively destroy America's mountains and lakes ...
1
@Ana Luisa
Thank you for your enlightening response. The main difference according to you is that the senates in Europe are more democratically elected than America's. That is not the case here as you pointed out.
After the soap opera of the last two years, it was reasonable to expect a wholesale rejection of Trump's behaviour, if not his policies.
Why was it a blue wavelet instead of a tsunami? Mostly, a still strong economy and in an era of radically lowered expectations, no wars or damaging foreign confrontations and a difficult Senate map, but also because Dems still don't understand Trump's base , especially poor whites who appear to vote against their own interests.
In time we will see the analysis of whether the Democrats would have been better off with more centrist candidates in Texas, Georgia and Florida. I think they would, but also look at the Bredesen and McCaskill results in "mid-South states". They got beaten badly even if Manchin survived.
In the meantime, it's worth noting how the Dems won back Rust Belt Governor's mansions and suburban seats which can be a foundation for 2020.
They need a broader platform than health care, a sound economic programme which helps working people to work and a realistic approach to immigration. If they can do that, they could have the blue wave they dreamed of this year.
2
@CarpeDiem64
If the problem would be that "Dems don't understand Trump's base" and Trump would, then why is it that it's only Democrats who propose and pass policies that benefit those white males, whereas the GOP systematically dismantles them?
We're long past the "understanding" problem here, I'm afraid.
What the GOP did to those voters is putting them into an "alternative facts" bubble, where they're daily fed Fox News fake news about Republicans and Democrats and the state of the union.
Only Republicans will be able to get them out of there.
It's the very essence of today's GOP propaganda to make its base reject no matter what that comes from Democrats.
In the meanwhile, as soon as you look at who did what in DC during the last decade, and who's running on which kind of policy proposals, according to any objective standard you cannot but admit that it's Democrats and Democrats alone who have "a sound economic programme which helps working people to work and a realistic approach to immigration".
So no, after two decades of Fox News the question is no longer IF the Democrats can to that. They already did and continue to do so, but GOP voters will never know.
THAT is why the fight will be hard and long. But it will be a fight about increasing voter turnout, as most people who still didn't vote tend to be less vulnerable to fake news, but are merely politically illiterate, imagining that real change can happen overnight rather than through improvements each election
1
@Ana Luisa that's why I said they seem to vote against their own interests. And I don't think you can simply blame it on Fox News and social media.
Many liberals and Democrats (and I would fall in this category if I lived in the US) do talk down to and disparage the Trump base rather than trying to understand why they find someone like Trump appealing.
you're doing it to by assuming they are brainwashed.
As for the Democrats economic programme, what is it? How do they plan to create good jobs? I have literally heard nothing about it.
Well, Speaker Pelosi is going to try to build some bridges on ethics reform, prescription drug prices and infrastructure. Will, Sen. McConnell meet her on the bridge and hold up his end? Or will she end up with a bridge to nowhere? Will Trump work to get the base to support bipartisan measures? Time will tell.
3
"We might consider listening to them a bit more"
I live in Missouri, which elected Josh Hawley and approved a minimum wage law. I have a very difficult time coming up with a rational explanation for how a person could vote for both.
So, listen to what, when we know that voters often (most often) vote based on emotion rather than reason?
Bret Stephens cannot correctly diagnose the problem with Democrats, because he is unable or unwilling to admit the problem with Republicans. Specifically, what was it in the Republican culture (aka "village") that gave rise to someone like Donald Trump, and that allowed him to succeed beyond anyone's wildest expectations?
Conservatives are elitists who believe that the wealthy, well born, and well bred are entitled to all the benefits a capitalist society confers on them, and that they are entitled to oppose anything gov't does anything to counter the trend, or have priorities that conflict with theirs.
The admissions process for Harvard is a case in point. Anyone who makes a big deal of the fact that Harvard gives priority to the children of generous donors, or legacy admits is engaging in class warfare, because, for Harvard, it makes economic sense to do that. OTOH, anyone who protests attempts at promoting racial diversity and calls it "reverse discrimination" is telling the truth. Economic discrimination is OK, but decisions not motivated by pure economic self interest that attempt to address social justice issues are not to be trusted or tolerated.
Our 2 most recent Republican Presidents are perfect examples of the way class (or breeding) and money play a huge role in getting ahead. But Bret Stephens still continues to take offense at anyone who points out the playing field is tilted and as a result, as in gambling, slightly better odds confer huge profits.
3
The author's stereotypes are a lie.
Washington state, under pragmatic but progressive Democratic governance, has been the ONLY state to see economic growth in its rural areas over the last DECADE. We're integrating our state economy and decreasing division. Which is what needs to be done in the nation as a whole.
This is a diverse country, with huge cultural and regional differences -- that doesn't mean we have to be angrily divided and at each others throats.
It's Culture War -- a weapon to maintain conservative power -- that does that. And the author can't stop throwing fuel on that fire.
Modernizing, investing in, and integrating our divided post-industrial economy, as we once did the WWII and post-war industrial economy, has been the number one job before this nation for the last half century. But conservative ideologues have ignored it. Instead, feeding Culture War resentment, of those who have been the first to prosper in the new economy, to Americans in the left-behind places that have been dependent on resource-based industries that we can no longer afford to exploit and manufacturing jobs that technology has made obsolete.
They've demonstrated disrespect for those Americans by refusing to work with them to solve the problems cause by economic change.
They've eschewed pragmatic solutions, thwarting Democratic efforts too -- and used Culture War division to cover failure.
The real clueless elitists are those on the Right still unwilling to criticize that.
5
I'm maybe even a good deal left of you, Bret, but we're really on the same team here, and I hope Dems will listen to your advice. I don't completely agree, but still much of what you say is valuable.
The current dysfunction of the U.S. political mishmash is so much more complicated than your opinion piece suggests. The tensions roiling our political landscape include, in unequal parts: economic inequality with concurrent loss of opportunity to change this equation; a de-facto oligarchy of transnational corporate control of our institutions of government and the media; personhood granted to these same corporations by our Supreme Court; deep red redistricting and gerrymandering maps created by entrenched GOP statewide office holders that dilute the votes of urban dwellers while inflating the votes of rural residents and that will take years to undo as gradual changes in demographics (certainly true here in Wisconsin) take hold; and the persistent fear and loathing between different racial and ethnic populations (no easy answers to solve this issue). This list isn't by any means complete, but at least it speaks to some of the underlying causative factors supporting the depressingly tenacious hold that the GOP has on this country's politics. Your opinion piece, on the other hand, seems to address more the symptoms of the problem.
Senator Joe Donnelly ran as a humble moderate who, as he repeatedly asserted in his campaign commercials, voted with Trump 62% of the time. He lost by eight percentage points, more than Beto, Andrew Gillum, and Stacey Abrams combined. Democrats were uninspired by him and too many stayed home. Those who felt a duty to vote chose him as the lesser of two evils.
Of course, candidates who talk down to voters are unlikely to win, but I didn't see that from any of the aforementioned three, who lost by very few percentage points each. All faced structural difficulties, and did very well considering. Additionally, analysts say that Beto's enthusiasm likely drew out voters who put Democratic congressional candidates who otherwise might have lost into the win column. I don't see anything wrong with the campaigns that Beto and Stacey Abrams, in particular, ran. They were personable and enthusiastic candidates with compelling messages.
3
@ch
Your analysis is good but it suggests to me that Democrats have to do more to educate their occasional voters. Congress does not work on charisma-- it works on votes. As we have seen, it doesn't matter how charismatic your representative is, if she is in the minority party her vote means nothing. I'll give Republican voters credit for one thing-- they vote for their party regardless of how odious their candidate is. Democrats need to appeal more to loyalty to their party and dedication to its vision of a just society, and to rely less on the personal appeal of their candidates.
Which of the great social advances in this country were won because people sat around thinking about electability? I can't think of any. I do think that Stephens has a point about extending an olive branch to Trump country. Things are what they are, and there are plenty of people out there whose hearts can be changed with more kindness and less rage. But that does not imply a compromise of principles--it's the opposite.
Most of our fellow citizens don't know a lot about the criminal activities of this president. You would have to follow the news fairly closely, and understand that Fox News is, for the most part, lying, to have any idea. Mr. Mueller and his team have been very quiet and have played this very close to the vest--as is proper. Congress has be complicit in covering up the president's conduct.
But with a Democratic House, that's going to change. I'm sure that Democrats will act responsibly, pursuing threads of evidence as and where appropriate. They will get to the bottom of the president's crime. The president is already trying to obstruct.
Once his criminal conduct is made clear, it seems unlikely that Republican's will remain in power. They lost a lot of voters in this election. 2020 will be a landmark year.
Two things: seven governor positions were converted from Republican to Democrat; gerrymandering grossly underestimated the dissent. Take my state as an example: 75 percent of House seats are controlled by Republicans with only 52% of the vote. Unfortunately we have to wait until 2020 until redistricting occurs. Once a fair map is drawn even the newly red state of Ohio will flip back to purple.
4
The Democrats won the house but Trump still has the Senate and the Veto power and executive power. During the campaign ran on very little to benefit the people, their promises were impeaching Trump, impeaching Kavanaugh. open a whole series of committees on Russia, subpoena Trumps tax records but little or nothing else. They mentioned health care, and the brag about one state expanding Medicaid. But that wasn't part of Obamacare and was a state not federal action. In fact, if Obama had expanded Medicaid when he had the chance, the controversy over Obamacare would be mute. In any case the Democrats have little or no chance to go back Obamacare as it was before Trump. So, if they want to accomplish anything besides subpoenas and committee meetings, they're going to have to find mutual goals. They shouldn't forget that the numbers to flip back for the Republicans are much fewer than they had to get to win the House. Plus, they lost 2 seats in the Senate.
@Ron
1. THREE red states voters just forced their state government to adopt Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.
2. The reason why those voters had to fight so hard before they got this, is because their own party, the GOP, went to the Supreme Court to ask conservative Justices to declare the automatic Medicaid expansion as contained in Obamacare unconstitutional, and imposed a "choice". So then GOP Governors opted out, leaving literally hundreds of thousands of constituents who would otherwise have had healthcare, without any access to care.
3. Obamacare still FULLY exists. There has been NO repeal at all. The GOP just repealed the individual mandate, and by doing so increased premiums to such an extent again that studies show that it already destroyed the healthcare of a whopping 3 million Americans, and that will grow to 13 million very soon. Fortunately, because Pelosi won the House, more deaths will now be avoided.
4. Under Obama, Democrats cut Bush's deficit by two thirds, increased taxes for the wealthy while cutting them for the middle class (the only bill the GOP passed under Trump does the exact opposite), shifted millions of dollars from big banks to ordinary citizens thanks to the Consumer Protection Bureau (now dismantled by the GOP), made student loans more affordable, saved the US auto industry and brought manufacturing back, created a decade-long job growth, pushed for higher minimum wages etc.
Conclusion: time to open your ears/eyes, imho ... ;-)
1
See if this fits. I have a song running through my mind.
Barry Tobin and Elton John: I'm still standing.
I can't get it out of my head.
According to the logic he uses here, Bret Stephens would have scolded the abolitionists in Antebellum America and patronized Susan B. Anthony for moving a little too fast. The success or failure of the "resistance" is not just in elections one, it's in the long-term effect we aim to have on American ideals.
4
There has to be a practical 'bridge' for pragmatic and law-abiding citizens of both traditional parties. In my view, it should be a coalition, with the Dems ceasing to even use the term "republican" for their opponents -- call them what they are, "the regime." Democrats should be forming a united Electoral Front, composed of moderate republicans "(who've been terrorized out of politics by Trump) and the center of their own party. This can't be politics-as-usual-- on that point, Brett is right.
Agree that 'some' liberals/progressives look down on regular people who happen to be Republicans living in the heartland. Immovable single issue voters are most often the target of that scorn. What the Republicans and Fox News have successfully done is brand the liberals in such a way so their followers believe that it is all liberals that look down upon them. And somehow that has become all liberal's responsibility.
What I've learned these past 3 years is that most of us, left and right, have been low information voters. Really. We have lives we want to live and would prefer to live them and maybe, if we are motivated, focus on an issue or two in which we are personally invested.
During the 2016 campaign and since the election, it feels like the left is daily learning civics lessons consuming all the information it can while the right is devouring flag waving misinformation. The span to bridge just gets wider. Where I grew up regular people have little patience for the lectures of 'smart' people and will sometimes cling defiantly to a bad choice to maintain their own self-dignity.
We are in for a bumpy ride.
2
My teacher always reminded us that good things come in small packages, and if you try the right way you will get there today or tomorrow, and if you try the wrong way you will never get there in a million years.
Democrats won ten million more votes and many more local elections, including governor races.
American's who support Trump after all he has done are on the wrong side of history and continue to vote against their interest and to the detriment of the country and future of the planet.
This is not a sport with winners or losers. To educate people and promote the right cause may take a little longer, but will be permanent.
The longer Trump and his operatives stay in power the more the damage to the people supporting them. Those votes are not permanent.
Its time to change the way the system works. That should be our goal.
First of all, Democrats better learn that sanctuary cities and pushing open borders policies are not winning positions. Trump, in a lot of ways, is the first Independent elected to the presidency and he got there by uniting all the different factions who want our immigration laws enforced. He did this in opposition to both party leaderships.
Democrats protest that they aren't for open borders. But, they consistently thwart efforts of any kind to enforce our immigration system. All of the avowed sanctuaries are in Democrat controlled cities/states. So, it sure looks like they favor open borders.
When several California cities passed regulations requiring all employers using eVerify to screen employees for legal authorization to work, deep Blue California passed a state law prohibiting(!!) such regulations anyplace in the state.
3
@Kurfco
There are no Democrats proposing open border policies.
And do you know which program allowed us to see 90% of those who ask asylum showing up in court, compared to the previous 60%? Obama's.
Who deported more illegal criminals than Bush? Obama.
Who is pushing hard for real, bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform, including REAL strengthening of the southern border? Democrats.
Who systematically blocks those bills? A handful of Republicans, and during last spring Trump - even though the latest version of such a bill contained full funding of his wall.
The GOP is LYING to you. As soon as you stop taking Fox News lines for granted and start fact-checking yourself, you'll see. They only make up immigrant stories and use tough sounding rhetoric and photo-ops to make you believe that they care about tackling immigration, all while strongly supporting globalism, concretely, in DC.
1
Here in Virginia, Senator Tim Kaine defeated ardent Trump supporter Corey Stewart by double digits. Stewart's far-right rhetoric and policies wouldn't have been unusual in any red state. The Democratic challenger easily prevailed over incumbent Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, and David Brat, poster child for the Freedom Caucus lost his re-election bid. In other words, Democrats made significant gains in Republican strongholds, but, with the possible exception of Larry Hogan in MD, did Republicans gain ground in any blue areas as they did in 2016? Does anyone believe that any single Republican is wringing his or her hands about the need to understand Democratic or urban voters, or pleading that conservatives just need to really, really listen to their liberal counterparts? Certainly not in Virginia, where the GOP has lost for the past three election cycles. I can't do much to affect national politics, but here in our local and state elections we worked hard to elect Democratic candidates, efforts that Stephens dismissively minimizes. The political process takes a while. Time doesn't stop with the midterms and (as of now) the electoral college map is looking hopeful for 2020. Indeed, I hope Stephens devotes a future editorial to specific and concrete examples from actual campaigns, instead of issuing broad, generic scolds that were already wearisome two years ago.
7
"The 28-seat swing that gave Democrats control of the House wasn’t even half the 63 seats Republicans won in 2010." But this gain was in an economy that has full employment, very unlike 2010. Imagine what the gains might have been had the employment rate was double what it is. The Dems did pretty well, considering.
1
I think this calls for some context.
The Dems have picked up 30 seats now, with 13 seats still in play. That's more seats than the Dems have picked up in any election since Watergate. In fact, that's the second biggest gain the Dems have made in 50 years.
If they pick up at least 35 seats, it will be the fourth biggest gain made by any party over the past 50 years (trailing the 2010 and 1994 Republican midterm election gains, and the 1974 Democratic midterm election gain).
I do agree that the Dems need a better strategy to take back the Senate, but they were dealt some difficult circumstances this election. In 2020, 21 Republicans will be up for election, versus 12 Democrats. This is the opposite of 2018 - 26 Dem seats defended vs 9 Republican seats.
2
I'm not sure what reality Mr. Stephens lives in. Perhaps he ought to talk to some Trump supporters himself, and see what it's like when facts are met with disbelief; when a woman running for president is suspect merely because she's a woman who's five hundred times more qualified and experienced than her opponent. How would you suggest reasoning with that kind of psyche, Mr. Stephens? How do you reason with people willing enough to believe the female candidate for president is running a child pornography ring under a DC pizzeria, so willing that one comes to do justice with a gun? In light of all that demonization, how do you talk to people who at the same time support a man who openly disrespects women, is a racist, is in cahoots with Russians, probably was involved with rigging the 2016 election, mocks the disabled and survivors of sexual assault, sees prostitutes while his wife gives birth to their son, and though it's not his fault, is most likely mentally unstable and unchangeable (personality disorders can't be cured with medicines.) How do you reason with that when these people are often also churchgoing white evangelicals. When supposedly Christian people support someone who is the antithesis of their supposed God? I call it willful ignorance, Mr. Stephens. Everyone can learn, but these people shut their eyes to reality. Please advise.
689
@Anne
I always forget... how many people were duped by the pizzeria thing again? Was it closer to 1 million or maybe 5 million? It seems ever to be on liberals' lips.
I know of traffic accidents that involved more people.
10
@Anne
This is exactly what Mr Stephens is talking about. While there might be some far right fringe crazies who believe the above, there are many more middle of the road voters who held their noses and voted for Trump because they felt the Dems did not represent them AND were looking down at them.
The only way to solve this mess is for Democratic candidates to listen to all voters, find the common ground and try to convince those in the middle with respect and good arguments, not more bullying or just as bad, know-it-all preaching.
19
@Anne : Where I agree with the author is that no matter what is wrong (in my view, or yours) with these people, they are voters. And if these voters cannot be addressed and the views (of some of these at least) changed, Trumpism will not be eradicated. It's dangerous for the Democrats to somehow believe that their version of 'demography is destiny' will come true and save us all.
6
If Democrats were able to place their legislative initiatives into people's state initiative petitions, the majority of voters within those states would vote for those petitions because they are rational ideas that will help fix real problems, as witness in the various state initiative petitions that passed that the Republican politicians opposed.
But due to right-wing pundits, the FOX news propaganda machine, and the demagoguery of Trump, anything that Democrats do as a party is demonized. The Republican voter is being successfully manipulated to the detriment of everyone.
Please, EVERYONE: watch the PBS Frontline report on Facebook. It explains how social media is dividing us. We need all sides in the debate, yet we are segmented by all media into silos of interest. Media uses algorithms to determine our interests and feed us accordingly. Few people take the time to consider the ramifications. It is no wonder that the red areas are attracted to Trumpism: right wing media controls those areas via Limbaugh and hate radio; TV by Sinclair and Fox. Is it any wonder? Furthermore, world-wide, people are glued to their media streams in Nationalism, racial hatred baiting, anti-Semitism, gender bias and anti-Democratic rants. Social media is an extremely de-stabilizing force for civilization.
145
@Svendska
And yet, the Democrats, who waged a 100% fact-based campaign, just won the last elections.
It's not social media in itself that is the culprit here, it's the lack of knowing how to fact-check, combined with cynical politician (most of them globalists who are only interested in advancing their own careers through selling out their country to the wealthiest international players on Wall Street) who deliberately invent threats and cultivate racism.
There's a reason why it's mainly the low-educated who fall for this kind of lies, and it's the same reason that explains why racist politicians want to reduce access to and affordability of education.
Because in the meanwhile, it's also social media that allowed the Iranian people to eliminate their own populists and obtain a much more moderate government - AND an international nuclear deal, for instance.
Conclusion: don't shoot the messenger, go for the message!
6
@Svendska the only thing wrong with your post is you seem to be saying media bias is one-sided. You don't really believe that, do you?
4
@Svendska I completely agree. The first place I saw this news segmenting was in the Washington Post, which asked me a few years ago if I wanted to say what my political affiliation was and then get a hand-picked morning news roundup with the columnists they thought I'd like. What?! I was horrified; isn't the point of a good newspaper to get exposure to other people's points of view, too, and learn from them? But that's what social media (and even the papers trying to stay relevant) has done in the past several years - and it has balkanized this country in a terrible way. Instead of listening to trusted news in common and then drawing our own conclusions, we are listening to entirely different news stories, some distorted beyond recognition. This is at the root of our problem as a country.
1
Mr. Stephens, you speak as though the conservative voters who support Trump are some poor hapless people who we just don't take the time to understand, as though we liberals are these intellectual snobs who look upon them with disdain and contempt. From where I sit, as one of those liberals, there's a who lot of vitriol and contempt coming from the other side. That is, from the Trump supporters. I hear it all the time aimed at me and those who find Trump to be nothing but contemptible. I'm all for understanding and listening to those who I do not agree with, but please don't paint us liberal Democrats as too above it all. As others have said here, my biggest mystery is how those who support Trump can stomach his lack of morals, constant stream of lies, bigotry, racism, and flagrant disdain for the rule of law. The problem goes much deeper than us just playing nice and listening to the "other." There is a deep seated moral corruption imbedded in our country that remains resistant to removal. It's called white superiority.
4
There´s something just a bit hopeless about Mr. Stephens´ column. The wing of the Republican party that he favors has very nearly disappeared and been swamped by the toxic wasteland of Trumpism. Instead of resolving to do about it what he can, he writes a brief for turning the Democratic party into the branch of Repubicanism that he favors and that no longer exists as an organized political current. In this he will fail abjectly, because the Democratic party is far broader based and varied, ideologically and anthropologically, than anything he would be willing to live with. In sum, he is all but alone with no relief in sight.
1
When I try to build bridges to the other America, they spit in my face and insult me. They troll me. They refer to me as a "lib." Then they say things about Mexicans that make me cringe. Then they assert false statements on various subjects that reflect nothing but right wing talk shows? Suggestions, Brett?
3
We're supposed to build a bridge to the other side?
But who is this a bridge to?
A bridge to people who embrace a pack of lies?
To people who don't believe in climate change?
To people who don't believe in gender or racial equality?
A bridge to people who demonize immigrants, despite this being a nation of immigrants?
A bridge to people who think standing for the flag is more vastly important than police brutality?
--And, speaking of flags--is there a bridge to people who like the stars and bars even more than the stars and stripes?
A bridge to people who unwittingly support the very same "elite" oligarchy they claim to hate?
No, all this is a bridge too far.
Moreover, this is not our trip to make. It is not the Democrats who cynically manipulate all the types listed above with apeals to bigotry and selfishness. It's not the Dems who've based their entire campaign on fear and lies. It's not the Dems who've acted as cowards and enabled and concealed all the president's corruption and incompetence. This all lies at the feet of the GOP. And with the pundit class that for decades projected their deceit. And with the average, non-deplorable Republican voter who cares more about their tax cut than anything else that happens to their country. And with those simply too lazy to vote, too lazy to think, even.
So what I'm saying here is this :
I don't look down on people because I think I'm above them. I look down on them because they're wallowing in the gutter.
3
My spouse, a veteran of over 20 years service, graduate of a service academy (looks like a conservative middle-aged man, but is a moderate), told me yesterday that he is writing off any family and friends who vote for Trump in 2020. Both of us were born in the Midwest, have families all over the US and think that the reality-show chaos of the Trump presidency, and the failure of the GOP to rein it in, is a complete disaster.
3
Why are you running lead articles like this NYT? Where are the articles and Op-Eds praising the turnout, celebrating the victories and extolling the tactics that have got the Dems back to the table with a voice and a vote that counts?
Enough with the scary talk and the 'warnings' that if we 'offend' the crazies, we will be sorry.
We are not the offenders. We are trying to protect a democracy founded on tolerance, inclusion and respect for dissent from unprecedented attacks on its norms.
It would be nice if the supposedly liberal media would assist in that task instead of giving house room to the naysayers, the bigots and the head shakers ever warning us that it will all end in tears. Enough, already!
1
When are we going to stop taking advice from a half-baked conservative, whatever the heck that is, like Bret Stephens. I've seen Mr. Stephens many times on MSNBC, and there are times when he appears lucid and aware of the problems his republican party is causing in America. He espouses a dislike of Fat Donald, but is that real. I believe he's only paying lip service to that alleged dislike. Maybe he does it so he can keep his spot on MSNBC? I don't know. But then I read his drivel that appears in the NYT, like today's opinion piece. Mr. Stephens is the last person from whom democrats should be taking advice on how to deal with the lunacy that is the presidency of Fat Donald. I say they make his miserable life even more miserable than it already is. That press conference was an example of a man who has gone off the rails. It is not something that needs to be dissected or discussed any further than we already have. I'm not sure the media should continue to attend and participate in Fat Donald's dog and pony shows. All participation does is give a voice to his lunacy, and worse, gives a voice to his vile hatred, racism and dislike for democratic norms. The press needs to stop giving Fat Donald free air time and access to the American people. What did he say that was new and/or worthwhile? What did we learn about Fat Donald that we didn't already know? All the mainstream media has done is help the racist-in-chief further spread his vile message. It is beyond time to stop!
2
Give us the good old Republican, aka Mr Stephens, with their phony weapons of mass destruction Iraq war, bankrupting the country in the process after a huge Democrat surplus under Clinton, while enriching themselves with war profits. And when Obama rescues the country from a pit compared to the Great Depression, a new Republican takes credit for a booming economy with nary a break in the trend line in jobs growth set by Obama, oh sorry Barack H. Obama. So now if a good hunk of the country thinks Trump is the savior, Democrats are to blame. Someone is once again speaking with a forked tongue....
2
This piece was really a breath of fresh air - more liberals need to write pieces like this. We have to stop and reflect on our own contribution to the polarization. The more we criticize people who disagree with us, the more time they spend shoring up their own arguments - which causes their beliefs to calcify and become more polarized. The left used to be the group most likely to respect all opinions and fight for equality of all groups. We need to extend our values to encompass Trump supporters. If we respect them, incorporate their concerns into our platform and stop criticizing them as though their perspective is not valid we will generate policy ideas that benefit them and siphon off some of the fuel that Trump uses to stir up his base.
3
This is a great one!
Hopefully, the liberals wake up, correct their own fallacies, take up issues of consequence to people ( Vote Trump out is not a real issue), build the bridges (because other side is simply stupid to!), mend the national divide and earn their superior status back.
To a better tomorrow.
1
But Hillary said Dems can not be civil with deplorables and Corey Booker said we were "complicit in Evil" for believing in innocent till proven guilty.....and lets not forget Maxine Waters call for physical violence against republicans.
I have many Democrats friends....but each year they are less willing to debate issues....and just exhibit hate for anything that isn't Democrat pre approved.
1
Att: Editor: Pls change' minority' to 'majority' in my previous post, first line.
And why should a majority of Americans, as measured by the consolidated popular presidential vote of 2016 and the votes cast for Senate and House of 2018 be treated as outcasts?
Why should we pander to people who can't get their facts straight, and don't like either the concept or enforcement of civil rights?
Yesterday the world saw CNN's Acosta thrown out of the press gallery in what looked like a set-up by teh president and young intern, and then was accused of 'touching her' when she grabbed his mic.
That was before a political hack was appointed acting AG in another attempt to obstruct justice, days before new indictments.
And you have the gall to claim we are the ones who are out of step?
2
I am so sick of reading facile, misleading references to the "basket of deplorables' speech. Clinton defined the "deplorables" as that subset of Trump supporters who were racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, etc. Surely Mr. Stephens, you don't think those are NOT deplorable qualities? She went on to say “that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they're just desperate for change….he [Trump] seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well." That doesn't look like disdain to me.
2
I don't have many conservative friends but the conversations I have with them are head spinning. I have one conservative friend who I think supports Medicare for all (it's hard to tell) while also defending his need for guns so when marauding urban folks from a city 100 miles away come to steal his ranch in some sort of race war he can shoot back. Where does an idea like that come from?
2
The word Resistance is a total turn-off - I grit my teeth every time I read or hear it - and I'm a centrist/liberal.
2
The Democrats would sweep if they moved back to the center on immigration. What other issue could Trump exploit to hold the line?
That's the only issue he's got and it cemented the GOP's hold on the Senate.
I talk with Trump supporters. Many of them agree with me, at least to some extend that Trump is an immoral person, but they still support him because "he is changing the country in the right direction". These are two quite separate issues - arguing how bad person Trump is does not achieve anything but taking about the policies he is introducing may achieve something.
133
@Krzysztof Jarosz "he is changing the country in the right direction". What direction? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Unlimited access to guns? Denying the right to abortion? The last factor may be the crucial one. This seems to weigh heavily in the minds of some voters. How to overcome this is a question that needs answering before 2020, to insure that the GOP disappears completely.
9
@Krzysztof Jarosz This is a distinction without a difference. Sorry.
3
@toom Don't forget destroying the environment through deregulation and climate change denying policies. The so-called christian right's support of Trump for his anti-abortion stance despite his reprehensible character and actions is just one of the reasons I have trouble taking Trump supporters seriously. Yeah, let's protect the unborn but let the planet die so it's not inhabitable for anyone or anything. Makes sense to me...
7
I take Mr. Stephen’s point that Democrats are better led when they concentrate on legislating for the public welfare and they seek to persuade those who support Trump. I also believe the argument is based on false premises.
For example, Mr Trump is not the ultimate problem. He is a catalyst who accelerated a dark trend in the Republican party and its base that began with Nixon’s Southern Strategy and the deep influence of Roger Ailes over several decades.
Thus, the Democrats must seek to persuade the “Trump Republican base” to rethink their fears and hates that have been carefully nurtered over nearly a half century since the Civil rights revolution drove Southern and Southwestern Democrats into the Republican party. These citizens are not “deplorables”. It is unclear that, on the issue of civil equality and social justice, that they are “persuadables”.
That said, I agree it would be insanity for the congressional Democrats and newly minted Democratic Governors and legislators in Red and Purple states to pursue new progressive agendas until they reverse the effects of gerrymandering, and voter suppression legislation which is mostly a result of Machivellian Republican policy. It is devoted only to assuring the permanent power of the party. Remember how Southern Democrats tolerated Jim Crow to assure their own power from 1932 until 1968 and you understand why the current Republican party suffers from an acquired rather than a genetic disease.
Boy oh boy. Where to start? The midterm results were a stinging rebuke to Trump and his supporters. With the background of a highly functioning economy, Democrats took back the House and many statehouses in spite of gerrymandering that made this much harder. They came close to winning in Texas and Florida and many other red states. The campaign wasn't about putting down anyone, but demonstrating that Democrats have the backs of working class people. Many of the candidates did build real bridges -- Beto went to all Texas counties to talk with the people. No one thought that electoral progress now would mean the ideal, but this is a first step toward creating a healthy two party democracy and a strongly functioning democratic party. If a Democratic House can put together a legislative agenda that reforms health care, lowers prescription drug costs, rebuilds infrastructure, reforms tax laws so that the rich pay more into the system, helps people get retraining and go to college without overburdened debt, promotes voting rights for all, works on community development, and talks plainly to everyone that we are united together in our quest for a better life for all, then Democrats will make a giant leap toward a new day in, a new vision for, America.
3
@ES
Beto was a typical liberal, focusing on his liberal agenda and building no effective bridges to disaffected Republicans or people of color. That’s why he lost. See this Politico piece: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/04/ted-cruz-beto-orourke-texas-senate-2018-election-222188
2
Michigan's districts for both state and federal representatives are heavily gerrymandered. On November 6, 61% of voters passed a bill that will put a citizens commission in place to draw district lines after the 2020 census. Ending gerrymandering is one way to turn votes into seats.
2
Well Said. I too think that the President is a Buffoon and an embarrassment to our Country. But I am completely turned off by extremism from both the left and the right. Antifa and White Nationalists disgust me equally. Democrats should start talking about the issues that brought it to power during the depression. Bread and butter issues such as income inequality, tax fairness, housing costs, the cost of higher education, and the enormous deficit we are leaving for future generations are good places to start with. Those that complain about our current form of government need to get over it. That system was created more than 200 years ago and it would take the revision of our Constitution to change. I do not know about anyone else, but do you really trust anyone from the left or right to star tinkering with that document? There are many of us, call us Conservative Democrats or Moderate Republicans who would like to see compromises made between the parties and decisions based on the good of the country rather that the good of political donors. A pipe dreams I know, but hope springs eternal.
87
@George
Not only do Democrats TALK about deficit cutting, for two decades now they are the only ones DOING so when "we the people" give them the legal power to do so.
Cheney famously said that "deficits don't matter", and then left with a record and structural $1.4 trillion deficit.
"Structural" means that it takes decades to entirely eliminate it. In other words: for decades, the debt will go up, no matter who is president.
In that case, the only way to know who does what, when it comes to deficits, is to ANALYZE them. That's how you cannot but observe that Obama, as promised, cut Bush's deficit by two thirds. And the GOP, contrary to what it promised, just DOUBLED it.
Or let's take healthcare. The concept of Obamacare was invented by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is entirely market based, and was signed into law by the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee as a Governor in his own state. It saves half a million American lives (including many white male conservatives ...) a decade, all while curbing cost increases. ALL studies show that the vast majority of the American people strongly support all of it main pillars. And yet, what did the GOP just do? Pass a tax cuts for the wealthiest bill (which even a majority of GOP voters oppose) that included destroying the HC of 13 million Americans.
The extremists today ARE the GOP. Antifa is less than 0,00001% of Democrats. Elected Democrats are the real centrists today.
35
@George
"There are many of us, call us Conservative Democrats or Moderate Republicans"
A better center for our divided polity once existed. It was called Rockefeller Republican, fiscally moderately conservative; socially moderately progressive and liberal; moderate foreign policy espousing foreign national cooperation with foreign expansion of American business.
The Rockefeller Republicans were killed off by the Goldwater Republicans who later became supporters of Ronald Reagan who prepared the political/social ground for Trump.
4
@Ana Luisa Thank you.
For the Dem’s to win in 2020, they must stop "manning imaginary barricades and start building bridges to the other America." Amen to that! From Nancy Pelosi’s remarkable press conference after the election, it is clear she understands this, and presumably also a few other leaders of the Party.
What will it take for the rank and file to get the memo? As these reader comments demonstrate, many Democrats still reflexively want to deflect all criticism, and blame the Republicans or the working class for the ills that beset our political system, never admitting their own complicity in Trump’s rise.
This election cycle, Democrats stopped playing the blame game long enough to focus on winning—and win they did. If they want to win again in 2020—another existential election—they cannot afford to slide back into their old habit of blaming. They must pull up their socks and fight back.
The place to start is with Trump’s base, the rural and low-information voters who are falling further and further behind under Trump—the midwestern farmers, for example, who've lost their soybean market to China due to tariffs. If the Democrats show they truly care about their plight and will fight for them, the Party will have a shot at winning again in 2020.
1
Bret, there are huge fault lines in your analysis.
For example, there is Phil Bredesen, the former governor of Tennessee, who is nobody's idea of a fire breathing liberal.
Here was a moderate that was considered a successful governor by all concerned, who came out in favor of Kavanaugh and even got Taylor Swift to come out of the closet to support him, yet still lost by a large margin to Martha Blackburn, a fire breathing Trump acolyte.
More importantly, he lost by a much larger margin than Beto O'Rourke, Andrew Gillum, Stacy Abrams and
Richard Cordray combined.
Thus, your assertion about the type of candidate was rendered irrelevant by the electorate in Tennessee.
It did not matter Bret!
More importantly, the so called fire breathing liberal did far better in these states than the moderate did.
Next, you discount the purging of voter rolls, the extraneous burdens of Voter ID laws (which are nothing more than a poll tax), the barring of felons and even far fewer voting machines in Democratic precincts, in addition to other assorted methods.
Thus, even with a much higher turnout, millions are still being disenfranchised.
That being said, I would love to see both Schumer and Pelosi driven from their jobs. They are not the Resistance! They are political hacks that are not up to the task of taking on Trump.
Last, Beto O'Rourke has just become the Democratic presidential front runner and I am sure you can figure out why Bret.
Because he can win!
2
@TE
I'm sorry, but if Obamacare exists and even red states today force their governments to adopt its Medicaid expansion, it's because Pelosi and Schumer have resisted more than 60 GOP attacks on it, including a year of attacks coming from a DC entirely controlled by Republicans.
Obamacare saves an additional half a million American lives a decade.
THOSE are real, concrete and huge steps forward, notwithstanding unprecedented GOP obstruction and lies.
And then there's the fact that Pelosi is the first Democrat who has been able to deliver Trump's his first huge defeat, so that the tables are now turned.
We will never get anywhere if we don't learn to celebrate our own most important victories and most competent men and women.
That being said, I full agree with the rest of your comment.
3
@Ana Luisa
So, if I understand you correctly, you are saying it is better to let the ACA die a slow, painful death of a thousand small cuts than just letting the GOP do their worst, overturn the entire law and letting them deal with the consequences of tens of millions losing their coverage?
Interesting, because whether you know it or not, you have just explained why we are losing elections!
Millions upon millions actually losing their coverage in red states would have become a far more effective election issue than the threat of losing coverage.
Instead, you now have a law that is becoming more and more unstable, dysfunctional and unworkable by the year.
Which is a better path to universal health care @Ana Luisa, keeping a law that is hemorrhaging to death or letting the other side do their worst?
In other words, what exactly is Schumer and Pelosi fighting for if the end goal is supposed to be universal coverage?
That is why they need to go.
Sometimes it pays to do the bloodletting now, as opposed to later, especially if you want to win elections!
When much of the country is addicted to Fox News, race baiting, political stunts (like ordering troops to the border the week before a national election and accusing opponents of trying to hack elections in GA), and gerrymandering, we are challenged to make fact-based, evidence-based arguments that resonate.
Look - it is transparent that Mr. Trump is a divisive troubling character who acts with the appearance of illegal intent. There is a cohort of folks who will carry water for him regardless of the facts. When the leadership of the GOP won't call him out, there exists an echo chamber of "alternate facts" that allows him to act in bad faith. Don't blame educated professionals for his behavior or the hind brain reactions of his followers.
3
I've read these types of articles in the past. Of course he's right from a strategic standpoint. But I guarantee Stephens will be right back on the crazy horse in a couple weeks. A guy's got to make a living right? And right now the only thing selling on the left is insanity, so I don't see how they're going to be able to tone it down at all.
What's funny is that they don't realize Trump is playing them all like a fiddle. As soon as he's done talking about bipartisanship and possibly working together with such a great leader like Pelosi /s, he fires Sessions and revokes Acosta's pass. He does those things because he knows the buttons to push. Immediately the left is going wild, planning protests, showing up at Tucker Carlson's house, etc etc etc. True moderates are watching all of this and are getting sicker and sicker to their stomach about the left. But the dems just can't help themselves. It's really interesting to watch.
1
Exactly how do we reach out to guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks? That is not a hypothetical. You can see them anywhere these days, in any white area anyway. Those guys, for all their bluster, would never in a million years drive up Broad Street into North Philly.
2
In the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Presidential elections 55%, 59
% and 58 % of the white American majority voted white McCain, Romney and Trump. Donald Trump is part of the international axis of white European Judeo-Christian supremacist evil that includes Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin.
But the white American majority is aging and shrinking with a below replacement level birthrate. While the life expectancy of the white American majority is decreasing due to alcoholism, drug addiction, depression and suicide. Demographic
change is fueling white anger and rage.
MAGA is the Confederate dream to reverse the outcomes of the Civil War, Reconstruction and Civil Rights eras.
4
This was mentioned in the immediate aftermath of Trump's election--astutely by comedian Jonathan Pie. Build bridged to white supremacists, though? Forge a common bond with those who believe pot smoking people of color should be thrown in prison? Clasp hands with people who are fudgy about what counts as sexual assault? You see the hesitation? Just what IS America? Perhaps what's latent and lately more explicit is an American soul that's intransigently racist and sexist.
So the Dems garner millions and millions more votes than GOP candidates and Mr. Stephens says the midterms are a warning to Democrats. I would think it was the other way around.
2
Why is it that liberals are expected to act like they're walking on eggs while conservatives get to throw them? Why is it always liberals who are urged to build bridges while conservatives keep blowing them up? Why do Democrats have to be so concerned that Republicans don't like Nancy Pelosi while the president himself spits on us at every one of his rallies and press conferences? When was the last time Bret Stephens wrote a column urging mid-American conservatives to try to understand their liberal coastal countrymen? I getting really tired of this.
4
Sigh. Another article based on unsupported assumptions: namely, that the results accurately reflect a will of the voters, the corollary to that proposition being that they weren’t materially influenced by factors such as voter suppression efforts, gerrymandering, etc. (I’m looking at you, Brian Kemp.)
“It also underscores that while “the Resistance” is good at generating lots of votes, it hasn’t figured out how to turn the votes into seats.”
This sentence suggests that you understand that the above factors might be issues--and you likely do because you are literate and are ostensibly intelligent—and yet you refused to explicitly consider them in your article. Wonder why.
Oh, here it is—you just accuse liberals of “bellyaching” about “rigged” elections. Meaning you dismiss these arguments without providing any basis for doing so. I expect basic logical reasoning from my NYT editorialists. You and Douthat, and sometimes Brooks, usually fail this test. Troubling.
“But that’s the system in which everyone’s playing — and one they had no trouble winning in until just a few years ago."
Um, no? Obviously if it’s rigged in one side’s favor, then not everyone’s playing the same game. And don’t you understand that there have been substantial changes to the game since 2010?
Never trust anyone over the age of 24 who uses the word “meh” to make a point.
Yes, we're just quaking in our boots at your warnings, Mr. Republican Op-Ed author, positively quaking.
Tell you what, Bret - I'll consider "building real bridges to the other America" when they stop acting like they are the "only real Americans" and when they stop threatening to kill me.
1
the gop has slid to a third party in california. People are either democrats or independants. They have lost the cities and suburbs and their support base is now farmers and christian conservatives. They either dont care that trump is racist, criminal and corrupt, or in the case of racists, white supremacists and white nationalists, they share his views. He incites their hostility towards colored people, the media and democrats. He also exploits lack of morals, sexism and misogyny.
Bret: I suggest you read the op ed by Bryce Covert in today's NYTimes on what happened at the state levels including governors and attorneys general. Except for the senate, it was a blue wave in spite of congressional gerrymandering.
Hey Bret. San Diego, a one-time ultra conservative Navy town, now has a veto-proof Democratic majority on the City council. This is the future, buddy.
3
Bret the Republican standard bearer is taking up where Brooks and Douthat last left off, giving advice to Democrats, while simultaneously spanking them. No thanks. The biggest lies in the Times are always from the GOP troika, who feign hatred for their party and it's leader, but cannot find the courage to disown and disavow it.
2
This was the highest midterms turnout since 1960 (high turn out for both Democrats and Republicans by the way). To characterize an election with multi-generational turnout as “meh” is, quite simply, just silly. Mr. Stephens needs to spend more time reading the coverage of other parts of your newspaper such as the Upshot to improve his political punditry.
2
"It didn’t convert when media liberals repeatedly violated ordinary journalistic standards by reporting the uncorroborated accusations against Kavanaugh that followed Christine Blasey Ford’s [uncorroborated accusations]."
Dear Bret: Stop worrying your heart about Democrats. Stop preaching to Democrats. Don't fret about Bernie Democrats. Your shtick is with the GOP. Preach there about your revulsion to Trump.
4
as usual stephens is full of malarkey. the democrats rejected trumpism UP and DOWN the ballot. Governors, AG's, Sec of State and of course,
The HOUSE!
1
"Liberals are free to bellyache all they want that they have repeatedly won the overall popular vote for the presidency and Congress while still losing elections, and that the system is therefore “rigged.”
No Taxation without representation. Eventually, Liberal, wealthy states will secede from the New Confederacy.
4
all the conservative pundits act as if Trump just appeared from nowhere and not from thirty years of Republican lying, cheating and any dirty tricks, as the end justifies the means in the grab of power.
now that they have the power to pack the courts they have nothing to worry about from, " those people."
3
Written like a true middle aged whiteman. You come from a different world Bret. Perhaps losing correctly is more important than winning and not have a change agenda. Finally, the Democrats are behaving like leaders. They took their licks, and came out on top. You sound threatened by societal change, Bret. Adapt or go extinct. That is the law of life.
4
You "want Trump and Trumpism to lose," Bret? Heck you coulda fooled me!
This is yet another clear demonstration how red unduly projects donning a blue poncho to indefensibly subvert the Dems' fight only to hail how Trump "wins" -- by the skin of his unworn prophylactic -- just because America LOVES a fighter. I mean how can offsetting "deplorables" be worse than encouraging "body-slamming" of journalists protecting our of/by&fors?
That Trump NEVER had the numbers is not ours to deliberately jeopardize steamrolling to our 7th popular vote win in what will be the 8th consecutive presidential election in 2020.
1
Bret
Please tell us what they want!!!!
3
Dear Resistance,
Please don't be so pompous. Instead of "the resistance" maybe something catchy like "the people who feel its wrong to support a lying , heartless, incompetent, corrupt, treasonous dotard".
Yeah, and when you encounter someone wearing a "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat" shirt, please reach out to them as one citizen to another.
Oh, and if you come across someone wearing a "Journalist , Tree , Rope - some assembly required" shirt. Make sure to find out what you can do to understand them so they won't find you so odious. Don't ever forget - it's your fault.
Also, you silly resisters support so many losers. Don't send money to someone who mirrors your values if they may lose. Make sure to only send money to winners. This is so obvious I can't believe I have to say it.
And lastly make sure to take advice from pundits who only have displayed contempt and loathing for you and what you stand for .
If you follow these simple rules you're sure to be in the ascendancy soon.
5
The best thing about your column, Mr Stephens, are the intelligent and insightful responses it elicits from your readers. Your own words, by contrast, are tired Fox News type babbling.
3
You’re right preaching Appeasement. Yeah, that always works.
SAD.
3
If you are against guns, drugs, porn, professional wrestling, tattoos, strip joints and Trump as I am, and for hard work, good manners, faithfulness in marriage, a strong military, regular church attendance and paying your bills on time, what does that make you?
I have been a conservative all my life and had hoped to enter Heaven as one, but now find my closest political allies among people with strong liberal beliefs I once had considerable contempt for.
Today’s Trump supporters are not reasoned conservatives or patriots. They lost the moral right to call themselves those things a long time ago.
Best call them deluded deplorables as Hillary did.
Anyone looking for conservative values today had best seek it among this nation’s old liberals.
America’s best hope now is to stand with the Trump despisers until the last galoot reaches shore.
4
We know the old saying... "it's the economy, stupid!". I submit that as long as the economy is doing well, most Americans don't really care what is going on in Washington, DC. Several writers and columnists have commented about that lately... there is a divide between what the politically interested coasts care about and what is going on in the middle. God forbid we experience a downturn, then Trump would be voted out of office in no time. Until then, many folks just ignore the noise.
The midterm results are a warning to America. Trump didn't wait one day to start really showing his true self. Does anyone believe he has any limits on his behavior? Everyday the bottom gets deeper.
"Rigging" is what trump says. Rigging is what the democrats are rightly speaking about. The GOP has gerrymandered states. They've rigged the system right out in the open and with no kind of reason other than to win.
You do us all a disservice to bring up Antifa. They do not represent Democrats, they represent Anarchists. Don't you think there will be more of these fringe groups? The White Nationalists? Nazis? Trump is destroying our country.
The GOP is willingly riding in the sidecar while he motors on. Why? Where are the men/women with respect for the law, the Constitution? People that put their oath to serve the country above serving an autocrat?
Bret, help us figure out how to fight Trump. Being conciliatory with a dictator is a losing game.
2
Exactly.
Election night was a win for the country, we needed some balance, but for Democrats it was a harbinger of doom.
The Democrats managed to get their people to the polls, yet after two years of relentless negative coverage and abuse from every snarky late night host, with coffers filled to the brim and the help of almost every influential celebrity, the results were embarrassingly underwhelming, to put it mildly.
It doesn’t appear the Democrats grew their party at all, and it shouldn’t be too shocking. Their strategy has been to label everyone who voted for Trump as racist, privileged, misogynistic mouth-breathers. Can’t imagine what went wrong.
This blue ripple may put Trump in check, but it does nothing to address the differences that made his ascent possible. The media and celebrities need to tone the garbage down, they’re hurting their own cause.
Also, Democrats need to focus on winning in 2020, not getting revenge in January 2019. If they run Biden, Booker, Bernie or lose their minds and give Hillary a third chance, Trump will get another four years.
Right now the only prospective candidate who can beat Trump is Bloomberg. He can unite the center behind reasonable gun laws and reasonable immigration policies. He hates both Nazis and hippies. He's pro-choice and anti-fun. The perfect centrist.
How do you build Bridges to people who scream lock her up?
3
Dude...Your article and opinion makes ZERO sense. The GOP lost in all the swing states that matter in 2020. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada. Democrats are also increasing their numbers in red states with the most gerrymandered districts and restrictive voter rules like Georgia, Florida and Texas. There is nothing Meh about taking Nevada, keeping Montana and all the other inroads in the face of tremendous voter suppression. Standing up for sexual abuse survivors and speaking out against racism and RESISTING the fascist in chief is a formula that will net gains in coming elections. Please stop with the nonsense Bret. Democrats made the most gains since WATERGATE. Their message is strong and their gains are impressive. Instead of wasting time and resources "reaching" Trump voters, Democrats need to work to get the votes of the nonvoters who are not engaged. Don't be such an obvious partisan hack Bret. Its not a good look.
5
Respectfully disagree. I'm tired of all the catering to the white evangelical Trump was sent by god hypocritical base that bank rolls the Republican vote. Greed, delusion, guns and money, Americans are better then that.
2
Oh my Bret, you get more nonsensical with every column. Democrats should build bridges?! To what? Rampant corruption, law breaking, hateful family separation, obstruction of justice, breaking the emoluments clause, playing goldf 9 zillions times, soend8 g almost a hundred grand so Melania could freshen up in Egypt? I could go on, but the corrupt Republican Party wants no bridges, they want unfettered access to corruption and white supremacy. Shame on you, you are part of the problem. I agree with Mr Krugman, you can’t be a Republican and a good person anymore. The two are mutually exclusive.
4
agree!
Opposition needs to become Shrewder AND humbler? If you were intellectually honest you would know that being constantly "humble" is exactly how we got here. Republicans win by lying and cheating. Democrats lose by letting them. Period. Neutered and ostracized Republicans never tire of lecturing Democrats about what they ought to do. Stepehns: I thought you were remaining a Republican in order to save your party. Why don't you save your breath for your brethren?
3
The Midterm Results Are a Warning to the Democrats as Too Many Nuts Were Elected or Reelected
Stephens, please try reading NYT's own Nate Cohn: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/upshot/2018-midterms-blue-wave-democrats.html
These results, despite voter suppression and gerrymandering. Say Yay more and Nay less!
It's true that the senate results are disturbing. It's disturbing that so many Americans are willing to vote for the White Supremacy party (formerly known as Republicans, definitely no longer "conservative").
We can build, are building bridges on health care, education, the environment, the economy, but not to white supremacy. We must fight for an ethical, humane society, despite our liar-in-chief.
2
Exactly.
Election night was a win for the country, we needed some balance, but for Democrats it was a harbinger of doom.
The Democrats managed to get their people to the polls, yet after two years of relentless negative coverage and abuse from every snarky late night host, with coffers filled to the brim and the help of almost every influential celebrity, the results were embarrassingly underwhelming, to put it mildly.
It doesn’t appear the Democrats grew their party at all, and it shouldn’t be too shocking. Their strategy has been to label everyone who voted for Trump as racist, privileged, misogynistic mouth-breathers. Can’t imagine what went wrong.
This blue ripple may put Trump in check, but it does nothing to address the differences that made his ascent possible. The media and celebrities need to tone the garbage down, they’re hurting their own cause.
Also, Democrats need to focus on winning in 2020, not getting revenge in January 2019. If they run Biden, Booker, Bernie or lose their minds and give Hillary a third chance, Trump will get another four years.
Right now the only prospective candidate who can beat Trump is Bloomberg. He can unite the center behind reasonable gun laws and reasonable immigration policies. He hates both Nazis and hippies. He's pro-choice and anti-fun. The perfect centrist.
1
Bret Stephens is a lonely voice of truth at NYT.
And why should a minority of Americans, as measured by the consolidated popular presidential vote of 2016 and the votes cast for Senate and House of 2018 be treated as outcasts?
Why should we pander to people who can't get their facts straight, and don't like either the concept or enforcement of civil rights?
Yesterday the world saw CNN's Acosta thrown out of the press gallery in what looked like a set-up by teh president and young intern, and then was accused of 'touching her' when she grabbed his mic.
That was before a political hack was appointed acting AG in another attempt to obstruct justice, days before new indictments.
And you have the gall to claim we are the ones who are out of step?
1
In a nation where computerized and systematic Republican gerrymandering combined with widespread voter suppression (eg, not letting Native Americans vote in North Dakota), in a nation where the outmoded and unfair Electoral College gives the same power to 200,000 voters in Wyoming as it does to 800,000 voters in California, in a nation where lies and propaganda are used to build racial and anti-immigrant fear around the clock- the Barricade between Americans and Democracy is very real and not at all imaginary!
4
The gop would have lost 30 or 50 more seats and senate seats and governor posts, and hundreds or thousands of state assembly seats if it were not for their gerrymandering and voter suppression.
In california the gop does not care for the state. After all the claims from trump and republican supporters about democrats raising taxes, trump and the gop raised our taxes by limiting the salt deduction and moving many people into higher tax brackets. The democrats say the republicans are a party for billionaires. They are indeed. They gave the ultrawealthy, including trump and his family a big tax break. The benefits of the gop tax cuts go to the ultrawealthy mostly each time and everybody else is just facing higher taxes in the future with deficits shooting up to 21 trillion because of a reckless and irresponsible trump and gop.
What can democrats do to reach out to rural and town folks backing a racist, criminal, corrupt and misogynist dictator trump ? In california efforts could be made to increase broadband access in rural areas, and to encourage businesses to set up shop within the reach of rural communities. But in the end businesses have to decide on their location
3
So the Trumpsters don't have to cross any bridges, real or imagined. They can act just as atrociously as Trump himself and that's all right. They can win with those tactics. But Democrats and liberals can't act like Democrats and liberals if they want to win. They have to pretend they're really center-right. They have to pretend that they are meek and mild no matter how obnoxiously and mendaciously Trump and his supporters act. Is that what you are saying, Mr. Stephens? Because while I do agree that Trump and Trumpism seem to get stronger every day and will be almost impossible to beat, your prescription sounds more like a Trojan horse than one that might actually work.
3
For things to heal, something has to be done about the lies and propaganda coming from Fox and other outlets. Trump and the GOP continue to tell America that real journalism is "fake news", and those that have been brainwashed by Fox believe them.
3
Given how we were told the end of Democracy
was on the horizon when Trump was elected
and given how we warned that we must, must, must
vote Democratic to save the Union, most Americans
did not change their minds about Trump.
Perhaps, just perhaps, Liberals don't represent as much
of America that they claim to.
Meanwhile bring back the art of Compromise.
1