What? Anti-trump won't work for those who don't love trump? Then why did anti-Hillary work? Why did anti-Obama work at national, state, and local levels? There's no vision for major policies other than whatever Obama or Hillary are for, then trump supporters are against.
My gosh I guess being white doesn’t matter does it? This president is about being white appealing to whites talking to whites and winking at whites when they make mistakes even when they slaughter country music fans. Whites make up 70% and are seeing their power diminish bit by bit. So, no. This theory is vastly flawed!
6
Yeah, I get it already! We liberals are dumb because we don't understand how ignorant, close-minded, and hateful so many of our fellow Americans are. What I don't understand is what you expect us to do about it.
27
Good column.
The GOP and DT have done very little to get power. The leftists (democrats) are worried about stuff that most Americans don't care about. There are 2 genders and when FB has something like 60 genders, the vast majority of Americans say how many?
The left is worried about trans-gender rights and that small bakeries have to make cakes for homosexual marroages. They only give lip service to jobs.
Then take Obamacare, the vast majority of Americans know it is a train wreck but the leftists will tell us how great it is!
11
A sweeping defense of white identity politics should not be the template for a successful Democratic party.
13
Don't forget that an educated young black man with an African/Muslim name, won the presidency twice.
Maybe Trump was a backlash of some scared whites, but it doesn't mean that people in the middle America are forever locked in with conmen like him.
There are people who tell it like it is on the progressive side as well. Who's going to be the next Bernie Sanders?
15
It's ok to warn that Trump's lies and incompetence don't automatically mean that he will go away soon. But finding Trump unacceptable should not be denigrated as "coastal echo chamber".
17
Coughlin went on: “A Democratic Party that can’t tell me how many genders there are, that ain’t flying in this country.”
Boy, if that doesn't perfectly describe how utterly disconnected democrats are from Middle America.
18
Nobody who voted for Trump simply because they hated Hillary Clinton, bypassing the obvious evidence of Trump’s unfitness for office, will do that again. If the anti-Trump vote is not fractionated again in the next election, he will, with God’s grace, get beat.
14
"An overriding lesson of 2016 for liberals is that without hard-nosed realism about the state of the country and Trump’s talents, you lose. And that’s the truth."
Translation: white voters in the so-called "heartland" are upset that Democrats treat African Americans as human beings, and more offensively, as Americans, and thus cut their noses off to spite their faces.
Gosh, who knew human rights for black people were so offensive? I guess the Democratic Party should return to the so-called "middle," where we always win elections, right? Go back to the days when centrist Bill Clinton won 45% of the vote, instead of liberal Barack Obama's 53%?
17
And yet, and yet, even when the Democratic candidate was the old white lady who was really hard to listen to and who evoked memories of Presidential misconduct, even when she was beaten up daily by Russian-engineered Wikileaks stories, even when the FBI cast the shadow of criminal wrongdoing over her, even when Russia was buying ads on Facebook to undermine her and flooding social media with pro-Trump messages, even though it is rare in this country for one party to win three national elections in a row, and even though Barack Obama had begun to wear out his welcome for many voters, she still got three million more votes. As trying as it is to live through a day with Trump, Democrats cannot forget their principles.
24
Call me "not normal" then. I'd rather have a 75% chance at winning the presidency while not abiding by the race-baiting that appears to now be an acceptable part of American life for the author and much of Trump's base.
7
In Arizona, guns aren't the only pox that politicians and operatives openly carry. The gross caricatures in Mr Cohen's article would seem improbable, but there really is a President Trump.
Concerning maybe-senate-candidate's folksy Trump-tag-along verse about black football players' conduct, err.. protest, Jay Heiler couldn't be more inglorious.
"This country’s been really good to them." His reprehensible attempt to inure fellow Arizonans as "this country" sponsors of black football players' opportunity. And where's Heiler's acknowledgement that those men built their own success? Shamelessly absent.
"focused on a particular set of facts and circumstances" That's Heiler saying white voters get to decide the legitimacy of what black football players have the right to protest.
Heiler is a real Trump protégé at reviving white folks' latent weakness for judging black people's exercise of their freedoms. Heiler is an open book that should be closed with zeal.
Regarding Roseanne Rosanna Danna's signature sign off, it sputtered on game-changing verve because it didn't harness the power of universal truth.
4
Yes, on the Left we need a candidate that is blunt yet truthful.
5
Don't have such a short memory, Mr. Cohen. Let's not forget that Barack Obama won election twice, and if he had been allowed to run for a third term, he would have won that third term. Those voters did not disappear in 2016. They were so sure that Trump would lose, many of them felt they had the luxury of sitting out the election because they didn't particularly like Hillary Clinton, or indulging in voting their pipe dreams by voting libertarian or green. BIG MISTAKES there.
These are the voters who need to be motivated to vote in the 2018 midterm elections. It is my hope that Trump has scared them enough that they will turn out and vote -- and of course, vote Democratic.
Also, let's see how the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia turn out in November, and even the special election for U.S. senator in Alabama. I
And of course, there's Mr. Mueller's report, whenever that comes out. I assume he hasn't convened two grand juries and hired an Untouchables style crew of ace lawyers -- now working away in an undisclosed location -- just for the heck of it.
Speculation is cheap. We shall see.
14
What strikes me most after reading this and a large number of the corresponding comments is that the comments actually PROVE Cohen's point. If liberals do not reckon with this, and I suspect they will not, Trump is on his way to re-election ... rather easily.
20
2020 could turn out to be one of the strangest elections ever. By 2018, Democrats will discover that simply being anti-Trump does not work. All the things that liberals have been doing since January are traps that solidify Trump's base as well as other voters who are still suspect of Trump.
At the same time mainstream Republicans will find themselves in a similar quandary. They cannot win either. There is a 40% chance in my opinion that Democrats in 2020 will nominate a Republican for President! The 60% of the country that does not like Trump will have to do the unthinkable. This will not be a realignment but it will be the beginning of 4 or 8 years where Republicans and Democrats decide what to do.
4
As long as the modern Democratic Party displays outright, open contempt for places like Appalachia, they will lose. You cannot blame gerrymandering for losing US Senate and State Governor elections. Also, Majority-Minority districts are a form of gerrymandering as well. Democrats have come a long way since the halcyon days of FDR and the New Deal. They destroyed themselves in 1968 and continue to do so to this very day. Democrats will never be a majority party while they isolate themselves along the I-5, and I-95 coastal corridors. Democrats cannot rail against science deniers re. climate change and then turn their back upon basic biology re. gender. Most Americans simply want to live their lives, take care of their families, and BE LEFT ALONE! Sadly, most democrats just do not understand that simple fact.
13
It’s no fairy tale: once upon a time the Democratic Party, on a national basis, knew how to win. They won by being the party of the working class. This was their bedrock constituency. And the addition of civil rights supporters in the 1960s should have broadened their base even more- despite Vietnam, despite racist backlash. However, by competing for contributions from the same funding sources as the Republicans they have compromised their message and policies.
The Democratic party needs to gear-shift out of the neoliberal mindset in order to travel on the ground where people live. Only then can the economic realm be subordinated to the sphere of the citizen and the local community. An integrated global family is a fantasy without this foundation. And it will not happen where financial capital can run amok. Financial liberalization is not a force of nature. It’s current iteration is not inevitable.....
A transformation is necessary. It will require careful crafting. And an acknowledgment of failure.
This reorientation may not be possible with the current party leadership. It will need to come
“from below”- perhaps from a new party.
8
"It would be a huge mistake to conclude that his (Mr. Trump's) supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans . . . ."
Actually, concluding that his supporters do include millions of such supporters is a huge mistake which Mr. Trump has avoided.
5
If 45 succeeds in taking away health care from millions of Americans, and Congress succeeds in passing tax cuts that actually take away crucial exemptions, it won't matter what he says. His party will lose. Telling it "like it is," won't hold a candle to people's actual lives.
8
ok, hillary lost but won the popular vote by quite a bit in spite of a very effective russian disruption campaign. i say if the russian influence had been properly recognized and mitigated? she would have won the electoral college as well.
9
Some "ordinary Americans" are privileged with an outsize amount of voting power because of severe gerrymandering and the Electoral College. Other "ordinary Americans" don't get an equal say in electing the president, which is a problem we ought to be able to solve. Stop blaming the Democratic party's "identity politics" for what is a structural problem that is strangling our democracy. Some people's "identity politics" is other people's basic human rights in the balance.
10
It's not necessary to place our race, gender, or sexual orientation at the center of our politics or our moral reasoning to achieve basic human rights for all. Putting our common humanity at the center will do the job.
We do need to be willing to listen to each other.
7
Democrats need to start by asking the president and supports one question: How and when does America become great again?
Ask it over, and over, and over, and over.
4
Of course what Cohen says is "true," but also kind of obvious. What is not so obvious is what the Democrats are supposed to do about this problem. The logical conclusion from this article is that they should copy Trump's style and rhetoric and drop their bi-coastal adherence to fact based reality. That would not only not be a winning strategy but a complete abandonment of democratic and Democrat values.
4
Trump's supporters are not only angry, downwardly mobile, uneducated whites who live away from the coasts. First of all, it is more rural/urban than by region. Rural areas of Illinois, New York, Washington State and California had considerable Trump support, while seemingly conservative cities, such as Indianapolis (can you get more "MIddle America" than Indianapolis?) went 59% against Trump, and that was with a diminished black and latino turnout.
But furthermore, and often overlooked, are the suburbanites who don't agree with Trump's cultural comments but dismiss them because they say, as a highly educated neighbor of mine said: "Whatever. My 401K investments are doing better than ever!" I sometimes think that these people are more morally bankrupt than the economically distressed folks who cling to racism out of desperation. We should certainly not excuse that racism; it should be strongly opposed. But those who know better and then say: "But I'm making money." may be the worst part of Trump's supporters.
5
White nationalism and its more abhorrent relative white supremacy are forms of identity politics. We are in the midst of a transformation of our political system brought about by electronic technology and media; the specific players matter much less than the way media has fundamentally altered our interpersonal and political relationships as well as our modes of thinking. I am constantly surprised that media theorists like Marshall McLuhan, who predicted, back in the 1960s, many of the developments we're now seeing, rarely get mentioned in these discussions.
5
1. Capitalism has been at war with democracy for 3 decades. The greatest obstacle to the "freedoms" of de-regulation are the "little people" & the public interest.
2.There is an inherent tension between freedom and equality. The "freedom fascists" see freedom as being limited by equality. Look at the rise in all kinds of inequality as a result of all kinds of deregulation.
3.Freedom is the US sense has become more about making and spending money than anything else. This is actually experienced as a burden by the many - if not explicitly, then as a nagging fear of failure - and in the event of serious health or financial issues, a nagging fear of disaster. This is the freedom of every man for himself - the sinking ship. It's very different in the social democracies of Europe where these American ideas would never be tolerated. FDR was European in this sense.
4.The soft democratic values - tolerance, compromise, pluralism and respect for "The Other" - are being attacked by the freedom fascists as a way of electing populist numbskulls. They need to use the democratic process to defeat the core democratic values in order to radicalise and polarise the electorate - to vote for populists.
5.The higher democratic values depend on thought rather than gut feeling. Populists are getting us to react with our guts rather than our heads. Their weapon of choice to destroy thought is FEAR. Fear is contagious and asymmetric. Easy to create difficult to remove.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
7
Democrats have nominated presidential candidates from all over the country. For over a century most of the Democratic winners have not come from the northeast or west coast.
Since WWII Democrats have won with candidates from Illinois, Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, Massachusetts and Missouri.
They have lost with candidates from New York, two from Massachusetts, Tennessee, Minnesota, North Dakota and Illinois.
Aside from Al Gore of Tennessee southern Democratic candidates have won elections. Gore was identified more with Washington than Tennessee since he was born and went to school there. He went on to lose his home state. Southern Democrats win: Johnson, Carter and Clinton.
John Kennedy from Massachusetts won. Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Michael Dukakis from New York and Massachusetts all lost. Candidates from the northeast are not a good bet for Democrats.
The middle of the country is a toss up. Obama and Truman won three terms between them. Stevenson, Humphrey and McGovern lost four.
The most consistent Democratic nominee who go on to win the election come from their must conservative states.
3
The author acts as if Trump actually got the most votes in the last election, he didn't. Fix systemic problems like the Electoral College, low turn out due to voting on a week day and some gerrymandered states and Trump looses - bigly. Then we can stop all the crying about ordinary Americans, most of whom are already tired of Trump...in my humble opinion.
4
I teach high school, have for 30 years. Whenever I discuss politics with my students, which is daily, I frequently admonish them to remember that those who "Tell it like it is" are really only "Telling it like I see it." I think all of us would like to believe we tell the truth as it objectively is, but I also think we are long past holding on to that childish hope. Continuing to believe in the tooth fairy will put no money under my pillow; continuing to hope that those I disagree with will finally come to see my truth will not prevent the downward spiral of our democracy.
4
I grow weary of the label mis-attributed to liberals as engaging in “identity-politics. In my experience of the US it is white Christians of a specific set whom seek to force all people within our borders to conform to their values, which only they are allowed to set for all. If you aren’t on board with white christian identity you aren’t truly American. It is the ultimate in exclusive and punitive identity-politics, yet liberals are faulted for demanding equal and fair treatment.
So we are faulted for wanting our identities, lives, needs, voices and stories to be equally legitimate in OUR country. That is the meaning of “equality” to many of us. It is clear from the language that we are accused of “identity-politics” for asserting our right to be treated with equal protection under the law even if we aren’t white Christians. So in lived experience it is the conservatives and Trump whom are tengaging in identity politics in rhetoric and public policy. They seek to impose their identity and purported values on everyone. That is the ultimate in “identity-politics.”
5
Trump thrives on confrontation. Just as he thrives on not paying his bills. Trump gives himself a giant tax cut and raises taxes on the middle class. Trump benefitted because the Ds nominated a Nixonian candidate against him. He loses the popular vote to the most progressive economically dynamic parts of the country. Rust belt America and hide bound conservative white middle America love his bigoted loud mouthed Make America Great Again shtick. But the Ds and non Trump Republicans have tied themselves to the utterly ridicules McCarthyite Russian interference stuff. As long as the electoral college continues to select presidents Trump seems to be a shoe in to be the first president to get two terms without winning the popular vote.
2
Jerry Brown, Governor of California, certainly tells it like it is. He is very progressive and has gotten California's budget under control.
He and Senator Elizabeth Warren would make a winning ticket.
2
"I’m not sure who that person is, but I am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California."
This is quotation from Roger Cohen, not one of the white men he spoke to in Arizona. (From this column, it appears he spoke only to white men.)
What if Roger had written of a candidate who speaks American values: "I’m not sure who that person is, but I am pretty sure she or he is not Jewish, African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic."
Who are the potential presidential candidates from these three states: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (another New York woman!), Sen. Kamala Harris (African-American, Asian-American), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (another woman), Mayor Eric Garcetti (Jewish, Mexican-American), and former Gov. Deval Patrick (African-American).
Hmm...
Roger also picked the wrong state to illustrate his thesis. Last fall Arizona Democrats gained seats in both houses of the state legislature. A Democrat unseated the Trump-like and now Trump-pardoned GOP Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Voters passed a $12 minimum wage over Republican efforts to stop it. Hillary Clinton got 45.46% of the vote, losing to Trump (49.03%) by a smaller margin (by a lot) than in supposedly swing-state Ohio. Clinton did better than Obama in 2012 (44.45%) and 2018 (44.91%). Democrats kept all their four seats in Congress to the Republicans' five U.S. House seats. Unlike Florida, North Carolina, Ohio or Pennsylvania, Arizona's Congressional delegation has been nearly even.
5
Let's see how popular Trump is after he signs tax legislation that consigns workers to a lifetime, a lifetime!, of working.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/politics/republicans-tax-401-k.htm...®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
I don't know many "real Americans" who voted to have their retirement vehicle gutted to pay for a Tax Cut for America's richest, including their beloved president.
5
Yes. And let's also see how popular Trump is after millions of Americans either can't afford, or can't get health insurance due to pre-exisiting medical conditions...like Black Lung disease.
3
And so it goes: "As Chuck Coughlin, a Republican political consultant who once worked for Senator John McCain, put it to me, “Somebody who speaks to common-sense American values — that is what the Democrats need.” I’m not sure who that person is, but I am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California." So common sense values don't exist in NY, MA or CA? Chuck Shumer doesn't have commons sense values? Nancy Pelosi is on the left fringe? Nancy Pelosi has toed the mainstream democratic line for all her career. She is NOT some left wing nut job.
And why is it not possible for white middle america to wrap their heads around the social justice issues that many Dems advocate? So should say the grandfather in Indianapolis: "I don't know any gay people, but if the want to marry, well I guess that's OK". Is that really so hard?
And African American football players taking a knee looks pretty respectful to me. They are saying: "We honor our country, but we are bringing attention to the fact that our imperfect union can do better".
We are now divided in two: The Dems (and enlightened republicans) who are outward looking, the Base of the republican party that is inward. But I'm really fed up hearing about the condescending coastal elites. I think it's a fair to ask why someone should able to 20 guns designed to kill people with so little strings attached. Is that condescending?
5
To answer your question, No. It's not.
But then again, it's only considered condescending if you're from New York City or California...remember?
2
I am looking forward to voting for DT's re-election and another humiliation for the Dems in 2020. Just a reminder to check out the 2016 electoral map by county showing @85% of the country in red.
With unemployment at an all time low and the stock market at an all time high and tax reform around the corner the socialist/ globalists/racialists will have a hard time convincing the average Joe (& Jane) to vote Dem.
But not to give up hope, HRC can always be revived to represent all identity groups, except white males. After all it takes 3 strikes to really be out.
Lots of Luck
10
That red of which you write was determined by less than 78,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Wall Street prosperity and low unemployment can rightly be attributed to Obama, just as the Great Recession of 2008 and '09 was correctly attributed to the time when G.W. Bush was president.
Tax reform? Around which corner? So far, Trump and the Republicans can't agree on a bill honoring motherhood. If it passes, the public will get to see that it mainly a sweetheart deal for the mega-rich, crumbs for the rest of us and actual tax increases for some in the middle economic groupings.
If Trump is your vision of heaven on earth, you need to tell your guy to stop threatening to blow it up with nuclear weapons. There is no turning back if millions of people die because of an amateurish effort to scare N. Korea.
5
One of Cohen's better, meaning more rational, OpEds.
Yet, at the end he shows the usual bi-coastal deafness in his defense of NFL players "taking a knee". Americans, and that includes many African-Americans (I changed that from blacks to be more PC), are tired and down right disgusted that the relatively small proportion of police brutality in this country, troubling as they are, get so much MSM and general attention compared to the systemic and ongoing murder and violence in our urban communities.
The police are this nation's front line of defense against anarchy and chaos. Given the hyper-violent nature of America, which isn't ever going to change, the blue line will always veer more towards a paramilitary force than a social service forces as is imagined by starry-eyed liberals like Cohen.
10
Trump will eventually be gotten rid of. But -- guns, professional wrestling, reality TV programs, tattoos, generations of family breakdown and all -- there is no way of getting rid of his followers.
5
I'll not be taking my advice from any Republican consultants. They got it sooooo right last year.
And let's be honest. Nearly everyone goes to the bathroom or looks in the fridge for the National Anthem, since it is usually broadcast over with a beer commercial. Red, White, and Bud. At least the players are using the national anthem for a national issue. They aren't selling beer and useless pretend-trucks to a bunch of couch potatoes.
3
Would be delighted if he runs again in 2020.
6
Worst headline ever. Implies it could be about Trump figuring out a way to run for a third term.
1
Heiler's comments about black football players making "a really good living ... [t]his country's been really good to them" is really the part of the point behind their protest. Despite having arrived to the good life, they still get stopped in the street. They are not treated as economic elites, despite their fancy cars and homes. They have to teach their children how to behave around the police, so that they don't get shot. They might have thought that prejudice was around being poor, but they find it has followed them into the big leagues. The racism then becomes undeniable, doesn't it? One cannot hide from it ... kneeling is praying to God that someday this country will live up to its ideals of equality under the law. We should have these prayers.
3
The democratic party remains deaf and blind to the voices and messages of most Americans. We are not devoted to certain liberal ideas or certain conservative principals. Most of us want what the other guy wants :Prosepective opportunity and government that keeps the greedy ,violent and intolerant at bay.The Democrats are focused on the past and chase the issue of the day. But leaders look forward and find common ground.The past will stay as it is. Hillary is not the president and slavery, sexism and racist people ran the country! Ok, now what?
2
Roger Cohen sums it up well, when he says, "...the Democratic Party has not yet begun a serious reckoning with its defeat last year. It hasn’t grasped the degree to which it lives, still, in a coastal echo chamber of identity politics and Trump-bashing. Just being anti-Trump won’t cut it."
Americans have made the mistake of taking the truly wonderful reality of being a people who are largely hyphenated Americans (Black, gay, Christian, female, Polish, 2nd Amendment, millennial, etc.) and chosen to claim as their prime identity the adjective that precedes the noun rather than the noun itself, "American." That way leads nowhere except down a path to greater and greater mutual distrust and anger, to separatist tribal rage, rather than to collective struggle to actually improve things.
Leegrid Stevens who wrote the play, "Mesquite NV" is quoted in the "Mesquite Local News" (Oct. 5, 2017) as saying, "All the arguments were personal. The city [currently in the news as the hometown of the Las Vegas shooter] has no left or right..., just a constant search for blame." The article continues, "He wanted the play to show the style of contemporary American politics -- how you have to be outraged by either side. 'People can't abide a lack of outrage nowadays...no matter how small the issue.... The big issue is actually just the outrage.'"
3
Mr. Cohen is about the only NYT columnist who has the honesty to describe what is really happening, and is not not influenced by blind hatred. Trump's effective stems from his ability to "hit a nerve", as Mr. Cohen points out. And the absolute polarity in this country makes objective "truth" hard to find, if it even exists at all.
The manufactured controversy involving the previously unknown Rep. Wilson is a prime example. Was Trump "disrespectful"? Did Kelly mislead about Wilson's FBI speech? These questions become irrelevant to most when she goes off the rails and claims that the "empty barrel" comment is racist, and that Kelly is a "white supremacist". These extreme statements are matched by the White House's doubling down with the "all hat, no cattle" and "you can't question general comment".
The true believers on either end of the spectrum love the back and forth, but I think most decent people tune out and/or are too busy with their lives to pay attention in the first place.
And I firmly believe that we are on the way to a Trump 2020 win because nothing has changed to reverse the 2016 outcome.
7
"...or that his supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently."
This is where the racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Sharia-paranoia, etc. come into play. Any "smart" person sees Trump for what he is: an embarrassingly incompetent man-child. If a smart person is willing to overlook those extraordinarily obvious flaws, it's because of their embrace of the list of "-isms" above.
3
Point 1. No, 45 does not have millions of decent, hardworking supporters who just view the world differently. They knew what they were voting for, and every one of them, even if they don’t call themselves white nationalist, voted exactly for that platform. They
enabled it.
Point 2. The non-coastal, non-urban parts of the country do not have a monopoly on American-ness, authenticity, or legitimacy as citizens.
4
Trump isn't about language. He is about the destruction of language.
4
Let's not forget that "ordinary Americans" voted for Hillary over Trump by almost 3 million votes. If she had had an army of Russian trolls on her side, and Comey's finger on the scale on her behalf instead of for Trump, she would have won by a landslide.
10
I also am an ordinary American, but I do not accept Trump's wink at white supremacists or his many racists and sexist actions and comments. To me, that disqualifies him from running for president in either party. I need to believe that the majority of ordinary Americans would agree with me. Can you be an otherwise "decent" American and support the Alt-Right movement of Richard Spencer? Can we accept as a country that "decent" Americans went to a march in Charlottesville that was a reenactment of a Nazi rally? Just as "ordinary Americans" need to exercise their civic duty, experienced Democratic operatives and politicians need to step up and recruit candidates for 2018 and 2020 who can provide alternative ideas. Removing Trump from office or defeating him in 2020 is a moral imperative.
4
The mistake of the ending of this fine piece is that liberals won't lose, America will.
7
As a life long Democrat, my skin crawls when I hear Pelosi or Schumer speak. I agree with what they say but it sounds phony when it comes out of their nuanced mouths. People can't stand politicians and their weasel words. Actions speak louder than words. Democrats need to speak simply and forcefully, not with overworked position papers and websites. I have said this for years but maybe it is sinking in. If not, we may not win back the Congress or Presidency and from my perspective that may be the last of the Republic we will ever see. The Brannon fascists are on the march and the consequences cannot be more dire.
2
“telling it like it is,” - has its current, more urban equivalent; "keeping it real". Defending ones offensiveness with some alleged allegiance to reality.
When someone say; "I'm just keeping it real." It means, Uh oh, I'm about to be insulted, but I must not, by order of this "realist", take it as such. That this "realist" has all the truth there is to be had, and is about to regal me with a much needed lesson.
Either way, its usually a poorly formed opinion. That I will usually not stand for.
"By all means, go ahead, 'tell it like it is', or 'keep it real,' but then sit back as I blow your hair and socks off with FACTS! Watch out Dorothy as my fact-tornado lifts your house and smashes it down on your precious Idol!"
Robher Cohen is one of my favorite writers here.
But this notion makes sense. Hes pretty sure a visble challenger to herr donald doesnt come from New York, Massachusetts, or California. And the Dems cant win. Y playing identity politics.
Trump is a New Yorker. He one by playing identity politics.
This argument by Cohen is incoherent. And the likes of Van Jones, the biggest poser around, dont get this. The Dem candidate won more votes. Despite the fact that she had zero charisma and an army of skeletons in the closet. Logic suggests this does not point to a reboot of democratic policy. Surely a revoot of messaging and STOP nominating bad candidates. The DNC stinks of corruption. And Dem candidates that start making nativist, identity politics a key platform will lose. This isnt that hard, guys.
1
Rather than sense contempt from the Democrats, it is Trump who shows nothing but contempt for regular, middle-class Americans. He panders. He promises whatever they want to hear, then does whatever he wants. Instead of "draining the swamp", he's populated his administration with millionaires, billionaires and lobbyists. He's put his family in White House positions where they suck up taxpayer dollars, and sell their "brands" during interviews. He's told supporters that they can't trust the news, which lets him do whatever he wants, take whatever he wants, lie as much as he wants, and then say that reports of it are fake. He's our most Godless president, and he mocks his supporters' religion by pretending to share it. He's taken the legitimate alienation and financial insecurity those "decent, smart Americans" feel and exploited it so he can pretend he's a king. And, on top of all that, he's done absolutely nothing for anyone. How is life any better this year than last? It's not. What legislation has he passed that helps American families? None. He's all talk, no action. If those Americans think Trump is on their side, they need to get their heads out of the sand and really look at what he's doing. He thinks they're all a bunch of suckers and that he can pull the wool over their eyes forever. What they take as his "tell it like it is" speech and rogue behavior are nothing but manipulation. He's been laughing at them since his first rally when he saw how gullible they were.
3
I think Mr. Cohen's analysis is strong, and I think his odds -- 10 percent of impeachment, 25 percent of returning to office -- are about right, at least relative to one another (though the probability of impeachment goes way up if Democrats miraculously take both houses of Congress in 11 months). Politicians long figured out that vast swaths of citizens vote not on reason but emotion, and certain politicians have no scruples about cranking-up the baser emotions. Trump, to state the obvious, is among the latter. This latest NFL dust-up is clearly intended to sow division and rally the base and nothing else. Meanwhile, his party goes along because it gets what it collectively wants. Its elite, including congressional leaders, get the pro-business, pro-capital signature pen in the White House, the anti-abortion and anti-marriage equality crowd get what they want, and the economically and racially embittered proletariat get someone they think tells it like it is, at least with the occasional wink-wink, nudge-nudge ("build the wall!" "on all sides!" "boycott the NFL!"). Then there are pure partisans who always vote by party. Put it all together and you have enough to swing the four or five so-called swing states and return to office, even though once again the majority of Americans will probably vote for someone else. Democrats have to figure out which of these factions they can turn in just a couple of states. Seems to me the only viable choice is the economically embittered.
3
If there is a lesson to be learned from the 2016 Presidential Election, it is that the political class has to actually listen to the myriad voices of We-the-People.
While the Trump Administration still has popularity and is being handed a series of free-passes from “Trump’s Base” that isn’t going to last. Pretty soon the reality that the same problems persist and in many cases are getting worse, and that none of the promises made are changing anything will sink in with We-the-People.
We want someone to actually listen and hear what we have to say instead of being handed a list of sound-bytes that really say nothing.
This is a great nation with problems that are complex. We live in an ever changing world and are being buffeted by things happening all over the planet where we don’t have any control. Yet, nobody, not even Trump, is really listening to We-the-People. We are subjected to a daily diet of diversion from the real issues like: how to make medical care both accessible and affordable for all Americans, how to create meaningful paid employment for a large number of working class Americans as the world economy changes, how to create the hopeful attitude in Americas youth that will lead to a successful future, how to make the necessary education for that future both accessible and affordable, how to end the class divide that threatens to create a class of American Royalty as well as a class of American Serfdom.
4
Anyone know when exactly this country turned away from pride in strong education and craftsmanship?
When did it become better to be functionally illiterate than knowledgeable? What's so wrong about the endless effort I undertake to learn more? Why are we more comforted now by replacing something when it breaks rather than knowing enough to simply fix it?
My guess - because I experience the disdain almost daily in my right-wing CO city - is that these folks hold some secret self-resentment for not taking their K-12 education, or indeed any of life, more seriously until now.
That track in life may have been easy and fun when they were younger, but they're now starting to feel the deserved effects of lack of engagement from their youth. They feel left behind, unheard, derided even for their childhood indiscretions. They want a seat at the adult's table without doing their homework. And now we're all angry because they want to engage in the conversation, the nuances of which they won't understand.
We "elitists" who actually cared to know and so learned, are despised for that very fact, when that is what allows us to engage at this level in the first place.
Strump knew our bullies felt left out once we grew up because it's how he felt. He resonates with them because he IS one of them.
You want America back, progressives? Then make education fun and accessible to EVERYONE. Once we stop feigning meritocracy and actually do it, I bet situations will improve vastly.
2
Thank you Roger Cohen for this column that is a breath of fresh air. As a Virginian who supported Trump in 2016, I would be more than willing to vote for a Democrat who at least made an honest attempt to understand my worldview, and I suspect many other voters would too.
".... has become a form of truth. That's a nation in which chaos is more plausible because the ability to make rational decisions is diminished."
Trump fever is still making the left leaning media delusional. They are becoming ever more ossified in their positions. The right is angry at still being ignored and looked down upon- so they continue to overstate things and some on the fringe move rightward.
I am deeply deeply concerned about our country. We need to listen to each other more and have honest dialogue. I fear this plea falls on deaf ears at the nytimes - whose front page coverage is so shamelessly slanted leftward.
Keep doing what you do Mr. Cohen, I hope we as a country can understand each other soon, but I'm loosing that hope.
2
Over-thinking and excessive analysis of the current problem of "Trumpism" as it relates to the electorate is growing tiresome and is unproductive.
Most likely Trump will wither on the vine as he slowly demonstrates his incompetence, his lack of any and all virtues, his self aggrandizement, and the low quality of his basic human instincts.
I suggest that the media confine itself to monthly polls on where Trump stands in the opinion of good size samples of the electorate based on political party, age, gender, economic status, education, and any other variables that might be of interest.
As for news analysis, all we need to know about Trump is who, what, why, where, when, and how.
Keep it concise and simple. Avoid excess and repetition.
Let us all stop tearing ourselves apart based on speculation.
Place the focus on defining Trump and "Trumpism" with a studied and impersonal attitude toward the end result of having him remove himself from the national scene.
It can be done and recent statements by presidents Obama and Bush II represent the beginning of the bipartisan removal effort.
May former Senators from both political parties now come forward and set the same good example.
Encourage all congressional persons to set political party and political goals aside and to serve the nation as a whole.
United we stand. Divided we fall.
1
Cohen has crossed the language barrier from the other side of Trump. He thinks by positing the worst case is truth, he will garner personal acclaim. This is not personal acclaim that garners integrity. He blatantly ignores that trump lost the popular vote, He sounds like Trump himself. To claim our next presidential candidate of merit will not come from a few denigrated states because they are blue is foolishness. One does not garner wisdom simply by living in Mississippi or any of the flyover states. His parading and masquerading as an objective editorial voice is a disgrace to moderate and conservative thinking. He tells nothing new.
2
I celebrate Cohen's opinion. The great mistake made by the Democrats in the last election was to underestimate Trump. The continuous criticism of his presidency is more of the same.. demeaning him constantly only creates a partisan bubble which blinds those who hate him to think he has no chance and induces a mental laziness, which refuses to even consider he can win re-election. If anything Republicans have shown is that they are in control of local elections. For Democrats to regain power nationally they must start winning at the local level, all over the country. They need a new platform which must be convincing at the local level. Just being anti-Trump will not do it.
2
By placing the blame for Trump's election solely at the Democrat's feet, the entire premise of this piece seems to forget that Donald Trump still didn't get the popular vote and it was the Electoral College, which by the way, favors rural areas of mainly Red states, that actually put him in the White House.
Also no word of Republican gerrymandering, or their attempts to circumvent the Voting Rights Act in certain Southern states, or the fact that the majority of Americans don't want to have a white nationalist in the White House -- something that will certainly precedence when it comes to making sure this doesn't happen again.
For nothing less than the simple fact that it could result in a racially motivated Civil War, where the welfare and fate of this country is put at stake.
2
Mr. Cohen has sipped the Right-Wing Populist brew. He divides Americans into Trump lovers who are gun toting "real," "ordinary" Americans and Trump haters who are effete, wine sipping, bi-coastal elites obsessed with non-binary gender identification. This educated professional has owned guns, could care less about non-binary gender roles and hates wine. One irony eludes Mr. Cohen: that Trump's so-called "real" Americans have absolutely no problem wit the Trump Campaign colluding with a hostile foreign power to steal the 2016 Presidential election. None whatsoever.
1
The idea of Trump actually winning another term is truly horrifying. In a sane world, it would seem impossible. But we saw what happened in this election. However, the fact that Trump won not only spells a failure of the democratic party; it points to the inability of the electorate consisting of those who didn't vote for Trump to grasp reality and come together to head off this colossal disaster.
A few of reasons Democrats lost in 2016: 1) They were more focused on having the first woman candidate made President after the first African-American President than they were on the condition of the country. 2) In light of one their campaign slogan was weak, "I'm with Her," rather than Trump's "Make America Great Again." 3) They threw Bernie Sanders under the bus, then, instead of choosing him for a running mate, keeping the Party presumably more unified, Mrs. Clinton chose Senator Tim Kaine, someone most of the country had never even heard of. 4) They became overconfident. As Trump did more and more outrageous things, the Democrats just assumed he would fail, rather than keeping the fight on the ground.
Meanwhile Trump took it, lies, bombast, outrage and all, all the way to the White House. If the Democrats want more than a snowball's chance of winning in 2020, they'd best get rid of the "deer-in-the-headlights" look and reinvent themselves. Or Trump's "truth," such that it is, will prevail for another four more years. And again, they'll only have themselves to blame.
4
I disagree with you on a couple of points. First, to this idea that Democrats can't win by "just being anti-Trump", which I read and hear over and over again. I'm really not so sure about that. Almost two thirds of us have enough sense to realize that this individual has no business being president. Even allowing for the sad fact that the Podunk vote counts for more than ours, there's a whole lot of potential energy here, which shouldn't be cast side. And it goes without saying that the Democrats will at least *try* to govern, given the chance. So, there's that.
Secondly, to the bit about all the "decent, smart" members of his fan club. While there may be *some* who arguably fit that description, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Trumpism is primarily a simplefolk phenomenon -- founded on the manichean worldview of unenlightened people who are not very nice, and who are easily manipulated by the pressing of their own hate buttons into voting against their interests. And, god knows, against ours.
Something has gone horribly wrong here. The system's inherent vulnerabilities have produced a catastrophic outcome that never should have happened. The dire need of getting it fixed IS the main thing. And when we talk about being "just anti-Trump", that's basically what we're talking about. I think it is precisely the issue we must rally around, and we dismiss it at our peril.
2
Saying that Democrats alienated voter by focusing on identity politics is undeniable. But projecting 2016 voter decisions to assess the 2020 election is not useful in the least. In 2016, voters heard that Trump can solve all our problems. But his solutions were drawn from polling the base, not by sound comprehension of the problem. If you don't understand the problem, you are not going to solve it. After 9 months in office, whether Trumps solutions are TBD, at best. Will disrupting trade deals increase middle class well being? Will cutting corporate taxes cause a boom in jobs and employment, without an adverse market reaction from increased deficits and debt? Will we solve the international threats? Will coal jobs come roaring back, or will green energy be ascendant and the market owned by China? By 2020, the verdict will be in, and I'm doubtful that outside the base, voters will view Trump as the solution.
1
Trump doesn't rule by chaos. Even though there is chaos in the White House, he doesn't like it. Nor does he represent a significant group of Americans, although a significant group of Americans support him. More simply, he is simply being Trump, living the way he has always lived. The bully on the playground. It's all he has. It is all he knows.
He attacks and threatens--pokes, dares--as his starting move, in every case, pretty much every day. Often he gets a good fight out of it. At some point--after sufficient strutting and challenging, with withering attacks on someone or another whom he doesn't even know, receiving applause from his fawners, many who actually think he cares about them, he bores of the fight and starts a new one. The schoolyard is never free of him. He never quits his roaming destructiveness. But he is also in his own prison. It is all he knows how to do. He is on a caged mouse's wheel.
I don't think his base will stay with him forever. His compulsive destructiveness will wear thin, and his followers will slowly diminish, as it becomes increasingly obvious that he does not do anything for anybody but his own ego. He doesn't have a self--only a regularly deflating ego that must be pumped up daily. It must be exhausting.
4
Roger Cohen understands the dynamics quite well. His comment that Trump "winks" at White supremacists show he still doesn't quite get Trump, however. Not responding to bad players on demand in the way ideologues proscribe is not the same as supporting them.
To truly understand Trump and his supporters, the first step is to stop seeing them as "racists", "sexists", "homophobes", etc. This narrow lens may be the biggest blinder of all.
6
It is not so much about trump’s “talents” who was in the right place at the right time despite himself, and more about his base’s tribalistic instincts to want to be divisive. They need to have an “us against them” and fight against their sense of loss of control. Almost arbitrarily main stream media, governance, civility and intellectual curiosity and discourse is lost amidst Trump’s simplistic (and destructive) sway. It is terribly unfortunate that facts, truth, and science is cast aside as these are necessary guideposts for the formation of constructive public policy. We are witnessing demagoguery and I fear the dissolution of the best that the United States has had to offer
1
I think the author misses a key point of this discussion. We live in a culture driven by individual or group "truths" which are often nothing but carefully derived narratives to promote or support someone's particular bias. For example, the "empty barrel" congresswomen, said she had to look up what it meant, and then determined from reading the definition, that it indeed was a racial epithet. The definition that the person who complains the loudest has the least amount of wit, cannot in any "truthful" understanding be racist. How absurd! I know plenty of people who are empty barrels. They come from all walks of life, races, cultures, etc. Has absolutely nothing to do with racism. This is the problem too with empty barrels. We can never have a serious conversation about the problems of real racism, because some people, (again mostly "empty barrels" which include celebrities, politicians, and activists) cloud the issue by making every word spoken by those who disagree as racist words. A person can only not be a racist if they agree with an empty barrel. I choose not to be defined by empty barrels.
4
One of these supposed "truths" is that Trump lies all the time. He is an exaggerator who speaks in hyperbolic terms. Many of us understand exactly what he means. It's usually not what the media is reporting. The media still insists on taking him literally so they can fill their air time "fact checking" his every comment. It rarely covers his accomplishments, preferring to find fault.
One example is Rep. Wilson's handling of Trump's call. On the internet is a recording of another call Trump made that brought tears to my eyes for the wife of the fallen soldier. Were this Obama, the media would have made sure the more positive recording were brought to everyone's attention. (Couldn't have people thinking badly about Obama, right?) Trump gets no such circumspection.
The only thing more tedious than a "lie" is having to listen to the media and his critics drone on about it for days. They now sound like angry ex-spouses. They don't realize they risk being tuned out (if they haven't been already).
3
I think it's not quite accurate that we anti-trumpers disdain the president's supporters. Rather, we disdain their support for the president. Admittedly that can seem a distinction without a difference. After all, many of us feel a terrible frustration that so many of our countrymen support the insupportable: a man who is a serial liar, an enemy of the first amendment, a climate change denier, an admitted sexual predator, a manifest racist and a self dealer who is uninformed about history or civics. i understand that people who are fed up and disgruntled or worse about their treatment by their elected officials are gratified by an upending of the status quo. But this? I feel a thorough estrangement from these people, as though none of my values overlap with theirs. It isn't disdain; it's despair.
3
Trump thrives on anger and he goes out of his way to provoke it.
So what can we do? We can ignore the provocations and focus on the real issue: the economy. Decent jobs with living wages, healthcare, and retirement benefits. For everyone.
Everything else is a sideshow and a distraction, whether it's stirring up racial prejudice, insulting women, threatening immigrants, disrespecting military widows, or fawning over Putin. It's red meat entertainment for his base and anger bait for everyone else. And distraction on all sides. All that stuff is just classic demagogue behavior, from Theodore Bilbo to George Wallace and Lester Maddox.
Trump is an instinctively skilled demagogue, and that means pitting one low-level economic group against another. That creates a smokescreen allowing massive corruption and enrichment of cronies, who in this case are the already wealthy class.
Protest the insults but don't get distracted. Follow the money. It's all about money.
There are many of us who felt that the Obama presidency in general made our country and the world a poorer more violent and less free place for people and endangered the future of many. Still we could not believe Trump would run then we could not believe he would seriously contend in the primaries. Then we could not believe he could survive his own statements let alone win. Then we believed all hope to save the country from the corrupt Clinton continuum was lost with Trump's nomination. For many the election campaign was a continuation of a depressing march towards the decline of western society.
So when he was elected against such odds I was surprised at my own exuberance. He is a problem. But he is also a solution. At least as a brake on the path to decline the left seemed to so sure to have in store for America.
4
There are three things that will prevent the Democrats from winning the Presidency in 2020:
They don't think they did anything wrong in 2016.
They don't have a platform - Opposing everything Trump is not a platform.
They have no one who can lead the 'loyal opposition.' Can someone answer the question "Who is the leader of the Democratic Party?"
Until you have addressed all three issues, go away, you are wasting my time.
4
I am confused by those who think the response to people having been fooled, should be to emulate the perp who conned them - in a supposedly kinder, gentler sort of way. It's like seeing a bunch of people on the corner, getting fleeced by grifters running a three-card Monte scam. Some might see this, and try to flag down a cop. Some might step up to the table and announce it is a scam, only to be shouted down by those 'playing,' who want to believe, goaded by slick words from the conman. Most probably walk away shaking their heads. Then we have those who witness this and think, "say, these people are quite taken by this scam, maybe if we try a slight variation of such 'straight-talking' with them, we too can get them to buy into our 'product' - but we're not trying to scam them too, but helping, by playing to their values!' Nice.
I read this article and see more of the constant hand-wringing over how the Dems must've slighted Trump voters, by ignoring their ‘common-sense’ values. Why, if Dems want to appeal to the suckers, I mean voters, they need to earnestly speak to them with the same smarm, I mean language, used by Trump to fool them in the first place - right? Gee, seems more than a little 'elitist' and condescending. Stop trying to play three-card Monte to your own advantage, and effectively rationalizing it as somehow being 'for their own good.' That's how it comes across to me, born in Wisconsin from a working-class background. I think I 'understand;' do you?
1
"I’m not sure who that person is, but I am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California."
Mr Coughlin, I have two words for you:
Elizabeth Warren.
2
Trump does not tell it like it is, because neither he nor anyone else has sole custody of the truth.
He does speak his mind, however, at least at that moment.
1
Folks don't have to like Trump to have long despised the snooty PC monoculture of the elites of the so-called global metropolis. Hmm, wonder where they get their burgers?
The overblown hysterics come from the context that practically no one, not even in cloistered New England, views Republicans as depicted in the mainstream media. See GOP governors, and state legislators, mayors, etc., everywhere, including New England.
So it is simply untrue that only Trump resides in an unreality 'tell it like it is' counterfactual language boutique. See mainstream media depictions of Republicans.
"Hands up, don't shoot" never happened, and few Mexican immigrants are rapists. Rhetorical excess does not play favorites.
Whenever it is implied Trump is unique, it is an echo of the PC madness that brought down two political establishments. Blame it, and them, for Trump. The deplorables merely went to polls and did their civic duty.
4
It is a fools errand to pursue Trump voters, imagining they can be won over by a clever argument. And it is contrary to my experience that they are angry about jobs or policy issues because that is not what they are talking about.
It is a cult of snarky sarcasm and any target will do: Hillary, the NFL, a military widow, nothing is too shabby or frivolous to escape their joy at being hateful.
Democratic party leaders need to go in the opposite direction: get latent Democratic voters to the polls - and the mantra that Democrats cannot win by running against Trump is false - of course it will work, so work it.
2
"...rejecting my suggestion that the recent American carnage in Las Vegas showed the need for stricter gun laws." So in order to demonstrate that I have "common sense" values I need to accept that we are helpless to prevent the type of carnage that occurred in Las Vegas? No one will ever convince me that loose gun laws and the perpetual mass shootings that distinguish us from the other civilized nations of the world are somehow conducive with the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For Democrats to succumb to such twisted logic and a "thoughts and prayers, next question?" response to the tragedies would be dereliction of duty.
Good Grief! Does Mr. Cohen believe that this country will be cursed by reelection of the current inmate of the White House? Perhaps the time has come for all the people of good will and sound judgement to pray, or act, for expiation of their sins and salvation from such a fate.
What do you mean by 'culture' ? Tractor pull? Figure eight racing?
2024? God, I hope Trump's political career ends within months, not years.
The truth?...Donald J. Trump and the "truth" are mutually exclusive terms. They are incompatible with each other. Trump is much more comfortable with spreading lies rather than facing the "truth".
As many others have expressed, Donald J. Trump is a sick man...In my opinion, he shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office. The reasons are many as most of you have already heard....His lack of curiosity and refusal to accept personal responsibility for his mistakes in judgement loom large.
2024? I'm seeking a faster solution. I'm hoping that his cabinet recognize the danger that this man presents to the future of our democracy and its institutions and use the "25th Amendment" as a timely solution to our collective dilemma...either that or the Mueller investigation finds impeachable offenses in his past.
Clearly, we are all in jeopardy with this man at the helm.
1
Nothing is going to change until the oligarchs and the 1% stop controlling this country and the gerrymandering happy GOP, their shills are neutered. In addition, the American people stop the notion that being educated is a problem; an educated person is not gullible, only frightened, ignorant people are who clutch at every platitude a demagog will dish out create a problem.
Since Trump's election, how has "the ordinary American" values worked out? He is the manifestation of our values and will remain so until he is ousted.
I believe the blame for the mess we are in is squarely in the lap "the ordinary American."
1
It is more like a group that does not really understand what a "lie" actually is and thinks that their opinion represents reality. So you see many insisting that the president should be impeached immediately without any constitutional reason to do so. You see people thinking that the Paris agreement is a treaty rather than the reality that it was just an agreement with a person who is no longer president. They think science is "consensus", and many other things that are not reality.
3
I appreciate this column and think it expresses a lot of truths. I fear the media's instincts to react to everything that Trump says or done doesn't help, although I get that it's hard not to. A real truth is that many, many Americans do just want to be left alone, and the Democrats have not figured out how to appeal to them. They don't want what the party is currently offering, which seems to be an incoherent mish-mash of promises to give someone else's money to their supporters. Nothing about the economy, other than a dark hint that capitalism is bad and the Democrats will replace that, which really flies out here in the hinterland. The Democrats need new leadership to focus the party on solutions that work for more people.
8
Roger Cohen gets a good start on this piece but doesn't go far enough. Many of the 'coastal elites' were born in the same states Trump won, landed in the top 5% or 1% of their high school class, and passed through a top university on their way to a high paying job in finance or tech, on the coasts.
From there they helped build companies and hedge funds owned by the billionaires that now finance both parties, including the set from Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford that are most integral to Trump himself. (Paulson, Bannon: Harvard; Schwarzman, Mnuchin: Yale; Carl Icahn: Princeton; Rebekah Mercer: Stanford.)
The politics of these high aptitude workers tilts left, but their bosses, the owners, have the money and care more, and they put the money to use fracturing the country (while living in NYC), so they can abolish the estate tax and carried interest, and dismantle regulations that annoy them. That's really all that Cohen's story is about.
The most difficult challenge we face is that the economic value of someone of average intelligence has been dropping for 30 years, and will drop more in the future as automation takes more routine jobs. And the billionaires that our brightest people work for will have a ready supply of Trump voters as a result.
11
Want to feel better today? Read about a TRUE American Patriot - FDR - and his "Second Bill of Rights for ALL Americans. He and Elanor were VERY smart and socially conscious people and every social good since them and Teddy Roosevelt (R - Public lands, trust buster) is under attack.
According to Wikipedia, "The Second Bill of Rights is a list of rights that was proposed by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, January 11, 1944.[1] In his address, Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognize and should now implement, a second "bill of rights." Roosevelt's argument was that the "political rights" guaranteed by the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights had "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness." His remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" to guarantee these specific rights:
• Employment, Food, clothing, and leisure with enough income to support them
• Farmers' rights to a fair income
• Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
• Housing
• Medical care
• Social security
• Education
Roosevelt stated that having such rights would guarantee American security, and that the US's place in the world depended upon how far the rights had been carried into practice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
13
Sounds like the kind of promises made by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, where people are now eating rats and mice to stay alive.
What you blatantly miss is that America is a FREE country. Freedom means you are free to succeed and also free to fail. It does not mean ANYONE and most certainly the government owes you anything - PERIOD. When you give people the entitlement mentality which now affects you and the Democrat party, you will have more people trying to ride in the wagon than trying to pull the wagon and economic collapse is the eventual result.
Margaret Thatcher's words still echo today, "The trouble with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money!"
3
The next Presidential election will be about turn-out, especially in states like Pa, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Trump won those states by relatively small margins. I suspect there are many voters in those states who stayed home because of their dislike of HRC, but could not vote for Trump. I also suspect they now realize it was a mistake. However, there is no doubt that the Democrats need to select a nominee who can better reach voters in those states.
10
The Dems need a solid Message, not necessarily a personality. A solid message with a mediocre "personality candidate can beat Trump. As long she/he doesnt get ruffled by his childish tactics.
1
You are leaving out what the political landscape will look like if Trump leads us into a war with North Korea.
Or the reaction of Republican donors if their Party, in control of Congress and the presidency, can’t get a tax bill passed.
Or if ‘me too’ revelations expose Trump as another Weinstein.
Or if Republicans lose the House and Senate in 2018, while Mueller’s investigation concludes with impeachable offenses.
Or the fact that Hillary won the popular vote, while Trump has had to plead to have his ‘electoral college election’ regarded as if a few hundred thousand votes constituted a mandate to deprive millions of health insurance.
Hell hath no fury like a scorned electorate.
17
Shouldn't this article be titled Trumps Road to 2020, not 2024 as he would be ineligible for a third term?
7
Republican ideas from taxes to the environment to gerrymandering to "welfare queens" have always repulsed me.
What I've come to think of as classic Democratic ideals have kept me in the party and voting Democrat for decades.
But the most version of party ideals is in some cases leaving me wondering where I belong, if anywhere.
Take the idea that globalization is good. Many Democrats say, "Educated people believe that. People who supported Trump are largely without college degrees. Many of them oppose globalization. Therefore people who oppose globalization are stupid. Which means we don't have to listen to anything they say. In fact, they are irrelevant unless they get with the program."
That kind of thinking is being applied to multiple issues. It's not whether or not I agree, it's the simple fact of dismissing millions as morally and intellectually inferior.
That is what cost us in 2016 and will keep costing us.
4
Talbot - "People who supported Trump are largely without college degrees. Many of them oppose globalization. Therefore people who oppose globalization are stupid."
Well, in a manner of speaking, yes they are at the very least ignorant/stupid (like I am re; physics) and in many cases belligerently so. (although I'm not belligerent to understanding physics,I do try)
The issue is,why do You think globalization is bad/good? Dems presented a very inadequate Pro argument. While Repubs mostly support it, but some managed to turn it evil and all the fault of the Dems. Hence Nationalism. They made it wholly evil and destructive to avg. Americans. Dems failed to, as they tend to, counter that ploy with good defensible arguments, while also recognizingits downsides, and what they would do about it.
Trump/Bannon, et al - say throw the whole thing in the trash. Which is truly stupid, for many clear and easily defended reasons. BUT - the Dems, HRC last go-round, failed to do that simple thing.
The problem with the Dems is their messaging, and who they turn out to deliver it. Their message only works with wordsmiths, and eloquent speakers. Ex; Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Not so much HRC. Or...well, who else? Certainly not Pelosi, not Schumer. Who?
While the current iteration of the GOP just needs a loudmouth/s to get their POV sold. Bombastic, and self righteous. Trouble with Trump is - he's wholly unreliable as a presidential mouthpiece. Which they should have known.
1
President Trump is not a serial liar: He is a delusional sociopath and he is spiraling out of control as his delusional world implodes.
The problem is that the real serial liars, the Republican leadership, will try to use the cover of the medias obsession with the Mad Hatter to do real damage to the people of this country.
11
If the country continues on the path of this administration, those of you living 50 years from now will not recognize the country you will be living in compared to the one that existed prior to 2017. Those of you who read George Orwell's 1984 will think that was a Sunday picnic and a "walk in the park" compared to what they will be experiencing. Oh we'll have plenty of jobs and 'unemployment will be zero. If you don't work you won't eat. And those freedoms you cherished for almost three centuries (by then) forget them. They will be reserved for all those who are able to pay the "freedom tax."
Elections, what elections? Anyone running for high office will be pre-selected and unopposed. The proletariat, sorry, the peasants, again sorry, most of you
will be fighting over who gets to the dumpster first. But don't worry, you'll all be working including all the retirees. Social security, Medicare........those myths will be long gone. Homeless, immigrants, criminals, there will be none. Those in charge will not allow it. And eventually will come the puzzlement.....how in the world were they able to go that far? The generation 50 years from now won't be known by any alphabet letters like X, Y,or Z, but rather it might be known as the Last generation.
5
The depression I feel lately is not just because of Trump, it's because I also do not see democrats learning the lessons they need in order to win elections. And it couldn't be more imperative!
I tried to warn Hillary's campaign that this Brexit anger was alive and thriving in St Louis where the platform committee was meeting before the convention.
Whether it's arrogance or timidity, we are still left with situations like the off year Governor's race in Virginia which is tied too close for comfort.
I think Tom Perriello would be doing better at this point in the general because he would have ignited the young voters. Democrats have got to deal with the increasing apathy their donor-focused politicians are fostering.
3
You tried to warn Hillary and she didn't pay attention?
So its over? Hey, coastal democrats and US corporations who want to live in your ideal country with no guns, public health care, free education, no army and police everywhere! A country fighting global warming, having excellent relation with the world and most of all a decent leader! It already exist, just north of you: Canada! We will welcome you. Come.
13
Unfortunately, some of us have discovered that it is not that easy for Americans to legally emigrate to Canada.
3
"His deputy, Mark Swenson, told me: “America was formed by a bunch of people who just wanted to be left alone.” Too bad that those who want to live in a very white and very conservative world can't just do so without trying to force the rest of the country to live with the same "values."
7
Democrats need to appeal to the silent majority of Americans that respect other people, whatever their skin color or religion or sexual identity, and that want a fair opportunity to get ahead. Unfortunately, we're ruled by a crazy minority that controls power through media domination and voter suppression.
Democratic leaders, get your act together. Remind people that your party got more votes in the last election, but because of the stupid Electoral College and gerrymandering, doesn't hold any power. Tell Americans you represent all of them...not just the rich, white, racist men who control the levers of power.
6
Dario,the trouble with the silent majority is they don't tend to show up at the polls, or rallys, or where it counts. They shrug their shoulders and move on, not wanting to get involved, and/or dirty.
If we must pander to racism, homophobia, misogyny, fascism, hatred, and mendacity to win, then we have already lost.
21
"....racism, homophobia, misogyny, fascism, hatred, and mendacity..."
These words are core part among others of the standard wording of ten thousands of comments from 2015 on on this issue. This is deemed to be sufficient and then a hundred of recommendations will follow. Guarantueed.
The countable result has a name: Donald J. Trump. President until 2020.
Mr. Trump has won 2016 Election on the base of the well known traditional Constitutional election system. This is in force without maior changes for more than 200 years and that will not be changed in the next decade.
The "popular vote" many commentators are always referring to does not exist. American Constitutional Law demands "Electoral College" and that´s it.
To argue with popular vote all the time is nothing but a self-delusion. It prevents from realizing the problem as it is leading to the situation Mr. Cohen has described in his column:
"Democratic Party has not yet begun a serious reckoning with its defeat last year. ...coastal echo chamber..."
Indeed.
So you want to change the electoral system? You want an amendment? Alright. Mr. Trump will give you one - when Mr. Trump will be able to rule the majority in both houses. HE - and not you - will draft a new wording then. You have already "Trump Tower", "Trump Winery" - as you had Trump University and Trump Casino in the past - and then you will have a brand new "Trump X Amendment" on Electoral system.
Will this introduce "popular vote"? Probably not.
1
This highly myopic and judgmental attitude doomed you to failure long before Trump.
2
I'm sorry you talked to all the wrong people in Phoenix. Chuck Coughlin is a private prison lobbyist and lives in a Republican bubble. In blood red Arizona Trump won by only 4 pts. and is now at a net-7 approval. There is no way, I repeat, no way, Trump will be re-elected. I doubt he makes it through a 4 yr term. People can only take bullying for so long before they strike back.
7
Trump and all he has heaped on us will be crushed in 2020.
A backlash is coming.
A backlash that will stun the nation.
A backlash against the most unpopular president ever.
Against his party which can't even get its own Senate to go along with secret legislation that seeks to destroy the health of millions.
Against a tax plan that will be a brazen attempt to line the pockets of the wealthy - yet again.
Against the non-stop circus.
Against the lies put forth as truth.
Against American values and plain common sense.
Against what the vast majority sense with there brains and ears and eyes.
The backlash of normal Americans.
THE REVENGE OF THE NORMAL.
Tens and tens of millions of normal, good, decent Americans who crave sanity again.
(are you one of them?)
Normal.
A desire to return to normal.
Watch how many of today's deluded, brain dead Trump apologists get drowned in the wave of normal.
Watch.
16
Watch....and VOTE!
2
“America was formed by a bunch of people who just wanted to be left alone.”
Ironic then just how much the US pokes its nose - and military - into other countries business. And ironic too how those in the US who "just want to be left alone" are often the biggest cheer leaders for interference elsewhere..... There's a serious psychopathology at work here.
7
Here in upstate NY, Trump's appeal seems rooted in race and nativism. During a discussion about immigration the discourse and talking points emanate from Fox News and Trump's campaign speeches. "Immigrants are mostly criminals," say a couple of family members. I listen carefully to the stream of epithets about blacks, lately the derision concerning the protests at NFL games. Anger persists about the tax money that goes to all them downtown Blacks. All Muslims are conflated with the handful of lone wolf attackers in the news. Most of these people are church going, white working class who can't seem to see that their
everyday worldview is completely anathema to the Catholic doctrine they half heartedly listen to on Sunday. Yes I can see this Trump hot air balloon floating into 2025. Especially if the media, including the Times keeps playing Elmer Fudd and chasing Bugs Bunny down silly rabbit holes. Where's all the news about the budget that's about to pass? The Dems put issues out there, but the press and the cable news networks keep going down the rabbit holes.
9
Politics aside, I'm not worried about Trump winning re-election. He will have completely lost his mind by then, and I do mean dementia or Altzheimer's, if stress doesn't kill him before that, egged on by his diet, weight, and lack of exercise. And then, there's that Mueller guy...
5
A liar by any other name is a liar. Trump is a liar. If his despicable supporter refuse to believe that then they are the ones at fault for the present state of this country. We have more of a racist, xenophobic, bigoted, ignorant minority than I ever imagined. They are, however, a minority. Solution? The rest of us get out and vote.
3
No, not so. Blaming liberals and Democrats for this monster is the equivalent of making the woman responsible because her husband beats her. No, something worse and darker has taken over this nation, a blatant disregard for dignity and respect for everyone, including those who disagree. Those who yell the loudest, regardless of the nonsense they spew, 'win,' if winning is the appropriate term. No this is about power and quest for it. Also, if I hear one more person talk about Democrats and donors, I think I'll puke. Money runs and rules EVERYTHING these days and the biggest loudmouth is sitting in the WH because of money. I just got up but I need a nap now...
17
Roger this is simply not true. Things have changed and Democrats are not sitting around whining about Trump.
Out here on the ground in Detroit, I have heard Democrats talking non stop about voting rights, jobs, economic development, environment, etc. The vast majority of the energy is focused on recruiting good candidates, raising money, GOTV ops, and crafting winning messages for 2018.
I invite you to any meeting of Democrats or sympathetic community organizations any day of the week to see for yourself. Most people have opted out of all the negative energy and are channeling their strong feelings into positive local actions.
Grass doesn't make a lot of noise as it grows strong roots.
14
"Grass doesn't make a lot of noise as it grows strong roots." This comment should be a NYT pick!
Cohen's definition of "telling it like it is" misses the point: in Trumpland, it doesn't mean unvarnished, unadorned. It means false, untrue. The list of Trump's lies is too long to list or even to summarize here. So beyond that, is Cohen on to something? He asks Republicans about Democrats? Look, America was not formed by people who just wanted to be left alone: they wanted to tell everyone who came after them what to believe and how to live. Cohen should read Winston Churchill's description of Puritans and of Scottish Presbyterians. Cohen is right though if he believes the dirtier fighter will always win. Is that the America he wants? And why no mention of Comey or Putin??? They don't fit his prepackaged notion of America?
7
No, Mr. Cohen, there are no "decent, smart" Trump supporters, unless the definition of those words has changed since I last looked them up. Trump VOTERS can be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that "Benedict Donald" would make a better president than the unsavory Hillary Clinton. But now that we've seen Trump in action, there is something profoundly wrong with anyone who still supports him. These people have been deeply wounded intellectually, psychologically or spiritually to such an extent that they can ignore--which amounts to encouraging--the bigotry and hatred Trump spews.
The blue state citizens of the west coast and northeast had better come to grips with the fact that we are being held hostage to the hatred of red America. It's time to secede.
7
You are in Dreamland if you think the Trump support base will learn any better after seeing him in action.
And I'm just as through with hearing apologies for them, as by being held hostage by their hatred and their uninformed decision to vote for a person who holds this country in such total disregard.
1
States can determine their own governance within the limits of the Constitution, and I think it's too early to talk secession for now - let's see what happens in the 2018 and 2020 elections and what Mueller comes up with.
1
Health care may turn the tide but at what cost? If people who voted for Trump start losing their savings, lives in their families, because Trump has arranged that the government turn its back so the rich can get richer (exactly what he is trying to do) reality may re focus. BUT the article makes a very good point about the dems. No clue. NONE. Evidence? HRC says it all.
2
Those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.
The question is not "How did such a person as Trump gain the presidency?"
The correct question is "How were the Democrats so inept as to allow Trump to gain the presidency?"
The latter question has not been answered.
Until it is, Trump wins. Everything.
4
The Democratic Party has not only been living in an alternate universe these past 10 years, they've also been living in obstinate denial of the facts. I knew they were in trouble back in 2009 and 2010 when they had control of both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. Their actions spoke volumes. For example, the first Presidential edict was to pardon the very institutions that came too close for comfort in plunging our country into an economic abyss. Tell me, how do you think the American public felt about that one (regardless of political affiliation)? Another very stark picture has emerged since the 2008 debacle. We now seem to have 2 very separate and distinct economies. The politicians are now more eager than ever to associate America's economy with the stock market and they couldn't be more wrong. The stock market economy determines the health of corporations and has absolutely nothing to do with the American dream. The last 30 to 40 years we've seen politicians of both major parties chip away the viability of that dream and they've marginalized our middle class. If or unless the Democratic Party doesn't see the light pretty soon, our country will remain fractured and in the hands of charlatans.
5
Mr. Cohen, eight years of destructive leadership is beyond frightening and that is the future I am reading in this column. I agree with Chuck Coughlin in his opinion about the Democratic Party's empty planning for the future. The problem is not only about the establishment of an acceptable party platform, but finding someone to positively present it to the whole of America.
Two strong warning signs have been sent to the Democratic Party. The first was that a Blackman, Obama, would reignite racism in our country, and the second is that America isn't quite ready for a woman president.
The Democrats have to introduce a very strong, very wise (smart), popular and very charismatic candidate and so far, no one has filled that description. The sooner they find such a candidate, the better.
3
"Telling it like it isn’t has become a form of truth."
No, lying is lying. He does it more than not.
How do the Evangelicals put up with Trump's bearing false witness against his neighbor? How do Budget Deficit Hawks put up with his lying about his tax cuts? How do his supporters tolerate lie after lie after lie? He lies in such an boastful way, I will define what is truth. Tape after tape after tape shows he lies almost continually. And he lies about the most inconsequential items. His first reaction to many items is to lie.
2
Trump is nothing more than an East coast elite wannabe. There is nothing in his biography to suggest an affinity with the heartland, being common, or telling it like it is. So, I will continue to believe that anyone who voted for him likes loud-mouthed bigotry and Russian collusion.
4
I am part of the new moral majority- the Trump people are a minority, and those who continue to support Trump at this point know what he stands for. Nobody can say, at this point, that white supremacy, contempt for the poor, attacking the natural world, and disempowering women are not central values for these people.
Why do people like Mr. Cohen continue to call the 60-70% of Americans who believe in kindness and justice out of touch with reality?
3
I think the fundamental premise of this column is sound and I agree with it. Having said that I disagree with the pessimism of many of my fellow commentators. As a nation, I think that Trump presents us with a great opportunity wrapped in a very perilous package. Despite all of the remarkable accomplishments of the United States we have never had the courage as a people to take on and reckon with the original sin of racism built into our country from the time of its founding. Now in the form of a dangerous, power hungry demagogue that day is upon it. So what do we do now? For starters, we don't start engaging in self pity and finger pointing. We demand leadership that has the courage to take on Mass Incarceration, Income Inequality, Health Care, Mental Illness and Substance Abuse which are not only glaring legacies of our Nation's original sin that disproportionately impact African Americans but cut across all of demographics. Trump's naked use of race as a basis for his power puts the demon in our national lens. Do "WE THE PEOPLE" have the courage to take this unique opportunity to create a "More Perfect Union"
Actually, I think we do.
1
Trump may get re-elected but not because of "millions of decent Americans who view the world differently". It will be because of continued dark money, the gradual slide towards autocracy (and the complicity of the GOP to check that) and continued gerrymandering that allows the tyranny of the minority. We can blather on about identity politics and decency all we want but the majority voice won't be heard until there's a system in which it can be counted accurately. Trump knows that so his eroding base is good enough.
4
Mr Cohen ignores the manipulative language used by Trump. It was adopted directly from authoritarian dictators . There was no direct message to so called ordinary people. As a liberal physician working in Indiana I can assure you that most people that voted for Trump are not racists. Actually , some are immigrant doctors who bought the anything but Hillary line. The ideal democratic candidate should be a gun loving liberal who does not make things like abortion a litmus test.
2
As Bill Clinton said and knows: "it's the economy". Trump will win or lose based on how the economy is performing in 3 years. If it keeps growing as is - he has an excellent chance to be reelected.
4
Cohen is absolutely right. So are Andrew Sullivan and Peter Beinart and others who have said similar things. Not enough to say you're not Trump and expect people to vote for you. Mark Lilla's post election indictment of identity politics still looks valid to me.
3
Trump’s phony voter fraud commission headed up by the super sleuths Pence and Kobach are already hard at work for paths to Trump’s coronation. No need to invoke his fervent base.
2
Does that mean that Dems need to lie, pander to racists, and forget our allies in foreign policy? If so many people such as myself will sit out the election.
I would rather try to inform the uninformed, deal in facts and promote good people to run.
A little help from the media in reporting lies as such would help.
3
Heiler's comments sum it up and people like him need to be thoroughly defeated at the polls.
3
Let's not forget that Trump WAS defeated In the popular vote by almost 3 million Americans. Overruled by only about 70,000 electors in three states, and that his ratings haven't reach 40% in a long time, if ever. A master manipulator, he keeps the conversation going his way.
3
Not only as a "master manipulator", but also as the king of distraction...tweet. tweet.
1
So Trump's hardcore base of 35–40% of the electorate means he's more likely than not to win re-election, even though his approval rating with independents—and even a minority of Republicans—has tanked? I'm not following the math here.
7
Trump now in office for life. Get used to it. If he thinks he won't have the votes, he'll either rig the elections or cancel them. GOP -as always - will go along. Trump supporters (most of GOP base, polls not withstanding -because polls are always wrong) will feel safe & secure in their beds at night knowing that Daddy Dictator is watching over them all.
6
Trump scares people. A huge portion of the public. We have never had a president who thought the possibility of nuclear war was something that could be threatened idly as a tactic. We have never had a president in the nuclear age who, presented with the long effort to reduce nuclear weapons, thought going the other way, building up, was a good idea. There have been dramatic disagreements, but nothing like this.
It is hard to keep up with the outrages to intelligent action and careful thought. In fact, we can't. Some of the harshest criticism of Trump has come from the right. What senator ever said of someone from his own party, "He could lead us into WW III"? This is amazing, beyond ordinary comprehension. What can anyone do about a rogue president who gets up every morning celebrating his ability to shock?
What president ever said there are "lots of good people" marching in the street with torches trying to rile up resentment and anger between the races? What president ever failed to condemn the murder of a counter protester and the injuries of others for daring to oppose racial animosity? What president ever told police officers to rough up arrestees?
What president ever repeatedly appointed people to office with the express intention of working against the assigned purposes of the agencies they were to head? What president ever made a regular habit of publicly attacking members of his own party?
Trump re-elected? Surely you jest.
9
Cohen is not jesting!
2
Trump is a minority president even in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Put together the votes of Clinton and Stein and Trump loses those states and is not president of the United States.
I am sick to death of this idea that only white men living in fly-over country are somehow real and the politics that addresses the concerns of everyone else is "identity politics". Let us explode the myth that Trump voters are low-income working class. Low-income people voted for Clinton because she did talk about economic issues.
The left ought to unite for the sake of getting US to true single-payer universal healthcare, a green economy, judges that will respect a woman's right to choose, gun regulations, respect for the US role in multi- lateral international agreements and much more.
14
Trump doesn't just lie, he tells the opposite of the truth. It's "bizzaro" truth. This is because in Trumpland information is currency and Trump spends none of it that he's not forced to. So far, nobody has found a way to force him to. Maybe Bob Mueller?
6
The sad reality we are all in right now is "hard-nosed realism" as defined in today's political climate is how to out Trump Trump. The difficulty is how does a sane rational individual make that transition. Several of his primary opponents tried it---most notably little Marco--but their normality made them look foolish. So, here we are, looking for a liberal candidate with the same psychological and cognitive profile as Trump---the good news for liberals---there are none---the bad news for the country is there are none.
2
Protesters and Trump*-resistors do not "alienate a lot of Americans". Those Americans are alienating themselves. They are withdrawing from constitutional rights, our national ideals, reasoned philosophy, common weal and old-fashioned 'horse sense'.
People are naturally lazy (myself included). The issue, for everyone, is whether it's more important to indulge laziness, or do the hard work of THINKING about what is right and fair.
Trump* says "be lazy, accept my version of pre-digested pablum". That is very attractive to those wanting to avoid effort.
1
Roger is exactly right on this.
I was born in California and lived there till I was 10. After that, I lived in Missouri till my early 20's, and then after that Oklahoma. I have sampled both extremes of the political spectrum, and until the recently the middle. It has given me opportunityto see the mindsets of both worlds (politically).
The people I work with in OK, are the salt of the Earth. They work with their hands. When I think of "Hard Men", the kind you want going into battle (and I went to Iraq with many of them), these are exactly the guys you want. They don't tweet, they work. They don't talk about politics or philosophies, or ask uncomfortable questions, they just live the way the way they were raised. Because that is what has continued the generations for the people out here.
They are not dumb. But they have an innate sense of what they feel is "right". They put more stock in hard work and dependability, over political correctness and what they consider are overbearing effort to tolerate everything. What they consider "fancy talk", and the continued dismissal of what makes the core of the "flyover-state people" who they really are will result in continued gridlock in our government offices until working class centrists rise up and run for office.
9
The left's arrogance, and the ensuing blindness it causes, will be its undoing. Anyone with a lick of common sense recognizes that the good people you are describing are much more important to this country than arrogant, dismissive elites. When push comes to shove, Americans will always choose them over the other.
5
You're right. Trump can win without Russian and social media interference next election. Their work is done. With gerrymandering and citizens united in place to amplify their
votes, another victory is more likely than we would like to think.
3
You do not address the central fact of Russian interference. Withou the Russians, Trump couldn't have lied his way to the White House.
Just being anti-Trump actually should be enough - and would be enough if the Republican party had enough decency and loyalty to recognize that Trump's ascendency was an act of agression by a hostile power.
This country us under attack. Right now.
4
If you want to see the rise of Trumpism, go back to 1971 and Dirty Harry or 1974 and Death Wish. What built this awful movement? The sense of criminals being coddled, the fracture of Vietnam, the factory towns Springsteen laments shutting down, the farmers who lose their land in Mellencamp's songs.
I agree 100% about coastal elites not "getting it" when it comes to white folks in flyover country. As an academic, I'm on the Trumpist enemies list, but I'm also someone who grew up in that despised white working-class America and still knows a lot of those "deplorable" people.
Until we restore some dignity and wages to work that does not require a college degree, none of us, of any race or gender, should feel safe from what is a rising tide of White Nationalism in America. The Millennials are too fragile, emotionally, to save us from it.
5
The writer somehow forgot to mention the GOP’s most potent weapons : gerrymandering and voter suppression. These are the things,not so much Trump, that continue to win elections for a party completely out of step with the times. Republicans in most districts begin every game with a man on third base.
10
Yes. And then, there's the Electoral College...
2
The "truth" is that Democrats and Progressives need to get out and vote in the next elections. We are the majority and we have let that advantage slip away from us through apathy and neglect of our civic duty. Now we are in a place that demands action in the voting booth. We may never find that middle ground that will "connect us" to the disaffected portion of the American electorate...that hard core base that supports Trump. We need to acknowledge that and get on with organizing and winning back the government. At that point maybe we will be able to address the deeper issues that divide us.
5
There are Democrats in even the reddest of states and Congressional districts. A concerted effort should be made to get these Democrats to the polls in every election, especially the off year primaries, ala 2018. A horrible result took place in my Republican leaning precinct where only 9 Democratic primary ballots were pulled in 2014. In 2016, over 250 primary Dem ballots were pulled. Democrats can win in these areas. My Congressman is a Democrat in this purple Congressional District.
3
Democrats are finished, at all levels.
6
That's exact same opinion I have about this country under the current administration.
1
This column is flawed. No one from NY or CA need apply? News flash: Trump is a New Yorker. So the flyover states did, in fact, vote for a coastal elitist.
Why didn’t they realize that? Because he is a P.T. Barnum who sold them a bill of goods. That’s what real estate con artists do.
15
What you miss is that Trump, as despicable as you may find him, cracked the code. He spoke TO people in middle America and not AT or down to as the other coastal elites (read:Democrats) did / do.
6
"Liberals live in an echo chamber of identity politics?"
The sine qua non of a classic Trump supporter is the angry white person: isn't that an identity. "The" classic American identity?
Give your sweeping generalizations a rest. They're meaningless and lazy. What liberals want is equal rights for everyone, not special rights for minorities.
20
Darcey: You and I may want equal rights for everyone but that is not the case throughout the Democratic Party.
4
Sorry, it is a fact that liberals no longer want equal rights for religious adherents. The Little Sisters of the Poor became devils to liberals.
Liberals today are "ideologues", liberal insofar as the values mimic their own completely. Any deviation and they lose it.
3
In simple terms a liar remains a liar and a thief remains a thief.It sickens me to hear any attempt to explain, excuse or normalize the despicable occupant of the Oval Office.Winking at White Supremacists, demonizing the media and blatantly lining his own pockets are insupportable in anyone's manner of speech be it plain speak or words from a Rhodes scholar.
8
How very sad that anyone has to appeal to basest human instinct to win elections. What codswallop and hogwash. This writer is suggesting voters root in the swill along with the “deplorables” egged on by the elitist, educated ones, like Brexit.
2
I'm a registered Democrat, African-American, entirely incensed by Mr. Eagan's comments. If I'm not misinterpreting the gist of his article, then now is the time for all good Democratic politians to declare their fealty to racism, xenophobia, sexism, nativism, an unbridled, unfettered laissez-faire philosophy, unquestioning adherence to a distorted view of the 2nd Amendment, environmental destruction, and the asinine, empty, Make America Great slogan that is the mantra of Donald Trump and his bovine base of supporters, all good, hard-working Americans simply worried about the future. It goes without saying that their virtue is unassailable, it's well nigh irreproachable. Mr. and Mrs. Heartland America, overwhelmingly Caucasian, who don't quite understand how black football players, who are grotesquely overpaid to play a GAME, for heaven's sake, have the audacity to kneel in protest about anything going on in America--including police brutality and the systematic murder of black men. If Trump is re-elected because his demagoguery is more fashionable and appealing to Heartland ( White America), then so be it. I will not belong to a Democratic Party that takes its cue from Trump, his ilk, or his followers just to get elected.
28
Cohen doesn’t seem to understand that Trump’s record as President—his statements, his appointments, his executive orders—are all legitimate campaign issues.
His outright lies, from inauguration crowd size, up until yesterday’s denial of what he said to a Gold-star mother—are a matter of record. His appointments of self-dealing thieves like Marino and Price—are a matter of record. The incompetent travel-ban on a country (Chad) that was one of our best allies against ISIS —is a matter of record. The recent Benghazi-like massacre of 4 servicemen in Niger —is a matter of record. The nasty remarks about the people of Puerto Rico —and the current inability to provide water, power—a matter of record.
Yet somehow, in some upside-down world, Democrats dare not campaign on promises not kept, incompetent governance, and corrupt officials who treat themselves to $600,000 plane flights? Are they not to campaign against Trump’s support for Nazis in Charlottesville for fear of offending white people in Wisconsin?
You try to unseat an incumbent by running against his record, against promises unkept, and competence.
Is it not fair to say Trump’s on the job training has failed the country miserably? That this alone is a reason enough to vote for the Democratic candidate and turn out our base should be enough to win back FLA, WIS, MI etc.
Let the Trump-diehards be: we don’t need them to unseat him, period.
13
Whenever I read how Americans of good conscience support Trump because he is an iconoclast or undermines deficient liberal orthodoxy, I ask on which side in World War II a Trump administration would have fought.
Now tell me about how the man is leading a movement that is anything but rancid.
8
Electoral college, Facebook bots by Russians, radioactive candidate without a compelling message....all factor in to the past election results. If any of that were different, our discussion would have resulted in naval gazing by the Republicans.
4
2024? I am praying Trump's road ends in 2017. I have stopped watching cable news. I can no longer stomach this man. I'd rather watch infomercials all day.
3
Two comments.
Democrats had a candidate who speaks to commonsense American values. And Mr. Cohen is right, he did not come from New York, Massachusetts or California. He came from Vermont.
And if America was founded by people who just want to be left alone, then why did they kidnap 3 million people from Africa and force them to work for nothing?
7
The Liberals like Cohen, well educated, well oiled, sitting in their million $ mansions, will never fathom Trump Nation's fear of survival. TN has no assets, no education, no skills needed survive in this Knowledge based era of Globalization and Free Trade.
Unfortunately for Cohens who never invested enough in public health, education, and welfare when they had their chance, the Trump Nation is on the increase by the hour. High School grads can not read or count. They are unfit for today's competitive world. And they see around them entitlements that Uncle Sam can no longer afford.
Yes. Trump speaks the truth. He is the child who shouts that Emperor has no clothes – that our Socratic Republic – the government of the people, for the people, of the people - has morphed into a "Democracy", the rule of the Demos, of the 5% (nay 1%) moneyed males who rule over the rest – women, plebs, slaves. Socrates warned about it 2,400 years and just like Ancient Athens Demos is ready to poison any brave thinking man into silence.
Well, people get leaders they deserve. If Liberals keep on blaming 2016 on Putin they will lose big in 2020. And you are reading it from a well wisher Canadian who sent money to McGovern 72 Campaign from his meager student funds, and who actually volunteered and worked for Obama 2008 while on assignment in Bellevue WA. What a letdown.
6
It scares me that Dems have no plan, person, or leader for the next term. Maybe they should call back Obama...
2
No, Roger, you are wrong. The Greyhound bus, with Trump at the steer wheel, and carrying the fate and lives of millions of Americans, is driving down
the mountain pass at such a high speed, that the driver is going to miss the first hairpin bend that he will encounter.
And then? ....Stunde Null.
1
Sooner or later, false prophets are revealed to be just that. Trump's day of reckoning is fast approaching.
1
Mr. Cohen, you have it completely right. Hillary Clinton lost, and Donald Trump won, because Clinton and the Democrats “didn’t get it”, and they (sigh) still don’t. Worse, it’s looking very much as though they never will. In 2016 I drove everyone I knew nuts when I kept growling that Trump would become president. Talk about deja vu! In 2017 I am back on my soapbox predicting, and complaining, that Trump will win in 2020, and win big. The reaction is the same as before. I am told not to worry because “it ain’t gonna happen.” All I can say to them is from your lips to God’s ear.
8
"I am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California."
So, not in states that total one-fifth of the nation's population and more than one-fifth of its GDP? Not in the state that provided the current White House occupant?
Mr Cohen appears to want the Democrats to produce a midwesterner white man who'll be not quite as abjectly bigoted (or addled) but appease those who are. If that's the only option, the nation's done for anyway, so bring on secession and presumably an NRA-championed civil war.
6
You say that "being anti-Trump won’t cut it" -- but "being anti-Hillary Clinton" obviously cut it just fine. I guess that's called "misogyny"
14
I've had it with all the intellectual contortions necessary to "understand" Trump voters. I do agree with Mr. Cohen that Trump is more likely to be re-elected than he is to be removed from office. But there is no amount of "catering" to his base. If that is what is necessary for Democrats to win elections, then we decent Americans -- of all backgrounds -- are living in the wrong country.
All I've seen thus far is that in order to "reach" Trump's hateful base, we must acquiesce to their blatant racism, religious intolerance, xenophobia and sexism. That we must sacrifice our hard-fought Constitutional rights for their "religious" preferences.
It was never about bringing jobs back, or affordable health care, for any of them. Trump supporters would gladly lose their jobs, or see their own families suffer from illnesses they can't afford to treat, as long as they're given license to believe that neo-Nazi's and KKK are "some very good people".
Trump is where he is because his base is what it is - racist, misogynistic, hateful. They see themselves in him – their envy and bitterness, their lack of meaningful accomplishments, their refusal to take responsibility for their own decisions, their continual blame of others for their own failings.
This is now America, and will be for many years, as long as these disgusting people control our nation. I'm through with "reaching out" to them. They need to be stopped. Now.
12
Donald Trump is a New Yorker. How is he not party of the coastal elite?
1
Roger Cohen sums it up well, when he says, "...the Democratic Party has not yet begun a serious reckoning with its defeat last year. It hasn’t grasped the degree to which it lives, still, in a coastal echo chamber of identity politics and Trump-bashing. Just being anti-Trump won’t cut it."
Americans have made the mistake of taking the truly wonderful reality of being a people who are largely hyphenated Americans (Black, gay, Christian, female, Polish, 2nd Amendment, millennial, etc.) and chosen to claim as their prime identity the adjective that precedes the noun rather than the noun itself, "American." That way leads nowhere except down a path to greater and greater mutual distrust and anger, to separatist tribal rage, rather than to collective struggle to actually improve things.
Leegrid Stevens who wrote the play, "Mesquite NV" is quoted in the "Mesquite Local News" (Oct. 5, 2017) as saying, "All the arguments were personal. The city [currently in the news as the hometown of the Las Vegas shooter] has no left or right..., just a constant search for blame." The article continues, "He wanted the play to show the style of contemporary American politics -- how you have to be outraged by either side. 'People can't abide a lack of outrage nowadays...no matter how small the issue.... The big issue is actually just the outrage.'"
3
On the first part of your post: I think this " identity politics " narrative that has emerged divides us further.
It's simple, and the opposite, really. Americans who are not straight white men are actually "real Americans" too. They wish to be seen and treated as such in the eyes of fellow Americans and by our systems and law enforcement.
And that's the type of common sense value the next Democratic candidate should speak to.
1
Coastal people are sympathetic to illegal immigration for selfish reasons. Most of them don't work in trades or other profession where their job or wages are at risk. Ordinary Americans do feel the pain, but get zero support from coastal elites who think it's "racist" to want to protect their jobs from foreign competition. The Rust Belt is a real phenomena, unemployment and poverty growing there almost at a 3rd World rate, but coastal elites seem to think they can just die off, or be replaced with immigrants. Try coming to California and other border states where Mexican majorities have changed everything in cities that used to be less crowded, less dirty, less crime, and had better schools. These cities are populated and run by the same Mexican majorities that have an interest in sweeping under the rug, the true effects of mass illegal immigration.
1
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Cohen's perspective, though I would peg Trump's chances of re-election at no worse than 50%.
For one, Trump standing for re-election in 2020 would mean that the Republic and the Planet did, in fact, survive 4-years of a Trump presidency, effectively dismantling the whole "Trump is going to get us all killed" line of attack that was actually very effective with college-educated white voters--the only demographic where HRC actually outperformed Obama.
Second, if the economy is still humming, that will boost Trump in the same way it helps any other incumbent president. Voters do not want to rock the boat with a new administration and risk taking a hit to their job security or retirement accounts, even if they "disapprove" of Trump overall.
Lastly, I suspect the biggest boost of all for Trump will come from the Democratic Party itself, whose nominee will be bruised and battered by what will likely be a mudslinging, no-holds barred, large-field primary contest, filled with progressive "purity tests" and personal attacks on those deemed too close to the "establishment" in an effort to gain the votes of an increasingly far-left Democratic base that's nearly as angry at HRC and the DNC donor class as it is at Trump.
If the above holds true, the election would once again become a referendum on the culture war, and Trump wins that battle every single time in those "flyover country" areas that swung the electoral map in 2016.
2
Elsewhere on the front page we have an article arguing for a radical leftist agenda to defeat Trump. Cohen is right, that would almost certainly guarantee a Trump re-election. Alternately we might see 3rd and even 4th party candidates to divide up the vote and then we have the chaos that both the Bannonites and the radical left really want. Big trouble ahead folks.
3
I usually agree with Roger, but I won't ever countenance that Trump's 'supporters ... include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently'. No, no, no. His supporters, whatever their views, took and continue to take the word of an outrageous liar. Everyone bends the truth. But Donald Trump explodes it. When you've been exposed to the sheer magnitude and frequency of his fabrications, there is no way you could have voted for him and be considered decent or smart. You are simply just blind and sporting a case of monstrous denial.
7
Roger Cohen writes column after column arguing that the Democratic Party needs to move even farther to the right and cater to the racist, misogynist, ignoramuses who make up Trump's base in order to win them over. He ignores all the economic issues that caused people like me to support a real FDR-type like Sanders and only tepidly get behind Clinton after the nomination. Like $15/hr. Like free tuition at public colleges so that the next generation aren't saddled with debt for the rest of their lives. Like taking the country out of the hands of Wall Street.
I can only conclude that Cohen is a propagandist for the economically elite that run the Dems, and they will continue to do their best to keep the Wall Street money flowing into their pockets, and to drown out any voices for economic democracy.
2
Forgive me Roger, but nonsense.
For the first time on history a political party has won the popular vote in six out of seven presidential elections. That party is the Democratic party. This isn't about messages or genders or rage, this is about the subversion of Democracy by the minority.
7
There are not millions of smart decent people supporting Trump. It's tautological that Trump supporters are either intellectually deficient or malevolent or both.
abw
3
Well stated. The president is not the problem, he's the manifestation of the problem. Centrist Republicans, Democrats, and Independents need to grasp that the challenge and political opportunity resides with the people in our nation in its entirety. And regarding language, the successful candidate will need a simple and better metaphor/picture around which to deliver a message and a policy framework for the future. The candidate and the candidate's spokespersons must also go out into the South, the Rocky Mountains and the Heartland to engage with people there.
There has been no crusade by the DNC to get volunteers to do things like register voters in our cites and work to get voter ID cards into the hands of those who need them. My offers to put in work hours only elicits donation requests.
Money is all they know.
2
I agree with much of this. But I disagree with the claim that the "Democratic Party often seems to have lost touch with ordinary Americans." The majority who voted for Clinton over Trump and the even bigger majority who pollsters say disapprove of what Trump does, says, and stands for––they are "ordinary Americans" too.
3
The simple truth is:
The Election Was Hacked.
Anything can be hacked.
My comment of 11/13/16.
It is impossible for so many polls to be so very wrong. There is always a margin of error, but in this case those margins were always within reason. The number of polls taken was very high and they were very consistent in their conclusions.
I maintain ANYTHING can be hacked and I say this from a background in information technology. This election was hacked and it is to be hoped that somewhere some capable group or organization will take up the task of proving this to be or not to be the case. Let chips fall - wherever.
The Freedom of Information Act should be applied to a study of the system analysis for the compilation of voting results and applied to the study and examination of the software developed for the implementation of the system itself.
Modifying numbers to meet predetermined outcomes is certainly possible.
In fact examination of just 4 or 5 important states could well suffice.
Another question: Where was the system and the software developed and what specific entities where involved in this effort.
Trump decided to run for president - a great surprise to the world at large - and he did so because he knew that he would win.
His entire outrageous and offensive campaign, his demeaning attitude toward many groups of persons, and his blatant over-confidence and swagger was possible because he knew he would win.
"Rigged" he said. For him. He knew it for sure.
7
The November 2016 election was not "hacked." If the New York Times' and other news media reporters had gotten out of their coastal echo chambers and traveled the byways of the rust belt and middle America, they would have clearly seen this political tsunami coming. They would have felt the extreme exasperation of the people in these areas have with the political class of both parties. They would have noticed the widespread contempt for HRC, Obama and identity politics. They would have seriously tried to figure out why Trump was continuing to win primaries and not fading away.
The only thing surprising about the election outcome is that it was a surprise at all. I will never trust the political reporting of the Times again.
1
Another simple truth is that the normal distribution of IQ indicates that half the population has an IQ of less than 100.
This explains part of the problem that is "Trumpism".
Many educated, intelligent persons did vote for Trump. How many of them are now having buyer's remorse has yet to be determined.
Over-thinking and excessive analysis of the current problem of "Trumpism" as it relates to the electorate is growing tiresome and is unproductive.
Most likely Trump will wither on the vine as he slowly demonstrates his incompetence, his lack of any and all virtues, his self aggrandizement, and the low quality of his basic human instincts.
I suggest that the media confine itself to monthly polls on where Trump stands in the opinion of good size samples of the electorate based on political party, age, gender, economic status, education, and any other variables that might be of interest.
Let us all stop tearing ourselves apart based on speculation.
Place the focus on defining Trump and "Trumpism" with a studied and impersonal attitude toward the end result of having him remove himself from the national scene.
It can be done and recent statements by former presidents Obama and Bush II represent the beginning of the removal effort.
May former Senators from both political parties now come forward and set the same good example.
Let all set political goals aside and serve the nation as a whole.
United we stand. Divided we fall.
There is some relevant truth in Mr Cohen's Op-Ed. Although I have been a Social Democrat my entire life, I feel myself being drawn now to the Independents more and more. One thing for sure is that Americans no longer embrace the primacy of the social net for all. The Democrats can't sell it and can't deliver on their promises. This disturbs me more than Trump.
Where did Cohen come up with the numbers for his predictions of impeachment and reelection? Statistical analysis or his intuitions expressed numerically?
There are a few of certainties that we can take as given for our uncertain future. Trump is a liar and an incompetent. The risk of him bringing the country and the world to catastrophe is far higher than the probability of him developing skills of leadership. He will, no doubt, continue to sing his siren song to his gullible base, but he will be doing so in a context of civil discontent, high international tension, if not war, and an increasing number of environmental disasters. It is safe to predict that he will award himself an ¨A¨ on his efforts to deal with all these various crises, too.
The question for American democracy is this: does fooling 35% of the people all of the time constitute a sufficient mandate for holding power? If it does, America can no longer be considered a democracy.
3
Estimating Trump’s “chances of impeachment at under 10 percent and of his re-election at about 25 percent” means little without an estimate of the chances he will resign under threat of impeachment.
1
Trump has no talent. He's a symptom of a society that's lost its way.
1
So if I understand the column and the comments that my fellow readers have made, we have exactly the government we deserve? This is the most depressing column I’ve read in weeks.
2
I am a 70 year old gay, Jewish, liberal and first generation American on my father's side. I am also a skier and three good guys that I ski with are Trump supporters. They are not bad people, especially when I reflect how two of them-older than myself- helped dig out my lost ski on a black diamond run on Mt. Hood. If the democrats don't pick some one who can talk with empathy and respect to all Americans, we are doomed to a two term Trump. Such an event may end our democracy as we know it. Mr. Cohen- you have done the entire country a huge favor.
3
Another truth, and one that seems to be readily forgotten these days, is the fact that Trump's America is not all of America.
And his supporters, rabid as they are, don't represent the rest (or the best) of this country, which is why even the slightest possibility of having Donald Trump in office for more than one term, is as dangerous a notion as it is reprehensible.
And that's the truth.
2
The author rates the chances of a Trump reelection in 2024 at 25%.
I rate the odds as greater than 25% that Mr. Trump will be living out his days in plush exile in Russia by that time. There are numerous indicators of not only collusion with Russia in the campaign, but Trump availing himself of dark, laundered money from the criminal enterprise that is the Russian government.
2
I'm sorry to have to put it this way, but we've heard all of this before, and quite a few times, actually. So instead of rehearsing it again, can you or anyone else to us what Democrats are supposed to actually DO about it?
Because it appears that even though reality IS complicated, Trump wins every argument by pretending reality isn't complicated.
So, what then? Are all of the rest of us who don't support Trump supposed to reject reality too?
If "telling it like it is" is NOT actually telling it like it is, then anyone opposing Trump will have to try to get votes from delusional people as well as rational ones.
It starting to sound like there is nothing that can be done to prevent him and his supporters from destroying this country--for the next 8 years, and maybe longer.
4
Trump is merely a symptom of the economic decline of working families. We report The Dow Jones, GDP and even unemployment numbers yet workers grow even more frustrated as these indicators have little relationship to their family’s diminishing ability to live the American Dream — food, shelter, healthcare, send children to state college, have a respectable retirement and be free of internal and external threats whether real or perceived.
If the Democratic Party is to succeed it must return to improving the lot of all working families. It can no longer focus on the needs of minorities or corporations. This means that the banner statement of the Democratic Party needs to change from the nearly meaningless “A Better Deal” to “Fighting for The American Dream” and candidates should refuse gifts from PACs or large contributions.
Democratic candidates should also commit, if elected, to change the rules of their legislative body to provide transparency of the real allegiances of legislators through the ability of a minority to force on-the-record votes.
Such a change would result in votes on campaign finance disclosure, Medicare for all, pharmaceutical price negotiation, gun background checks, minimum wage etc., all of which would strengthen The American Dream. In addition, these new rules would allow Congress to react to the needs of working families more nimbly during a period of rapid technological change.
Here in Pennsylvania Trump has lost support. The veterans clubs can't stand his foreign policy and lack of diplomacy, the stupid provocative tweeting, or that it takes generals to keep him from jumping towards the nuclear codes.
Younger critics completely despise how the Dept. of Justice is being run, and how inept and incapable Jeff Sessions appears. His goal to load up the jails and use maximum sentencing.
And this president is exposed as a know-nothing. That speech in Arizona where he pardoned Joe Arpaio was ridiculed as virtual inanity, if not insanity.
The treatment of Puerto Rico has given people pause. Quite frankly, his time golfing and tweeting insults at the crack of dawn may have grown stale. He is seen as a man way too repetitious and fixated on irrelevant matters.
3
Ordinary Americans overwhelmingly support banning bump stocks, banning gun sales to people on the terrorist no fly watch list, 401 k contributions, taxing hedge fund tycoons the same as the rest of us, and health insurance guarantees for citizens with pre-existing conditions. Dems can talk all they want about these policy positions, but they mean little in the end.
The game is rigged. Trump is merely a symbol of the rot. Money in politics and gerrymandering are the real cancers. A congress beholden to the people would have Trump boxed in....no Pruitt, Devos, Price, Sessions, and so on....
2
I find it hard to understand why those on the left are always supposed to worry about alienating a lot of Americans,whereas those on the right are not. Hillary Clinton won the election by nearly 3,000,000 votes but lost it by a few thousand. Simply concentrating on how to win those few thousand would make the difference. The main problem is that Democrats need a sufficiently charismatic candidate. like Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, one who can successfully stand up to the bullying rudeness and ignorance of Donald Trump.
3
Who actually cares what the rural clowns who voted for Trump think? Guy lost the popular vote. The future lies in the coastal cities and cities in the center, not the losers watching their factory jobs evaporate, whining that no one gets them. No one cares about coal miners’ attitudes. They aren’t representative of anything but a past time. The Rust Belt farmers and their ilk aren’t educated enough to try and make our decisions. We are elitist cause we actually are better than Trump voters in every way imaginable. It’s sad their inferiority complexes led them to vote for Trump. We’ll take back the reins soon enough and find an institutional way to bar this from happening again.
2
If enough people think like this, we will certainly have eight years of a Trump administration.
2
How long can the country hold together? Remember Trump lost the popular vote and who, other than Putin, really knows whether he won the electoral college? At some point the northeast, the west coast, and the upper midwest will say enough is enough. We want out. Can't happen? Tell that to the Soviets, the Yugoslavians and now the Spaniards.
3
The real lesson to learn is that our two party system is broken. Combine that with gerrymandering and the electoral college and you really see how far up a creek we are.
3
I am sick of hearing that because I live in the E coast I am some wort of 'snob'. We worry about the rent, we take granny to lunch on Sunday. We save to send our kids to college ...
The assumption that we see midwestern people in some sort of stereotypical way only makes sense by seeing us in a stereotypical way. Can't have it both ways. NY pays $1.60 in taxes for every $1.00 we get.
Who closed your factories? People from the East coast or West coast?
Why does Kentucky have so many people with black lung? Your beloved Senator McConnell showered love, at a high price, on mine owners. Why did Kentucky and many other states never have the vision to create other ways to earn a living.
I agree that the Clinton campaign did not address many of the problems of workers. She was a lousy nominee; a bit detail oriented and wonkish; a brief entry level acting course would help her learn to focus her voice in her heart, not her throat. She would have been a successful, progressive president.
Trump found issues, he touched a nerve, and he lied.
Let's not forget; his 'passionate' supporters are only 35% of the electorate but 80% of he republican party.
Yes, the dems need to work on their 'message' and find fresh faces; from wherever. Most important; they need to call out the enabling, lying, shuffling republican party.
5
Just saying that the party still lives generous of you. I have yet to find a record of its platform. It seems like they rely on Bernie Sanders to do everything.
The title of this piece hints at a bit of steampunk science fiction: will Trump succeed at so damaging our democratic institutions that we will cease to be a functioning republic? It may be only a matter of time before Trump quits tweeting that something is bad and uses the term "double-plus ungood."
1
Trump will be on the trash heap of political history long before 2024. His unique ability to lie without any internal constraint is alarming. The fact that his base refuses to acknowledge this disturbing reality is equally alarming. Hopefully, this political nightmare that we are witness to will be over well before he finishes his first term in office. The truth will set us free from his tortuous, miserable maladministration. I look forward to hearing the results of the Mueller investigation. Trump will go down in history as the worst president to have ever occupied the Oval Office.
3
Oh, please.
The hand wringing over "What happened to America?" has been going on for almost a year now. Tired of it yet? Have we plowed any serious new territory? Is the sun coming up?
Trump supporters represent 1/4 to 1/3 of Americans, perhaps a slightly larger percentage of actual voters. A good portion of people who voted for Trump previously voted for Obama. What does that say? It says people wanted change in 2008 and 2012 and last yr., too.
As wages stay stagnant and hundreds of American towns and communities are hollowed out, voters are angry, disappointed, fed up. They voted for Trump because he was bold, a television celebrity and they thought a rich guy might know how to fix things. On the last count, they were dead wrong, but admitting it won't come easy.
Hillary got almost 3 million MORE votes than Trump, they just weren't in the right states. Other candidates plus Hillary got nearly 11 million votes in total, those votes certainly indicate the public mood. Trump won a narrow victory and he is narrowing his support every single day. It would help if harsh critics would slow down and let his supporters decide for themselves.
He will not be re-elected, he probably won't even run if he makes it that far. He has to talk like his running again otherwise lameduckness sets in, fast.
The Dems can win with a good, strong, bold candidate with solid ideas and an air of common sense and decency plus the fearless ability to stand up to the bully-in-chief. Not that hard.
2
Do not forget that all this is made possibie by the structure of the legislature and gerrymandering.
A democratic base the size of trump’s base is impotent for this reason alone.
Trump’s base will create havoc in the republican primaries where candidates will try to out do themselves as necessary to reach the bottom.
Too bad the ACA seems to have surivived. With the defeat of that and the pending (haha) tax cut, the trump base might more quickly find out where their principles lead.
What happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Trump's connection with people is his celebrity and " tell it like it is truth" but this appeals mainly to those who are easily impressed with perceived success and riches. New Yorkers who know him best voted for HRC by a huge margin. In NYC he is seen as a show boater and a fake populist whose obnoxious ways are dismissed as low class. Television shows based in NY like Seinfeld and Sex in the City were big hits here in fly over country and continue their popularity in reruns. But life here is not like a NY television show yet folks get a huge kick out of what they see as cool. So too Trump is one of the rich cool kids who must have all the answers and this is appealing to ordinary Americans. Noe well, Trump not only lost NYC in the election he lost Manhattan and his own zip code ! As Michael Blumenthal put it quite aptly, "New Yorkers know a con man when the see one "
2024 ?
What about 2028 ?
My guess is that at some point he will start questioning the 22nd Amendment, citing Roosevelt, and that it's something "he is looking at".
1
If one person = one vote in this country, no one would be saying things like “democrats have lost touch with ordinary Americans”. Thanks to the electoral college and gerrymandering, our democratic system is broken.
3
This headline scares me. I cannot even begin to think of seven years and three more months of Trump. I will have a nervous breakdown.
1
My college English comprehensive exams in 1962 included the following lines from William Butler Yeats' poem The Second Coming for our interpretation:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Little did I know then that these words would haunt me 55 years later as my passionate intensity against the prevailing norm would turn me into "the worst". I'm drowning and apparently there's no one to save me.
4
Excellent column. In a stroke of political genius -- sorry, fellow-Democrats, but it's true -- Trump tapped into the needs, hopes and mainly the fears of average folks; found a way to express them in slogans like "Make America great again," "Build the wall," "Drain the swamp"; energize his base at huge rallies; and belittle his opponents. He ran a wild, and wildly effective, non-linear campaign and was a far better candidate than Mrs. Clinton, who dutifully invoked all the correct liberal shibboleths and got creamed. To Mr. Cohen's point, we Democrats have not even begun done the deep, necessary, soul-searching dive to examine why we lost and what we need to do to win again. I put the chances of Trump getting impeached not at 10 percent but near-zero. And I think he stands a better than 50 percent chance of being re-elected should he choose to run in 2020. It's long past time for the Democratic Party to rediscover its roots as the champion of ordinary Americans.
19
The Democrats will not be able to be the champions of ordinary people because of 1965! Johnson knew that signing the civil rights act would hurt the Democratic Party. You can talk all you want, but what the columnist describes most of all is white resentment. It is difficult to include a banquet of justice for all, when half don't believe in that credo. George W Bush said as much yesterday. Furthermore the media works on both sides of the political fence. Indeed the Democratic Party needs new leadership, but as long as right-wing talk radio and Fox News crush any democrat or Democratic Party related economic idea for ordinary folks, I feel the deck is stacked heavily against us. Finally Cohen fails to mention that trump and his supporters are a startle reflex to the successful completion of an African -American president. As you know living in the Deep South, we aren't likely able to reach out to ordinary whites in a large swath of this country. The fabric of the nation has been torn us under. The Democratic Party cannot fix that alone.
If we turnout and vote we win. Nuff said.
2
"There's more than one way to skin a cat," people used to say.
For example, black lives do indeed matter. I've read articles that argue one way to reduce police violence against black people is to ever-so-carefully and professionally improve the procedures of a traffic stop. As part of the process of doing that, one can acknowledge among other things the facts that (1) some communities have reason to distrust the police (so work on how to improve that); and (2) nobody likes it when a police officer is essentially administering an "attitude test" (so eliminate or dramatically reduce the extent to which police use that tool of policing).
The point is that patient good faith professional work on a problem the results of which will benefit us all, using techniques that are not intrinsically centered around race, might be one of the best ways to reduce this still-existing deadly consequence of slavery, segregation, and the habits and techniques that supported those institutions.
We could also look at the extent to which narratives that are grounded in subconscious fears or generalizations about groups of people drive prosecutions, convictions, and incarceration.
How will reasoning and narratives grounded in group identity allow us to solve our practical problems? Patient work combined with skill, expertise, and human ideals seems a better bet.
4
"As Chuck Coughlin, a Republican political consultant who once worked for Senator John McCain, put it to me, 'Somebody who speaks to common-sense American values — that is what the Democrats need.' I’m not sure who that person is, but I am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California."
Bernie Sanders is from Vermont. A winner.
4
You say of Trump's possible impeachment, "...more likely he’ll be a two-term president. I’d put the chances of impeachment at under 10 percent." You did once say early on that he wouldn't last the year out so that your first deep & instinctive response to Trump is defeated by his unchallenged continuation in office.
Your first response was surely closer to the truth and yet Congress does not speak out, judge, criticize or act as the independent branch of government it is.
Trump is in open violation of those fundamental principles which make human society possible at all. No one can violate those principles with impunity and certainly not the Donald Trump we know too well already.
1
My main reason for planning to vote for Trump in 2020 is so the conservatives can secure the courts. After that I fully suspect in 2025 that the democrats more likely further left leaning with take Congress and the White House. A balance of power is all I want. Friction is good.
1
That your Supreme Court judges are known and selected based on Conservative/Liberal values shows that the rot of American ideals is possibly beyond redemption. Let’s hope your Conservative politicians don’t allow Trump to lead us into a nuclear war so that we actually live to see 2020.
It's been partisan since before the civil war. Bring on the nuclear war.
"American Fracture is the overriding condition". I couldn't agree more. It is time to formalize it. I don't want to be part of the same country as Trump supporters- and they obviously don't want to be part of mine. It is time to divide into 3 countries. New England, Pacifica, and Jesusgunlandia are the 3 obvious borders and then I would like to see some walls.
25
Wonderful comment. Hilarious while being so spot on.
1
bmac,
Very well said.
2
This is spot on. A terse, intelligent analysis about why Trump's victory in 2016 was very predictable, and why he can do it again in 2020. However, the answer to Trump's toxic presidency will not come from within. Neither wing of the Democratic party is up for the challenge. Someone will have to come along who can do to the Democrats what Trump did to the
Republicans. The good news is that this, too is possible and even likely.
3
There are several possibilities that might make Trump a one-term president or less:
1) if there is a serious economic collapse in the next year or two.
2) If the health-care market crashes.
3) If the Republican party fractures and the Democrats gain control of the House of Representatives.
4) If a Grand Jury indicts Trump for obstruction of justice or perjury.
5) If Trump leads the country into World War III.
4
Comey made him a one term President. The question is who is he casting to make him a two term President ?
We did not win in 2016 because too many democrats and "independents" did not turn out, did not vote or believed they had the luxury to vote for Stein or sulk at home or in their dorms because Bernie didn't prevail. Enough people of color or minorities tuned out to make the difference in Detroit, Flint, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. The margins in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were small. Yet we hang our heads, rend our garments, flail ourselves. Wake up people. We have the votes. Trumps did not win, WE LOST. We need to activate OUR base, not Trump's. We did win the popular vote, but in the wrong places. We have the issues, we have the votes. The DNC must energize our people. It must focus. It must unite. We cannot bicker amongst ourselves and parse issues; we are one on almost everything. Enough already. I am sick of hearing that we have to reach out to people that do not want to hear us, do not share our values and never will. We are more than enough on our own to take back our country.
43
Why is it that a huge number of Americans live on the coasts (and many in the very states that Cohen mentions by name), yet we too are not referred to as "ordinary Americans"? Do you have to live in rural America to be somehow typical of this country? Not last time I checked.
45
Are we really suggesting that "common-sense American values" only exist in the mid-west and southern states?
I'm not buying it. Those states are displaying their own form of arrogance and irrational thought at the moment. Were it not for the electoral college we would be having a very different conversation right now.
23
The only road Trump has is to perdition. I know that this will not deter the true believers in Trump who think he's doing a "tremendous" job, as in rating himself a "10" in the Puerto Rico debacle. They are with Trump for the duration however long that will last. And should Trump still be around in 2020 they will happily trot off to the polls and commit another blunder. But that will not be enough. Trump won by a fluke known as the Electoral College, the only political contest in the country not decided by the popular vote. This will not occur again. Trump has lost many of the people who voted for him less than a year ago. In three years, again if he survives till then, Trump will have lost more. The only ones remaining will be the bunker hunkers, those willing to go down into the Fuhrer's bunker for the last gasp hurrah. Come the morning after the election, our long national nightmare will be over.
DD
Manhattan
9
If so many Democrats didn't align themselves with illegal immigration they'd easily be controlling all three branches of the Federal Government.
5
Reagan and Bush both supported amnesty for undocumented workers. Democrats didn't change or own this, Republicans have changed their views and have embraced hatred.
1
All this soul searching would have been avoided if the dunces of the DNC had supported Sanders.
10
Dream on. A minority of voters were convinced Bernie is God, refused to vote or voted third party , and handed the election to Trump.
What,exactly, are the American Values that immigrants, Muslims, multiculturalists, and protesting Black professional athletes are disrespecting. Perhaps , it is the idea that to be an authentic American you must pledge cultural allegiance to the idea that America is a White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant nation whose religion is Christianity and whose language is English. This contest over the American essence began with Irish and German Catholic immigrants in the 1840s. The nativist “Know-Nothing Party” of the mid-nineteenth century is now resurrected as the party of Trunp Republicans. Americans understand that Non-WASP-Americans cannot change their ethnicity. All they ask is that we all profess WASP-American cultural “values” and publically behave like “real” WASP- Americans. The more America changes, the more we stay as we once were.
10
There is no presidential road ahead for Donald Trump. A second Trump term will not happen. It is key lime pie in the sky for Republicans and Trump`s knuckle-dragging angry M.A.G.A. golf-cap folks. How can you posit - Roger Cohen - that an `immensely deranged` American president (Kim Jong-un 10/20/2017) will even run for a second term in 2020? Who`s the tout handling the wagers about President Trump`s ouster, etc. these days?
Nan, did you think Trump would win the first time, or were you taken by surprise like my friends were?
Joe Biden fits the bill. He would have won, handily, last year.
Will he run again? Is there another Joe Biden available in the Dem party?
7
The Democrats have a problem with "identity politics?" Are you joking?
The whole election last year was about identity politics -- and the "identity" that won was aggrieved angry white working class males. Bernie tried to woo them, but Trump was way better at it, using much more overt appeals to xenophobia, classism, anti-intellectualism/elitism, and misogyny, and adding in his own vicious brand of racism and bigotry.
Clearly, nothing works better than giving white folks some scapegoats and the delicious opportunity to be aggrieved and angry in a crowd.
THATs identity politics for ya.
23
This article is what you (Mr. Cohen) need to read:
"This sentimentalization of the Loyal Trump Voter, whose rationale for standing by the president is often cradled in incoherence and plain, proud ignorance with a large chunk of stubborn pride, is the latest extension of the press’s centering of the White Working Class in the national narrative, no matter how much the demographics and the complexion of the country change. Every election cycle, eastern reporters ritualistically venture into caucus and primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire on Norman Rockwell safari to file copy from the diners and truck stops on “real Americans” in plaid jackets and tractor caps with heartland values and comfort-food appetites. It is time this romance with Ma and Pa Kettle was put out to pasture. Let journalists find other ways to pretend to be in touch with those left behind and clinging to their discredited articles of faith. Otherwise, decades from now, if news outlets as we know them survive, reporters may still be tramping through the hinterlands searching for the last remaining Trump holdouts to interview as if they were Japanese soldiers hiding in the jungles long after World War II ended.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/will-we-ever-return-to-normal-af...
6
A well thought-out argument.
The democrats need, above all, to speak truth to power...especially now. They should be stepping up every day to challenge every outrageous lie, in a highly public fashion. They should be confronting Trump directly, where he lives, at that "dump" the rest of us call the White House. "Why are you lying again, Mr. President," should become the daily cry from every democratic representative and senator.
Don't let him get away with even one falsehood, because by not challenging each and every lie, they become complicit. And then people can say, "Well, sure he lies...but the democrats aren't calling him on it...so they are just as bad.
5
The sad fact of Donald Trump is that he forces all of us to see what a god-forsaken, god-awful place the United States really is after 150 years of refusing to come to grips with the facts of slavery and the Civil War. It won't become a better place by having Democrats talking at Trump's level to people who can not or pretend not to understand anything else.
11
The geographic US that exists today will not exist in a few decades -
7
The weastern world went out on a limb trusting in the organizing power of so called American values following WW 2, partly from having little choice - all other great powers having been laid to waste or plunged into crushing economic straits, but partly also because America seemed, through civil rights legislation and its war on poverty, to be doing its best to get its house in order. Even gross excercises in lunacy like Vietnam couldn't do much to shake confidence in the idea America was pointing the way to shared prosperity and freedom from persecution. Now America is fast becoming another, far less attractive proposition, with its infuriating failure to provide universal healthcare, its billionaires holding sway over tax policy, its three and four star generals circling the moron in the Oval Office like bloodthirsty sharks. There will be an element of schadenfreude for many in America's precipitous fall from grace and moral authority - for most Canadians there is only great sadness.
16
This profound article should be a wake-up call to the Democrats.
1
It's truly unfortunate that democrats seem so intent on engaging in group therapy and doubling down on a failed strategy. Michael Moore probably said it best - the liberals don't want to acknowledge that Donald Trump, arguably the dumbest person to run for president, outsmarted arguably the most qualified person ever to run for president, and in doing so outsmarted all of us.
The democrats will no longer win so long as we keep trying to seek validation, and trying to show how stupid or terrible the conservatives are. As Thomas Friedman likes to say, the first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. It's unfortunate that the democrats don't seem to realize we're in a hole, despite major losses at every level of power.
6
In the 1960's Bobby Darin sang about "Abraham, Martin, and John" liberals who spoke with hard-nosed realism about the state of the country. Adversaries exercised their 2nd Amendment rights and assassinated the three liberals. During that time J. Edgar Hoover hounded Dr. King believing civil rights for African-Americans was part of a Communist plot. 45 needs to be confronted directly for his many misdeeds. Perhaps, the various "Russia" investigations will do this. Perhaps, he will be investigated for sexual abuse -which he likes to brag about- like Harvey Weinstein. Perhaps, the mishandling of the Niger Special Ops will reveal 45's incompetence. Perhaps a 3,000 year old proverb has an answer. Proverbs 11.3 "Integrity is a guide for the upright; the perfidious are ruined by their duplicity."
5
Roger Cohen is spot on. The Democrats will need a Midwestern candidate; and they need to get away from their current obsession with identity politics and petty PC squabbles - this doesn't mean they have to become racists and haters like the SJWs would have you believe. It means they get to govern.
2
Put another way:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
10
I am not sure Democrats should take the advice of Republican political hacks who peddle their own fantasy world, are happy with the disaster that is Trump, confident that they are the only "real patriotic Americans" and somehow convinced that gun ownership conveys a special "Defender of the Constitution status. Do they really believe this drivel or is it just a spiel for the suckers?
4
I disagree. Telling like it is must be based on the truth. Trump may seem direct in his insults and lies...but far from the facts. His behavior is discriminatory, hateful and stupid. What we need is an honest, and knowledgeable, individual that tells things as they are; then tells them as they should be; and proceeds accordingly, at a most basic elementary school-level emotional way. Reason alone will not cut it, as demagogue Trump amply demonstrates, with tribal feelings of loyalty to their own...and, at the same time, tribal hate towards 'the other'. If Trumps can continue to succeed by subverting the truth, then we deserve him. Who said that stupidity was in short supply?
3
We are the Borg. Lower your standards, and surrender your values. Resistance is futile.
1
Say what you will about President Trump's bluntness, thin skin and adherence to "alternative facts", he is brilliant in his intuition of what "common America" is thinking. He's proved this time and again on the campaign trail castigating illegal aliens, the political class (e.g. "the SWAMP"), biased media, and political correctness. His supporters are disgusted by all these things, not because of racism, sexism or other underlying prejudices, but because these things run contrary to common sense and fairness. The NFL kneeling thing is classic Trump intuition. He KNOWS the average football fan is enormously patriotic. By repainting the narrative from "protests of social justice" to "disrespect to our country", Trump hit a huge resonating point. He's doing the same with the "war on Christmas" narrative. Most of the common-sense Americans resonate with this. Trump is a master of tapping into these feelings. The left is awful at this and looks like idiots when they try to "resist" Trump in these arguments.
Unless the left figures out a way to connect with these common-sense Americans, they will lose the mid-terms next year and Trump will be re-elected in 2020.
3
The simple solution is so boring that it will never sell newspapers or draw the clicks that the NYT needs to survive financially. But it is still the truth. Voter turnout will determine whether Republicans retain power in Congress and the Presidency. If Democratic voters show up it's done. They win.
9
“A Democratic Party that can’t tell me how many genders there are, that ain’t flying in this country.”
Is there some reason the struggles of the Democrats continue to be put in terms of the rights of trans people? Trans folks did not ask for this fight about where they can use the bathroom. This is part of the continuing scapegoating of marginalized groups that Trump had thrived upon. And Cohen repeats it as though it's gospel truth.
Here's a question: if coastal elites don't know how to defeat Trump, why should we trust the advice of an Oxford-educated expat neocon?
8
Entirely true. Democrats need to accept that Hillary was right when she called half of Trump's supporters "deplorables". They certainly are. And the other half doesn't accept that they are. This is the reality of America today.
If the Democrats can't appeal to the "deplorables aren't deplorable" set, they'll lose yet again.
1
Lest we forget, Democrats won the popular vote. Over three million of us didn't want Trump and his mean-spirited superficial immature inexperienced divisiveness in the White House. We knew better. We wanted what Hillary was selling; not Trump.
Thus, If it weren't for our outdated electoral system and the few states Trump won by pretending to hate the same racial/religious/ethnic groups his followers hate we would have our first woman president. And we wouldn't be in this embarrassing mess discussing how to limit the damage done by an emotionally unstable man who hasn't a clue what he's doing.
Therefore, it's safe to say Democrats can't and won't devolve philosophically so as to compete with any of that. But they do need to acknowledge the fears/concerns of the Trumpians who unlike Democrats (who consider progress a positive thing like LGBT rights and considering immigrants an enhancement) resists change and a felt sense of a national/cultural identity crisis. So they long to go back to a more comfortable time which Trump promises to satisfy (restoring coal mining, drain the swamp, the wall, etc). None of that will happen. But they don't care as long as he pretends to understands their emotional angst.
Thus, Democrats need to acknowledge the concern of those wowed by Trump and let them know they are understood and that the Democrats can help them manage their angst about change, which is inevitable, and help them move forward more comfortably.
6
actually, if you factor in 3rd party candidate vote totals, close to 10 million people voted for someone OTHER than mr trump...
1
And handed Trump the election
1
I want to know at what point in American politics I stopped being an American just because I live in California. We keep hearing about how Trump supporters are railing against coastal elites. Never mind that those same coastal elites outnumber the Midwest and pay for most of their stuff.
The truth, the actual truth, is that they are the ones who are now un-American. The country changed and this white nationalist mentality that disparages anyone who is different is what's dying. Hillary Clinton was not the most likable candidate (even though she got the majority of the votes) and that is true and she didn't do nearly enough to campaign in the Midwest that is also true. I don't deny that and I think most Democratic voters don't deny that, but let's not pretend Democrats are the only ones playing identity politics. Our identities are just more metropolitan, but most people live in cities.
How about this I will stop using a wheelchair and emphasizing my disabled "identity" when they admit that they are a bunch of white nationalists who can feel the cold hand of death on their shoulders. Maybe NFL players do have it pretty good, but the communities they come from do not and if addressing those issues makes you uncomfortable there's something wrong with you, not them.
The real problem here is not whether Trump might win in 2024, but would another win by a minority party create a legitimacy crisis. I think it might.
17
Donald Trump won a squeaker of a race in 2016 - 77,000 votes in three states and he loses; 400,000 votes in four states and the electoral college vote totals and margins of victory in those four states are reversed.
Trump's only hope for nomination is a "probably but not provable beyond a reasonable doubt" report from Mueller and 100 million voters staying away from the polls AGAIN. I don't think that's going to happen...His unfitness is now manifest and made more horrifying real every single day.
Even if the U.S.A. is in a war - no doubt of Donald's own making - he'll probably lose the GOP nomination. Of course, he'd run third party (his ego would force him to) but he would be soundly drubbed. Not even Teddy Roosevelt could pull that off.
4
They answer is simple. Tit for Tat. For every outrageous statement on the right there must be an equally outrageous, even if untrue from the left. There are more people in cities than in the countryside and Arizona where even pregnant non Catholic women are being subject to the Catholic Rhythm Method of Birth Control there aren't that many people. Yet: A four member family in fifteen generations of that kind of growth can be over a billion people. That's just plain old stupid. See what I mean. That's not religion, that's dumb. Make a game of it. Tit for Tat. Dumb for Dumber. Keep your humor and remember the problem isn't Trump, it's the people he was hired by. Those are who have to defeat. Perhaps Tit for Tat means that the left should follow the right and arm themselves with those same automatic weapons as being brandished by the right wing. Give a few more Republican Governors the necessity of declaring a state of emergency until someone wakes up or blows up. After all, they think this is all for fun.
1
Ray Evans Harrell,
Well said.
1
If stooping to Trumps juvenile disgusting level is required to win I would rather leave the country.
4
October 20, 2017
Roger you made my day! Nice to believe we will get to 2024 to our thing, and that's the truth that you are on to. What could make me happier, for having a minimalist vector to survival for a our cultural harmonics for the land of the free and pursuit of happiness is great times to be had and guided by the profound New York Times warrior of the what is best to print, and on what road to travel albeit some road are backward, or go nowhere we really should ever think of having to travel with pouring rains of chaos with lightening strikes of lies, lies, and / or just the mismanagement of a Shylock like 'that guy -himmmm.
3
In the past two weeks, sixty thousand Puerto Ricans and counting arrived on the Mainland, mostly Florida. Think they'll be cheering and carrying signs for trump? I predict he can kiss that State good-bye. How many manufacturing jobs have returned to the blue wall states? Zip, and zip will very likely remain the tally. How much infrastructure is going to get funded? again, zilch.
All Democrats need do is stick to economics: stop reacting to every culture war trump and his base want you to fight...once you are in power you have the power to protect those in need....without power you've got zilch.
The big stick you have, which should be flooding the air waves ASAP, is how much money Trump is going to make from the "tax reform" and link his (and his billionaire Cabinet's) greed to the cuts in social programs, especially those needed by middle America to eg. care for elderly parents, special needs children. And hope the Republicans and Trumpists/Bannonites continue to escalate their public civil war.
5
You say it would be a huge mistake to conclude...that his supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently."
Spare me. Trump's supporters do not include smart Americans or they wouldn't fall for his lies, paper over his incompetence and ignore his frequent bouts of insanity.
Trump's supporters are not decent. They voted for an empty husk, an ugly, soulless, vain, superficial ignoramus who admittedly sexually assaulted women and has repeatedly verbally denigrated them.
He spews his vitriol on everybody. There is nobody Trump doesn't hate and revile, except maybe daughter Ivanka; he has said that if he were younger he'd really like "date" her.
He's trashed everybody, not just Mexicans, Muslims, the Pope, all of his GOP opponents, his own bought-and-paid-for senators, not just Sessions and Corker, his own Secretary of State, and most ardently and obsessively, former president Obama.
So, please spare me. Trump's mob is an ill-educated, whites-first bunch who think this monstrous thing in the White House is A-OK and the sewage that spills out of him every day is tellin' it like it is and that's wunnerful.
That's not smart and that's especially not decent. You should issue a retraction.
8
Those commenters who are vowing to fight, fight, and never capitulate - surely you mean changing hearts and minds? And how do you plan on doing that? There have always been "foul-mouthed, xenophobic, and nationalistic" people, as one commenter said. That will never change, and it's the wrong place to focus. The current Oval Office occupant capitalized on people like that, yes - but more so, people voted for him who loath him, but disagreed with his opponent even more. You might disagree with some of their views, but it's lazy and dishonest to dismiss all of these voters as sexist, racist, homophobic, horrible people.
The next really successful politician will have to recapture the middle, the way Bill Clinton did. This leader will have to attack the country's polarization head-on, not by lecturing to us, but by leading us. That's not capitulation, that's leading from the center.
The next candidate who addresses the concerns of the middle will recognize that:
- Most people in this country are concerned with FAIRNESS, however they define it - and they are right to expect fairness;
- Most people want to be heard, and too many feel like no one is listening;
- Most people agree that regardless of one's beliefs we all need to find a way to get along;
- Most people are not racist hicks (read: "deplorables", what an idiotic thing to have said);
- On the important issues, there is a lot of agreement in the middle;
3
Outright lying is not "telling it like it is" it is just that, an outright lie.
9
A lot of people dinging Roger for his comment about New York, California, and Massachusetts.
But look, last election we gave them Hillary (New York), from an out of touch, elitist machine in bed with the defilers of democracy. It looks like next time, we'll be giving them Kamala (California), whose life story is one of profiting from the all-powerful Willie Brown Democratic machine, and who has apparently sewn up Hillary's donation list.
3
After Trump, Pence. Sixteen years of sanity. Maybe more. The Democratic Party, the party of rifling through people's garbage dumps in back alleys to present greasy slimy lies in Congressional committees and on MSNBC, is done. The Democratic Party has no specific tangible, sane and practical ideas that resonate with most Americans.
2
No one from Ca, NY or Mass? How about CA Gov Jerry Brown, now too old of course, who rescued CA from bankruptcy, created bipartisan plans, addresses jobs and immigration and global warming? Hasn't made a nickel off his public service.
Has to be a cornfed flag-waver from the South for credibility? Come on.
1
Keep yapping about increased immigration and put Trump's reelection chances at 100%.
4
Gavin Newsome 2024.
3
“Somebody who speaks to common-sense American values — that is what the Democrats need.” I’m not sure who that person is but am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California.
The geographic stereotyping and prejudice contained in that statement is both stunning and stupid. I don't expect to spend much time reading Roger Cohen in the future.
5
A agree with everything in this article, with one exception. The notion that there are millions of decent Americans who support Trump. No. There isn't even one.
It's a contradiction in terms.
And I place Trump's chance of winning a second term at far above 25%. More like 90%.
5
It is a mistake to call Trump supporters 'decent Americans' because the effect is to normalize them.
All of the speculation about the 2020 vote rests on the assumption that Trump will accept the results of an election he loses and vacate the office, as a decent, respectful person would. What are the odds of that happening?
18
Dan Findlay,
I wouldn't bet the rent on it.
1
Mr. Cohen,
You are making a big mistake if you think the Democrats can win by just making some cosmetic changes.
Thus far, almost every Democrat has stood with Schumer and Pelosi and opposed every Trump initiate which stem from all the promises he made which is why he was elected.
What does any Democrat have to offer a Trump supporter who believes in the Second Amendment, lower taxes, repealing Obamacare, building a wall, and ending the Iran, Paris and TPP treaties?
Bill Clinton fooled us with his Sister Souljah moment, but it is unlikely that any Democrat will be able to pull that trick again. There are no more moderate Democrats anymore only a few con artists like Manchin who are allowed to vote with the GOP when their vote doesn't matter.
In other words there are real issues behind the tweets.
5
Actually, the point is that you can't so much as explain what Trump's "initiatives," are, because not only is the man completely incoherent except for his gimme more than you got, but any position, claim, deal, compromise, view or whatever lasts precisely five minutes after he gets off the john at around quarter of five in the morning.
2
So Trump's base want lots o' guns, no healthcare, low taxes = a huge unfunded deficit while having a massive military; rampant global warming; and a war with Iran?
Got it! Now, THAT'S a plan I can get on board with, Eric. THOSE are the real issues behind his tweets.
They have to offer is lower taxes and help for the middle class and higher taxes for the billionaires
I thought it was only the likes of Sarah Palin who talked about the "real" America and "real" Americans.
I'm exhausted by the rhetoric of divisiveness, and I'm disappointed that Roger Cohen has bought into it. I'm tired of being called a coastal elite, criticized for being educated and having liberal views, I suppose. It's superficial and offensive and just plain wrong. Cohen has missed an important characteristic of the U.S. right now, which is that large cities are increasingly Democratic, regardless of what part of the country they're in. From Boise, Idaho to Houston, Texas, there are liberal strongholds all over.
What are "common-sense American values"?!!! Why don't liberal New Yorkers have them? Are the people in America who are afraid that Sharia Law will be imposed here speaking from their their "common sense" or from deeply held American values?
My biggest fear for our future is that the difference between true and false no longer holds, that lies can be repeated so many times that people come to believe they're true, that science, truth, data, and knowledge are suspect. Are "ordinary Americans" the ones who believed that Obamacare was a failure because Republicans said so over and over again?
We coastal elites are not responsible for the turn against the media, facts, and expertise.
33
Expertise? Please. The DNC manufactures and spreads lies as well as any organization.
3
Please share some of these alledged lies
1
In some ways I don't like the term lying to describe this situation. We all have assumptions in our heads which determine what we think is right and wrong. I am pretty sure Mr. Trump thinks he is telling the truth or telling it like it is. His supporters have what I would call a shared dogma.
Liberals are more willing to question their assumptions, conservatives are less willing. Unless we question our assumptions, we can never approach the truth.
1
Huge assumption to say conservatives are less willing. Reality is, the coasts live in an echo chamber. They are more than willing to ignore the reality far from their own.
1
Why is it that I am not an "ordinary American?" I didn't grow up in New York state, wasn't educated here either ... but then for that matter why aren't those who were "Ordinary Americans?"
What's the dog-whistle here? I am fact white, male, and 66 years old. That's prime Trump electorate demographic right? So why am I not an "ordinary American?"
Beyond that, I work for a living, get essentially all my income from salary, and I am a member of a union. So why am I not an "ordinary American?"
And I SURE DID NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP.
37
"or that his supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently."
I no longer believe they are decent Americans since they support an indecent American.
19
Both the author and our bipartisan political-business elites need to understand the logical and morally superior "world view" of the majority Americans who live in the real world, and so correctly perceive and believe that making them "compete" with the functional equivalent of no-rights slave workers either overseas or mass immigration imported into this nation is an attempt to turn most of this country into a 3rd world plantation ruled by a few % professional nobility. And it's obvious that the Left does not care how odious or unequal things get as long at they are in charge, handing out enough redistribution crumbs to keep people just barely alive so they can remain in power. No member of our political class except Trump, who paradoxically is a part of our most elite .1% nobility, has come within 1000 miles of making a statement that even vaguely suggests that they recognize the moral horror of the regression that has occurred in the last 40 years of elite orchestrated open borders anarchy for the profit of all ready rich people. Treasonous riggings that have not only doubled poverty in the USA, but insured that because of the 'oil curse' like transfer of trillions to the most heinous of one party dictatorships and oligarchies in the world - mass murderers like the Red Princelings in China, descendants of Cortez in Latin America ... that these monsters have been able to maintain enough "stability" via buying their oppressed people off with US dollars to remain in charge.
5
Thank goodness Trump recognizes the “moral
regression” the estate (inheritance), pass-through, and stack of wealth-transfer taxes afford his fellow .01% rent-collectors — and will gut them so he and the rest of the oligarchs can keep ripping off America!
1
America has clearly fallen
6
Or maybe people have already made their minds up without knowing the facts?
See below.
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9997
Didn’t the nyt say that he won because of about 12,000 votes in PA, WI and MI? Why should the Dems coalesce around someone this early to let the swiftboating begin or another Benghazi investigation? He’s polling at 40%; his unshakable racist base is less than that. Little early for Roger to be hedging his bets.
7
Republican Donald Trump won an election because so many white people voted for him, and voted for him precisely because of his obvious racism and sexism and his promise to preserve and protect their white identity. Yet, somehow, the narrative has become that the Democrats are the ones who engage in "identity politics." The fact that Democrats speak out about black people being killed wantonly by police or that judges can be unbiased, even if they are Hispanic, or that women deserve reproductive health care without the imposition of someone else's religion thwarting them, or that it's wrong that in a majority of states, gays can be fired or denied housing simply for being gay is not identity politics, it's calling for justice. To believe otherwise is like saying the Jews and Romani and gays were engaging in identity politics in Nazi Germany or that black Africans were engaging in identity politics when they opposed Apartheid. The people who made the categories and enforced them don't get to complain when the people forced into those categories rise up as members of those groups. If you didn't want black people to identify as a group, maybe you shouldn't have spent four hundred years humiliating and brutalizing them merely for being black. "Identity politics" isn't their problem, it's yours.
442
Clare in New York stated, "... Yet, somehow, the narrative has become that the Democrats are the ones who engage in "identity politics.".."
Sadly, it's true. Sen. Sanders just got hounded out of giving a speech to a women's group, for no apparent reason except being male. Rep. Wilson just made a personal difference with Trump into an issue of racial victimhood, in a publicity battle that she probably will badly lose. And we go on, each group demanding that it be recognized as the greatest victim, the most morally superior, and the most entitled to deference. The Democratic coalition, if it still is a coalition, is assuring us of an ever more divided country and a future under more Trump types.
1
Joe - Bernie Sanders wasn't hounded out of a speech to a women's group for "no apparent reason." It was just that after Bernie condemned Planned Parenthood as part of the evil establishment, it seemed like bad optics to have him as the keynote speaker for a group fighting for women's rights against the Trump Administration
And characterizing telling the truth like Rep. Wilson did to Chief of Staff Kelly's and Trump's lies as creating "racial victim-hood"?
Gee, thanks for proving my point so very well.
1
Great comment, Clare. Thank you.
RE: Coughlin went on: “A Democratic party that can’t tell me how many genders there are, that ain’t flying in this country.”
A Democratic politician who replies, without hesitation, that "It isn't the business of government to tell people what gender they are" is a winning politician.
5
"A lie is useful if it transforms reality, [Michel] thought, but if it fails, then all that's left is the lie, the bitterness and the knowledge that it was a lie." (Houellebecq, "The Elementary Particles")
Trump's lies won't transform reality, at least not much, but when his supporters realize that his grandiose promises are nonsense, if they ever do, they will not have an existential crisis and become liberals. They'll likely move on to the next personification of wing-nut insanity with equal fascination, however bitter they are about the last. The majority do not arrive at their political beliefs by careful consideration. Perhaps no one does. There is a difference between honesty and sincerity. In the minds of Trump's base, he INTENDS the truth, even if what he is saying isn't exactly true.
Clinton seems calculated; when Trump speaks it's "from the heart" -- or so his unlettered audience believes. (By the way, I adore the fact that if someone speaks "from the heart," and what he says is total garbage, it somehow still has appeal simply because it was genuine.) Most people love their country because IT'S THEIR COUNTRY; and when liberals criticize it, often reasonably, that alone alienates millions. See, in the eyes of the Trump base, the only thing one can criticize America for is for harboring so many liberals. That is its lone fault.
Liberals should care about economic policies that help rural residents. But they really mustn't think that this will translate into votes.
3
When many other Americans see an African American taking a knee, they think, "gosh, they have it pretty good. you know they make a really good living playing football. This country's been really good to them." Are you kidding me?
Can we not expect Americans to know American History?
Do they have any idea how much discrimination, sub-standard education, racial profiling and discrimination they and their ancestors have fought and still fight in this country.It will take many more years until African Americans can catch up.
And yet they still strive, still hope and still love this country. If they kneel to protest police brutality, they protest a truth. Yes, I know that most police in our country are hardworking good Americans. But, there is a problem and it needs to be addressed.
3
Trump's fanboys and fangirls emphatically do NOT include "millions of smart and decent Americans." If you are both of those things, it is impossible to support Trump. If you're lacking in one or both - well, okay ...
12
Trump and today’s Republican Party to be the realization of power by the same people who were once John Birch Society members. They are no different than the millions of “good Germans” that supported Hitler, or Italians that supported Mussolini, or the Spaniards that supported Franco.
The real issue is who supports a nation and society that holds fascist, authoritarian, kleptocracy and oligarchy or not. Stop the equivocation of Republicans and Trump supporters as “decent, smart Americans” with a different “worldview.”
6
Stop the reactionary nazi analogies and insults. It's not appropriate nor accurate. Keep it up and you'll be ensuring Trump wins a second term.
9
The comment was factual and considered. By no means a "reactionary nazi analogy". It is actually quite appropriate and quite accurate. There are many articles written over the past months which point out rather frightening parallels between what is happening in the US with what was developing in 1930's Germany. The ideology rising in America is what is being addressed here.
Do some research. There is a lot out there.
3
This is an oily comment. My father served in WWII and is quite smart; had 300 engineers working for him. He is anything but what you write. Your's is quite divisive: all heat and no light.
And the NY Times echo chamber will shoot the the coastal elite liberals' comments to the top of the comments section, where they will deride this piece for even suggesting that the Democratic Party should change its message or consider viewpoints from across the aisle.
9
I see. Dumb it down, Democrats.
Tell me Mr. Cohen, just how dumb is dumb enough to appeal to a Trump voter? And once everyone is sufficiently dumb, then what?
It's one thing for silver-spoon millionaire parasites to go through life dumb. Easy. But I wouldn't recommend it for most people.
1
What I'm getting from this is: Democrats, you should pretend to care about the same things poor, frightened uneducated white racists care about, so they will vote for you. At this point I'm pretty sick of caring what poor white racists care about. I'm a coastal elitist, not because I think it makes me a better person, but because I believe that progressivism embraces what will be important in the future: Diversity, compassion, and a turning away from the white male supremacist model that has driven Western culture for the past 500 years or so. If the only way to win elections anymore is to pretend to be a provincial small-town racist, then maybe it's not worth winning elections. Maybe this country is done, as a country. Let the rubes have the heartland and impose a racist Christian theocracy to their heart's delight, with mandatory gun ownership and no public services, while the billionaires get their trillion-dollar tax cuts and laugh all the way to their gates communities and their offshore yachts. I'll take the coastal elite. #Calexit
324
“poor, frightened uneducated white racists” ... you mean the same American electorate that voted in President Obama twice and also George Bush?
The overwhelming negative reaction to Cohen’s column here—about ten to one against— is suggesting that he is largely right.
1
One problem with that solution is that the rubes will have nuclear weapons.
@wheeler10 nyc:You sum this entire discussion up perfectly!Thank you.
One of the more thoughtful, maybe even insightful columns Roger Cohen has written in recent months. And a positive one, too. He seems to believe that at no point during his possible two terms in office Donald the Magnificent is going to something so disastrous that the 2024 Presidential elections would become moot.
So why all the worries if Trump has only 25% chance of re-election?
So tell me, what should the Democrats do to "win" back the people who voted for Trump in the last election? Should they emulate the Republicans and join the war against anyone who isn't white, evangelical and xenophobic? Should they emulate the Republicans and start another senseless war in the Middle East or Asia? Should they emulate the Republicans by favoring huge tax cuts for the wealthy and a few crumbs to the middle class? Oh great oracle, please expound on the "hard nosed realism" about the state of the country that will win back those 70,000 odd votes in a handful of midwest states necessary to add an Electoral College victory to the 3,000,000+ vote popular vote victory that the weakest Democratic candidate in decades garnered in the fall of 2016. Please, oh great oracle, please expound!
10
Note: this will only make sense if my previous comment is read first.
Why do I otherwise regard the US as a "sick scientific experiment"? Well because the US's self-identification as primarily "capitalist" and its taking "capitalism" to extremes has had negative consequences - in combination with its overenthusiastic commitment to "liberalism". That might seem like a strange comment with respect to largely Republican dominated contemporary "America", however despite their avowed "conservatism" Republicans are the main advocates for the extreme "capitalism" or "economic liberalism" I mentioned in my last comment. They might be "social conservatives" but they are "radical economic liberals" opposed to the "socially progressive" and "moderately economically liberal" (centrist) Democrats. That's not much of a contrast and it's not served "America" and "Americans" well.
Many Americans have indicated as much by not voting for either. But many of them and others have been affected by this excess of liberalism and its emphasis on "the individual" and "freedom". Isolated human beings are prone to mental illness, to flounder, to strike out, to be hurt and to hurt. And "identity politics" of the right and left has been fuelled. Left to their own resources, struggling to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, many Americans have sought the security of a tribe. On the right the "white" and the religious. On the left minority groups. Hence the nominally United is divided. And unwell.
3
Mr. Cohen forgets that Trump began his political career questioning Obama's citizenship. He's also forgotten that he ran an anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican, anti-African American campaign. He has also forgotten that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes. Trump has support of about 25% of Americans who voted in 2016. That is it. They would rise up from the grave and vote for him again if he launched a nuclear attack and we were all killed. Don't tell me these folks are ordinary - it just ain't so. They are angry, "the world has done me wrong", people, who are looking for someone to blame. Democrats have every chance of winning the people back who voted for Trump because they thought he would actually do something to improve their lives because he will not.
5
"or that his supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently". That's a very interesting statement coming from you Mr. Cohen. I'm sure in the early 30's you could have easily found millions of Germans' who felt the same way about Adolf Hitler and in short order most of them became card carrying Nazi. We need start viewing the 35% of the American population that are fervent supporter of Trump for what they are. No amount of "talking to them to try to understand their views" will change who or what they are. We need to stop pussy footing around the notion that fervent Trump can "change". We need to start dealing with them the same way we would deal with supporters of ISIS.
6
I guess Roger doesn't believe that Trump won because he indulged in the hottest of identity politics, stirring up white anger and victimhood. Just listen (if you have the stomach) to the white nationalists that troll the internet. Their sense of white aggrievement is shared by many of his supporters. Football players taking a knee (a sign of respect) for those less fortunate than themselves and without a public platform to do so, takes courage, perhaps because they are so privileged.
Yeah, I guess we "coastal elites" are out of touch with the "average" American, but I still feel that they need to come to me, not me to them. Call it case of moral scruples, political be damned.
5
It takes zero courage for extremely well paid sports players and sports stars to engage in street theatre protest shtick that actually many people find insulting and disrespectful.
I am all for realism, and believe strongly that anybody whovoted for anybody other than Hillary Clinton is a blithering idiot, and a blithering idiot who has likely spent a lot of time since last November coming up with alibis and scapegoats for their blithering idiocy.
Still and all, the fact is that with a lot of these people, there is no position or view however grounded in reality, no criticism or argument however mild, that won't draw shrieking lunacy. And some gun-waving. And of course, a bargaining position that boils down to "I scream at you and you surrender, and if you don't, you're a commie who hates white people."
I am all for reasoned compromise. When do THEY get around to it?
3
Spare us the definition of "ordinary Americans" as not being Democrats. That is just pure nonsense.
We bleed just as much when we are shot.
We get sick and die the same way as everyone else; the difference is we want to share health care with the less fortunate.
We worship in a wide range of religions (and none), but we don't worship "success" and exclusion as a sign of god's grace. We believe god or not, in taking care of our hospitable earth.
We struggle to get by when we are not paid a living wage, and we want to help fix that by not making giveaways to kleptocrats and polluters and banksters.
I could go on ...
Our survival as humans depends on our rising to the occasion, not lowering ourselves by otherblaming and hurting and excluding.
16
There's nothing complicated to figure Trump out. He's a small-handed, small-brained shill of a human being, whose raison d'etre in business was to shaft the people that he dealt with. He blamed them for his foibles, and took deductions on what he was to pay them.
Now he blames Obama,Mexico, Canada, China , Democrats, and 1000 other for for America's "supposed" poor economic position in the world.
To think that Trump is smart and intelligent is to defile all of the real people who do have intelligence and foresight. Trump is a simpleton, who happened to be born to wealth, and who thinks he's the greatest since the paper diaper was invented.
Sadly, this man who cries and throws tantrums and lies is the one wearing the diaper!
15
“Somebody who speaks to common-sense American values — that is what the Democrats need.”
The problem with this analysis by a Republican operative is that what's implied is the following: Republican values equal American values. What is more common sense than, say, acknowledging reams of scientific study about man-made warming? What's more common sense than recognizing that millions of people without health insurance cost the country more than it does to provide these people with access to insurance? What's more common sense than admitting that the coal jobs are never coming back in large numbers, and planing accordingly? What's more common sense than passing common sense gun regulations supported by the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners?
Finally, what's more common sense than electing a president who actually has some?
25
Of course the support for telling it like it isn't stems from the fact that sometimes it might be impossible to tell it like it is. Those people who would shut down certain kinds of speech without regard to its veracity are ultimately the guilty parties.
4
Today in another forum I described the United States as "a scientific experiment" and a "sick" one at that. Why? Well primarily because it has viewed itself as a "capitalist" nation above anything else - including being a democracy and a republic, fetishising perversely the actually unremarkable fact that it includes private enterprise - as its essence or raison d'etre. Consequently it has been promoted and developed to become almost the extreme of being a "libertarian capitalist" nation ruled by laissez faire. Such has been regarded by powerful Americans and many others to be what it means to be a "capitalist" nation. The NYT published an article demonstrating that attitude this week - about the Democratic Party and Wall Street.
However it is simply not the case that a nation that features private enterprise has to be the way the contemporary US is. The economic does not have to dominate the political and the social reality of a nation so much for it to still be "capitalist" and "democratic". The alternative for the US is not for it to be a "socialist" nation but rather the nearer alternative that is still "capitalist" and still "democratic" which is "a social democracy". This is the vision Democrats should support and pitch: for the US to become progressively more like Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
That is a vision many Americans that don't vote and some Trump fans will support. If successful it would force Republicans to be more moderate advocates of economic liberalism.
1
"their worldview elicits contempt in a Democratic Party that often seems to have lost touch with ordinary Americans."
I assume you believe you get to define "ordinary Americans." I and 65 million US citizens who voted Clinton are "ordinary Americans." The Democratic Party has not lost touch with us. What is your definition of an "ordinary American?"
7
"Ordinary Americans" is the code word for high-school educated whites.
2
Democrats need to make every election a referendum in climate change, an issue that will drive the younger generation, and that even deniers in red states are faced with over and over again in their hometowns and backyards and will eventually have to concede to the risks of.
1
This gets at the adage that says you are not hampered by what you don't know, you are hampered by the things you are certain about which are wrong. The Dems have so much certainty in their polling and strategies that they cannot even see the data showing they're off, let alone analyze it and see what's right.
The GOP has created a perfect position for themselves in being the sole arbiter of capitalism and democracy. Changes to the status quo suggested by Dems are immediately labeled Socialist or anti-market. Dems need to find a way to be supportive of the social contract while maintaining their status as democratic and capitalistic. Capitalism and democracy can thrive in a society with a strong social commitment. It's a language issue, as Cohen writes. Bernie did us all a disservice by labeling himself a socialist. It's bad enough when the GOP takes the high ground on capitalism and democracy, it's a complete loss when Dems yield it.
3
Trump is only nine months in office and it looks to me that his support hovers between 33% and 40%, depending on his latest outrage. He won with approx 48% of the vote. If apparently his 'ardent' base will never leave him that means his drop in support comes from the independents and Republicans that took a chance on the 'tell it like it is' reality star. I don't see them coming back to support him in 2020. How can he win without them?
1
The Democrats surely have work to do, but there are three important factors this column omits:
1) Demographics. Most Trump supporters are white and older. That's a shrinking group, literally dying off. It may not make a difference in the next five years, but in the longer term it surely will.
2) The fact that Trump did not win the popular vote; the only reason he is president is the outdated electoral college, combined with decades of gerrymandering and a little voter suppression.
3) Trump's crassness does more than resonate the 35% or so who still support him; it also energizes those who oppose him. If that translates into more people showing up at the polls to vote for anyone but Trump, and it will, his prospects don't look so good.
Finally, the thing about actual truths and facts is that they affect people's lives, for better or worse. When the horrid policies of this administration and congress start affecting people, and they already have, support for trump will begin to erode from within. We have already seen that in small ways; it will likely increase exponentially if Trump and the GOP actually succeed in some of the destruction they have attempted so far.
5
I completely agree, here. I voted for Hillary and want the Medicare-for-All solution to health care (or an equivalent universal model) that Bernie proposes, but I also feared and knew that Hillary and the Democrats were doing exactly what they were claiming to avoid: campaigning with complacency about a significant portion of the electorate. They were just complacent enough to lose yet another nail-biter of an election.
The Democrats and their supporters MUST wake up before it is all over. I'm not sure how many generations it will take to repair the damage that Trump and the Republicans are surely going to do, if indeed it can be repaired before some man-made disaster puts us completely over the edge.
Democrats MUST appeal to a significant portion of those who voted for Trump, and in a way that by elimination makes clear what a disaster Trump has been and will be. Simply bashing Trump will do nothing but throw red meat to his supporters and possibly send disaffected young people to join them.
4
I doubt Dems will take your advice; they can not help their elitist ways without sensitivity training.
I take issue with Mr. Swenson's view of history. "America was formed by a bunch of people who just wanted to be left alone". No, Mr. Swenson, it was formed by a bunch of people who did not want to pay for anything. When the British went to great expense protecting the the colonies in the French and Indian Wars, and expected the colonies to pitch in and help defray the expense in the form of a stamp tax and tea tax, etc. Americans wanted the Motherlands protection, but did not want to pay for it and revolted.
Now, this tradition of wanting things but not paying for it holds true today and is exemplified in the Republican party agenda. No healthcare for all, because the Republican party will not stand for it. No infrastructure repair, no education program, just tax breaks for the rich and they will not pay for those, either, to the tune of 1.5 trillion deficit.
5
Trump didn't win because Hillary was unable to garner the "working-class" vote. Hillary lost because America is almost evenly split (and has been for thirty years now) and all that it now takes is for 5% of the electorate to sit on their hands and not vote.
Bernie siphoned away a bunch of purist liberals who decided they just ain't gonna vote for either candidate. In addition, as determined per exit polling about 1 in 10 Bernie supporters out of spite voted for Trump.
6
your sentiment is exactly why HRC lost in a way that some of us view as her fault. Not only was there little outreach to key states (hoping Trump! would implode) but there was also precious little outreach to Bernie supporters once he conceded. Our support was arrogantly assumed in the same way that her nomination was. (full disclosure, I voted for her over the cretin, because, come on).
I agree with the author that identity politics as a major policy plank is a mistake. I am so tired of being harrassed by SJW's because supporting only 80-90% of the liberal social platform is not enough (anything less than 100% and I'm a monster). As a result, I have changed my voter registration to Independent. I can appreciate that some of those issues are supremely important to the people that are negatively affected every day, but they aren't important to enough voters to make it a winning strategy. And the way they are debated - even with those on the left - is so pious it's alienating. Narrow the platform down to winning, workable strategies for key issues that affect a winning majority. There's a difference between being right and being effective.
Democrats might have better, more responsible, more ethical solutions than the GOP. But they just can't ever deliver. As long as we are dreaming about things that will never happen, forgive me for rooting for the person with bigger, better dreams.
5
Hard to get people on your team if they are pilloried with ill will.
Hillary "lost" because of the Comey letter.
You don't need to be a Nobel Prize winner to figure that one out.
Predicting a trump victory in 2024, another seven years of what has been a truly horrid nine months has to be the most depressing thought I've processed lately - and that's saying something. I can barely stand the thought of seven more months of him, and it gets worse with every passing day. Every time someone says or writes of America "the greatest, richest, most powerful nation on earth", or of trump "the most powerful man in the world" I cringe - we obviously are neither if trump is the standard to which we've fallen.
2
I hope you don't mean a "Trump victory in 2024."
1
Seven years, I hope not but perhaps use some time for meditation and introspection so that we can have a winning team. We need as many people as possible on our team; and please do not discount Independents. Democrats can not win an election that is limited to a select cohort of Hillary’s voters.
If only the Democratic Party had bothered listening to voters *before* Trump was elected. A million points of data and not one drop of common sense. Russia and the Electoral College notwithstanding, it really takes effort to lose the White House to a 40% minority. I'm honestly impressed. Cohen's line about the center winning elections reminds me of W.B. Yeats.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Democrats will lose again if they don't wake up. As far as I can tell though, we're talking to Rip Van Winkle and he's still sipping the jenever.
5
"I’m not sure who that person is but am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California."
Last time I checked, Trump was not born and raised in Texas, Alabama, Michigan, or Ohio, and yet this "billionaire" television personality from New York City has come to embody "common sense American values?" Does not compute.
And of course we all remember how poorly Barack Obama, hailing from Democratic stronghold Chicago, did in his two campaigns against American as apple pie John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Can we stop romanticizing Trump's core voters as regular folk alienated from a globalized economy and urban elites? Trump's core voters are simply whites of varying degrees of racism and xenophobia. Anger, hate, and resentment were their motivating sentiments in 2016. Trump returns to this emotional well every day as his touchstone, but how long until it runs dry? These emotions always eventually destroy their host.
Trump's base still needed a helping hand from moderate Republicans voting for the Republican candidate regardless of who it was. It is these Republicans who will determine the outcome of 2020. I hold out hope that many are as disgusted by Trump as the "coastal elites" and will not be able to stomach voting for him a second time.
349
Here in ruby red Wyoming a growing number of voters are beginning to realize that trump is a dolt.
I agree with you about Trump's 'base', but his game is not new - Raegan: 'The Harlem welfare queen with 5 children from 5 fathers' - - - The oldest, sickest game in town and the Republican's favorite narrative: Convince white workers that their problems are because of blacks and jews and hispanics and asians, everybody! Meanwhile, do very little for white workers, and less for everybody else ... When workers unite and figure this out the repubs better run and run fast ...Maybe there will be a 'whites only' nation somewhere for them.
I'm a Trump voter and am not a racist or xenophobiac, and neither are those around me who are Trump voters. Is it that you are still sore because the corrupt Hillary lost?
I am old enough to know that the superficial face of America was never in reality that which so many of us are nostalgic for. We had the Vietnam War, Midle east mess, overt racism, hidden poverty, political corruption, religious manipulation, men behaving badly towards women, gay bashing and corporate malfeasance, pollution. Much of its ugliness never surfaced in public as it was not reported by the media. There were major newspapers many that were owned and operated by powerful self serving men not interested in truth. Radio news channels were limited. There were a half dozen TV stations.
Today we are awash in legitimate news and fake news. We get a daily report on trumps twitter ranting. It is time to stop paying attention to every idiotic word that comes from trump. He rules by chaos. We need to pay attention to his actions not his words, there is where he is causing legitimate damage to our government and society.
Democrats have the need to speak to the needs of the people. We want decent paying jobs, good ongoing educational opportunities, universal health care, a strong and economically viable Social Security System, equality for all Americans. The Democrats need to come out from behind Hillarys skirts.
138
Democrats have to learn how to tell a powerful story. And such a story needs a villain. It needs black and white divisions between ‘us’ and ‘them’. It needs hope for the future and denunciation of the past. It does not matter whether it’s true; it only matters that it’s strong. Sorry but this is how the human mind works and this is how politics works. I was a fervent supporter of Hillary but I cringed every time I heard a milquetoast ‘stronger together’. No, we are not. I don’t want to be ‘together’ with xenophobes , ignoramuses, science deniers, druggies, religious nuts and the rest of the Trump coalition. Nor do I want to pretend that I care deeply for the inhabitants of rust belt towns who are too lazy to do a honest day’s job in service industry because it’s ‘demeaning’. The Democrats should appeal to the aspirations of the young people of all ethnic backgrounds promising them a global future of technology and innovation. They should paint rural America as a dying zombie, trying to choke the life out of the prosperous cities. And they should stop being boggled down in ridiculous controversies over bathrooms, or hijabs, or taking the knee. Just say; ‘we are the party of freedom to do what you want; they are the party of slavery, taking away your rights and liberties’.
5
Post of the day (above)!
What, it's no good if Dems run someone from NY, Mass. or Cali from a "coastal echo chamber?" Isn't Trump from NY? That didn't seem to be so difficult for him to transcend.
2
Trump lost by 3 million votes. Most people in the country want a European style liberal democracy outfitted with all the amenities civilized societies enjoy: healthcare, sound infrastructure, good public education, freedom from fear of being shot in the street by their fellow citizens.
The billionaires in this country via Fox News have been successful in fooling people into voting against their own interests. Trump is anathema to his fans interests, to everyone’s interests. But they, like Trump are children. They like his childish thumb-in-the eye to the institutions that make the US great.
Democrats have good ideas, but they are terrible at marketing them and even worse at taking control of the narrative. They get beaten every time.
12
like you, I'd like to see the US move toward a more progressive, European style social compact with a more equal distribution of social benefits and economic opportunities.
but you should get out more. go visit,for example, Oklahoma.
many, if not most, Americans want to see a very different America than we do - one with a weak central government mainly sponsoring an expanded and even more belligerent military and perhaps the Post Office. (of course, they still expect Medicare and Social Security, because they have paid in advance for those and so they are not "really" government programs).
other than that, the rules would be:
follow my Christian religion, it's the only true faith;
there should be no restriction on guns because you can never tell when we'll need them to fight off an invasion by Washington or an uprising of the lower orders of humanity;
nobody should be restricted from doing anything and eveything they can to make money, no matter how damaging to the world or other people;
you must accept America is a white, Christian nation - if you're not in those camps, you are at best a tolerated guest and should either act respectfuly like one or leave;
high culture is European, foreign, Communist, and designed to make regular Americans feel inferior and we're not going to tolerate it... and the same goes for all those other fancy notions, like science.
there is nothing as good as cheap, fried food from a chain operation.
5
I grew up in Oklahoma, and moved out to the west coast seven years ago. The reasons you listed are exactly why I moved out as soon as I had the means. Your analysis, though very sad, could not be more true. The ignorant views have probably forever affected the relationship I have with my family back in OK. (I'm the only member of my family from either side that abhors Trump and all he stands for.)
A number of commenters are concerned that there does not seem to be a Democrat ready or willing to run in 2020. No one has formed an exploratory committee or made the pilgrimage to Iowa.
I think that may be strategic. Donny John is nothing if he doesn't have someone to fight with. Why would anyone give him a target this early in the game. I mean the man has never stopped campaigning. Can you imagine what his little ego junkets to West Virginia or the deep south would look like if he had a declared opponent to snipe at?
No I think this time around we would do well to put off naming candidates until the last possible moment.
6
Here, here! He will shoot so why bring out the target now? Better flailing in the wind there will be ample derogatory nicknames when the time is right.
Perhaps it is about a body mind split. Obama and democrats tend to have their head in the clouds pursuing lofty ideals - a bit towards the ivory tower. The republicans are raw meat and viscera. What Obama was deficient in and I assume left a lot of people wanting in terms of a figurehead presence. Trump is from the gut. All art of the pendulum swings of american politics. the question is does this one's momentum take us over the edge.
What the democrats need is someone who speaks the values with an integrated self and connects to the people. Hiollary was terrible at this. We need an angry but grounded righteous voice that eschews the bleeding heart stud which nobody really cares about right now. I don't hear who has this at this point. But somebody needs to step up to the plate and tell it like it is in no unvarnished terms and connect. Time is running out.
5
Roger Cohen is absolutely right about what he's referring to when he says, "And that's the truth."
That IS the truth.
1
If chasing the center was a winning strategy, Hillary Clinton would have won by a landslide.
6
ROGER Writes with passion, but I disagree with his analysis. First, Trump LOST the popular vote by the largest margin in modern times. Also, I prefer Michael Bloomberg's description of Trump when he spoke at the Democratic National
Convention, where he said that he was New York businessman and know cons when he saw one, warning us that Donald Trump is a con. Con comes from the world confidence, meaning that dishonest people know how to gain false confidence from the unsuspecting. So to me the most crucial question is, How is it that so many people who voted for Trump are still taken in by his cons? By his lies? I think it's because many people enjoy the idea of a free lunch. And most of us come from extended families where some members were big on bluster and short on facts. Cons. Humorless, Trump presents the world like the mythic realm of Archie Bunker without the laughs. Archie was a goofy clod who, despite his outdated attitudes, was lovable. He was never mean to anybody, though entirely without political correctness. That was part of his charm. He busted on everyone who in turn busted on him. But Trump plays a hardball game of the con. He was unsocialized as a boy who started food fights at birthday parties. So Trump's default position is ruling the world with food fights. Except he's threatening to throw around NOO KYUH LER bombs. Not just birthday cake and ice cream. His father was arrested by the police after a KKK rally. Donald learned from him!
1
Roger Cohen quotes “Chuck Coughlin, a Republican political consultant who once worked for Senator John McCain,” who said: “Somebody who speaks to common-sense American values — that is what the Democrats need.” Can some tell me please, what ARE “common-sense American values“?
3
More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, period. If it weren't for a massive Russian influence campaign, Trump probably wouldn't have won by razor-thin margins in critical states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Furthermore, we don't even know if any votes were altered. We do know that the voting systems in at least 21 states were in fact accessed by the Russians.
I agree that Democrats need to get back to basics and stop playing too much identity politics. I'm not saying they should ignore them, but they should focus on bigger things like the economy, jobs, environment, etc. The Democrats have to learn to fight dirty because the Republicans always fight dirty. Republicans win via lies, voter suppression, and gerrymandering.
4
You dress yourself in the mantle of truth, Mr. Cohen, and your take on the present abject state of the Democratic Bi-Coastal Party is accurate, but, well, there you go again:
"Players who protest are exercising a fundamental American right."
Why is that relevant? Their protest is not about 1st Amendment free speech protection. They are free to protest. No government is throwing them in jail or fining them. So, no 1st Amendment issue. But their employer can require them not to speak, or to speak, or to recite the word "blue" a hundred times during the national anthem. All of which is perfectly in accordance with the 1st Amendment, which simply says that Congress (the NFL or the Cowboys are not Congress) " ... shall make no law ..."
Let the players protest on their own time, not on our dime.
4
The challenge for the Democratic party will be to craft a message that can reach some of the middle 5-10 % while not compromising basic principles and alienating the base. Not just to win the popular vote by 1 %, but to win the electoral college, Congressional districts, and State houses. If there are 40% die hard Trump voters then Dems need Their 40% to get out and vote and still get more than half of what's left. A populist economic stand can work but not be too "Anti Business" And Maybe, just Maybe it's time to back off a little on social issues. The country is way more progressive than it was even 10 years ago. Pushing too hard just creates backlash.
3
Many of the Clinton voters do not want Independents to vote in the primaries, cannot win with that agenda. Independents are 40% of the electorate so that’s a recurring problem.
All Dem pres. Since Wilson have had a strong regional dialect and accent. HRC just was from nowhere in particular, in many ways.
Mr. Cohen is 100% correct about the complete obliviousness of the Democratic Party leadership. They still don't understand the anger, frustration, and futility most working Americans feel about both major parties, who do nothing but offer lip service for working people while serving the financial interests of their corporate and campaign finance masters. The GOP leadership is equally tone-deaf, but nominally supports those same corporate masters, so the hypocrisy is just a bit less obvious. Until one or both parties come to understand that working Americans want no more "business as usual" in Washington, we will see more disruption and anger by voters of all political philosophies. Trump is only the beginning.....
6
I think you are over - or maybe under - intellectualizing his chances. Hillary won the popular vote by a wide margin and might have won the Electoral College if she had been able to defend against the fake news. Would Sanders have won? Maybe, but many people that elected Trump held their noses when the pulled the lever in the voting booth. With a less "unlikable" candidate against Trump he might not be so fortunate.
1
If anything I think this article understates the challenge. There is a tendency in this kind of analysis to forget about the role of money in the post-Citizen’s United world. Populism is a case in point.
Massive amounts of untraceable money (see Jane Mayer’s Dark Money) have gone into promoting ideas that we like to think of as spontaneously arising in the populist base. One obvious example is the Tea Party, which was both created and funded by the Koch brothers. We’ve had years of “governments can do nothing”, “their elites are stealing from you”, “you need to take things into your own hands” endlessly promoted using racist and xenophobic subtexts.
Trump played on that carefully-orchestrated discontent and brought the previously covert racism and anti-immigrant sentiment out in the open. The Kochs weren’t wild about Trump to start with, but they got their guy Pence as VP, and once Trump was elected they got their people all over the administration. The few hundred ultra-rich people behind the Koch organization have found a way to use their money to bring back the good old days, so they can do anything they want (“freedom” from the EPA and OSHA) and don’t have to worry about taxes (http://ontheoutside.blog/2017/10/11/past-present-future/).
Democrats have got to find a way to get across what is really going on in this country. Trump, like the Tea Party, is not and has never been populist. He is a populist FRONT. The real winners are hiding in plain sight.
2
The results of Trump's presidency is being felt sharply across the country with Trump stoking up racial animosity and making truth a casualty of his hyper spin machine amplified by Fox & Friends. Operating as a bully with the power of the presidency and daily tweeting he has intimidated the terrified GOP congress into complacency no matter how outrageous his tweets and behavior. Trump knows little about policy,history or the constitution so he tries to operate as a Putin type dictator right down to declaring the media is the enemy of the people as Stalin did. The price the American people will pay down the road as tax cuts for American oligarchs ,divisive politics become the norm and authoritarian rule by Trump becomes the norm we will become like Russia as planned by the Trump/Putin partnership in place.
1
The country is politically fractured and many Republicans cannot stomach pushing the lever for a Democrat. A solution may be to run a popular and conservative Republican as an independent in 2020, simply to divert Trump votes. An act of patriotism - falling on the sword to stop the descent of the nation into fascism.
1
I get up every day, make coffee, feed my daughter, get ready for work, find something in the fridge for lunch, hand the baby off to the sitter, feed the dog and take him out, get in my little station wagon, and drive to my government job. At the end of the day, I come home, feed my baby, cook a fast dinner, put the baby to bed, and go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.
I'm not an "ordinary American" because I also happen to be a registered Democrat who believes there are more than two genders? PLEASE.
3
The NFL has opened the way for a game to become a forum for all forms of political expression, from any point of view any player might wish to demonstrate.
The decent, smart Americans who support tdump are few and far between. As Mencken said "You will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people".
Sorry, but I do not consider people who would vote for someone who said that John McCain was not a war hero as "decent, smart Americans."
3
Trump’s “talents”? Capitalizing on spite, malice and anger is a kind of talent now? Do the Democrats have to sink that low to win?
Before you tell me to just read the book “What’s the Mattet with Kansas?”, I already know the answer. Unfortunately more Americans vote from a place of spite and fear than for lofty ideals and values.
2
"It may well be that elections, as with Trump, are now won at the extremes."
This is what gerrymandering produces. Not even the etreme GOP representatives can hold on to their "safe" districts.
1
Roger Cohen claims that Democrats and metropolitan Americans have lost touch with "ordinary Americans", which I find a very odd sentiment. To me, ordinary implies the norm, and the norm in America is a strong resentment of Trump, his divisive tactics, instability, and uncertainty. So, perhaps these "ordinary Americans" may have lost touch with America and its values, not the opposite. I feel this argument could be made exactly against those that will continue to support a President that has demonstrated dozens of times that he is utterly unfit for the responsibility of the office
175
That's not the norm, and your thinking that Mr Painter lost you the election. Remember the NYT 90 pc probability of a Hillary win days before the election? Many ordinary people lied about their intention to vote for Trump. Your side is out of touch. We 'll confirm in 18 and 20 ....
3
You have your standards for what is a fit president, some of us has a very different one. Traditional did not provide the results that many of us demand, so now we are trying something different.
It is so so easy to tar Trump supporters with the ugly brush of racism, hatred, bias.
But maybe just maybe these people voted from anger, angry that the American dream was no longer available to them or more importantly to their children.
We had a hundred plus year history of immigrants coming here, working hard at the lowest hardest least paid work so their children get better jobs with retirement benefits and their grandchildren could get higher education and live an easier life. (This is my family's story).
Now, working class families see their jobs sent out of the US, little to no retirement, and education for their kids so expensive its beyond the reach of most.
I'd be angry too if I faced this.
Democrat politicians need to see, really see, these Americans and believe in them, They need to understand them, not just label them with insulting and demeaning epithets. If they don't, these Democrats will be showing themselves to be just as divisive as Trump.
Woah, people, relax.
I don’t think Cohen is implying that liberals are somehow not ordinary, decent Americans. But logic and decency aren’t prevailing at the moment.
On the opposite side of the Detroit metro area from my little progressive enclave of Ann Arbor is Macomb County, the home of the “Reagan Democrat.” These are people, many from once-secure auto-manufacturing labor backgrounds, who in prior generations would have voted solidly Democratic but are today majority Republican. Republicans used race-bating and other culture wars to capture these (mostly white) voters away from a Democratic Party that no longer seemed to fight for their economic interests. As deindustrialization was devastating their communities, Reagan was there to tell them that government was their problem, not the solution.
What have Democrats been doing for the last generation? While they have embraced every marginalized social identity cause there is, economically they’ve moved into an indefinable center-right position, fully complicit in the gross transfer of wealth and opportunity away from tens of millions of American workers, those of culturally progressive and conservative backgrounds alike.
The Democrats indifference to the economic security of too many “ordinary, decent Americans” created the vacuum for far right demagoguery—culminating in the truly indecent Trump—to flourish. Democrats need to figure out fast how to speak to “common sense American values” that speak to us all.
3
If Trump supporters are the "ordinary Americans," what does that make the MAJORITY of us who voted differently? I am so tired of people blaming Trump's win on an out-of-touch Democratic Party and the so-called "coastal elites" while ignoring voter suppression laws, the unrepresentative electoral college system, and, oh yeah, foreign interference.
You wrote,
"...or that his supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently. Americans who feel culturally alienated from the globalized metropolis (and sense their worldview elicits contempt in a Democratic Party that often seems to have lost touch with ordinary Americans)."
In my opinion, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of xenophobia are not mere cultural differences, and those who espouse them deserve to be viewed with contempt. Trump supporters have shown themselves to be neither smart nor decent. Is this the America I'm supposed to accept as genuine because Trump is sitting in the White House?
NEVER NEVER NEVER.
5
why is it that we continue to refer to anyone, as Cohen does, who doesn’t live in the coast or in a big city as “ordinary Americans”? This notion that somehow not believing in facts that correspond to reality makes you ordinary or normal is seriously troubling. Is that what being American means? Not believing in the truth? That’s something to be proud of? I think it’s time for the MAJORITY to take back the title of “ordinary American”. Other than that, well said Cohen!
4
Trump has inherited a growing stable economy about two thirds into the economic cycle. If the last third lasts past November 2019, he is very likely to win. I do not believe he can survive an economic downturn no mater how hard he tries to lay fault at someone else's feet. The base will never leave him and most will still vote, however the small middle of "true independents", those that alter between the two major parties, will not give him their vote.
2
> As Chuck Coughlin... put it to me: “Somebody who speaks to common-sense American values — that is what the Democrats need.”
What are commons-sense values? You think you have common-sense American values? Please, let's see your list.
1
>Coughlin went on: “A Democratic party that can’t tell me how many genders there are, that ain’t flying in this country
Spare me. Republicans can't acknowledge human-induced climate change. Unlike gender, that actually matters.
11
Oh, we acknowledge alright ... we just don't want people like you to dictate "solutions" .....
1
John,
What's your proposal for dealing with human-induced climate change?
1
For all the hand-wringing about 'Identity politics' being the basis of the Dem platform, we're supposed to ignore the obvious implication from the other side that those on the coasts by definition cannot be 'real, regular Americans wich common sense values'.
5
Speaking of genders, I've wondered how transgender rights entered the political rhetoric in the U.S. The first I remember hearing about it was the bathroom brouhaha in North Carolina, I believe it was. Could this law and others like it have been republican dirty tricks conveniently arranged for the 2016 elections? The movement seems like a parody of Democratic party politics. I wish a reporter with an inquiring mind would look into it.
2
Trump didn't defeat the Democratic candidate in 2016 -- the electoral college did. The migration of progressives to urban areas in general and the two coasts in particular defeated the Dem candidate, not Trump. The man lost by 4 million votes. But because a small red state like Wyoming, West Virginia and Arkansas carries more electoral weight per capita than a big blue state like New York and California, he got the keys to the White House. Dems and progressives don't need to be more in touch with the "state of the country." They just need to spread themselves out into more of the country.
7
Identity politics is divisive and anti-democratic because identity cannot be compromised. That's why the First Amendment forbids the establishment of religion: because people are unwilling to compromise religious principles, it is best for government to stay out, and leave conscience in the private sphere.
The 20th Century Democratic party focused on economic issues: labor vs. management, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, federal aid to education, food stamps and other forms of welfare. Those can be compromised; it's only money. Democracy works if people are willing to compromise, and not if they aren't.
3
Can we drop this flawed concept of "ordinary Americans"? Who are these folks and why are they the sole domain of the right? This is a linguistic trick that the left shouldn't permit. Us ordinary Americans that want compassion for people instead of corporations will reclaim the term.
8
We probably won't forget because we're reminded about 37 times a day:
"Let’s not forget that Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a significant margin."
Trump -- and Clinton -- campaigned to win according to the rules -- i.e. to win the electoral vote. If Clinton had won the electoral vote, as expected, but Trump had won the popular vote, she wouldn't now be saying that "The popular vote is what really matters, not the electoral vote. Trump deserves to be President, not me."
Nor would the results have been the same. If, on some random Saturday morning in, say, August of 2016, some campaign aide had come up to Trump and said:
"Well, Mr. Trump, you need to decide how you're going to spend your time tomorrow. Your choices are (a) your 47th county fair in Pennsylvania, where you might pick up 27 votes if you're lucky; or (b) a mega-rally in Fresno, California, where you can expect to pick up 27,000 votes, which do you think Trump would have picked if all that had mattered was the popular vote?
5
While I agree with some of what Roger Cohen says here, I'm also pretty sick of being told that as a liberal New Yorker, I'm not a "real" American and my views don't count. On the contrary, I think my views are shared by a majority of voters. Our increasingly out-of-whack electoral college is what delivered the victory to DT. On the other hand, Democrats attempting to appeal to mythical coalminers by going centrist is a sure recipe for disaster. How many such people actually exist? Not very many, according to what I've read. I think we have to stand for what we stand for while becoming more informed about the other party. Believing stereotypes about them is just as wrong as believing stereotypes about us.
14
I am an Army vet. I am a "real American." My family has lived in this country, first as slaves, for over 200 years. I believe Trump is unfit for office. I also believe to win in 2020 Democrats will need to tell Americans what they are FOR and not just itemize a list of programs or positions. The "messenger" will need to be compelling too.
14
The people quoted in this article who are concerned about "genders" and football players "taking a knee" have the luxury of concentrating on trivialities because our economy is actually doing well at the moment. Trump and his Goldman Sachs cabinet haven't had time yet to wreck the economy as Bush and his guys did in the aughts, but give them time. If Trump does get two terms, I think the end of his second one will find far fewer people being willing to be quoted singing his praises.
1
"Americans who feel culturally alienated from the globalized metropolis (and sense their worldview elicits contempt in a Democratic Party that often seems to have lost touch with ordinary Americans)."
Well, yes, it seems that the whole argument about economics was not just overstated, but a cover for reactions to a whole host of cultural issues, and just plain cultural handwaving, regarding guns and race and immigrants and Christianity and a desire for confrontation and denunciation from people who see their race and religion as losing ground.
If it wasn't obvious before, the way that Trump presides confirms it: he's approving of policies that would be a punch in the gut to his base, economically, but attacking on culture war fronts every day and they are fine with it.
And yet, the Bernie types keep missing the picture, demanding that democrats "go left" on economic issues because a mythical base wants free college tuition and Medicare for All, that the big bad donor class or party chairmen won't let candidates run on. It's nonsense, setting up bogeymen for intraparty fights, and if Bernie's actions don't show what a dead end that is, look at Bannon.
Yep. All too true.
Trump may appeal to a percentage of the American population, but it's not the majority. The majority has the opportunity to formulate a populist message of their own: that Trump doesn't support anything but the most extreme American views, that he is a rich guy who can afford to abdicate responsibility and truth because he can always get his way by bullying, bribing, or buying the opposition, and that his words and his actions both show that he cares for no one but himself. I agree with Mr. Cohen that the Democrats have failed miserably with messaging, personal charisma, and viable candidates in opposition to Trump. None of this is made easier by partisan media, where nightly the right and the left disguise opinion as fact and create their own truth.
This is exceptionally fine commentary and highlights the weaknesses of the Clinton-crafted neoliberal Democratic party and its diversity celebration visuals in its losing perspective. But to take a phrase from black street slang, the neoliberal Democratic party is always "doing the Man's bidding."
It is hard not to believe that an articulate Democratic candidate in 2020 cannot assemble a centrist coalition around a pragmatic portfolio of interests resonating with the broad middle of the American public and win.
For Trump and Trumpism to continue winning elections requires a simple math trick: the Republicans have to gain ever larger shares of the white vote as the demographics of the country go more multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. But the Trump Republican party is not championing the economic interests of the white majority. Something looks unsustainable with the math.
I realize you didn't grow up in the Unites States, but, believe it or not, democratic voters do indeed know who the Trump supporters are, what they stand for, and what they want. I got news for you, Mr. Cohen, you should thank your lucky stars we're standing between them and you, because they're not exactly putting out the welcome mat for globetrotting NYT columnists. Or anyone else who isn't a ditto head.
Another thing - - check your numbers - - we are a majority of US citizens.
1
The Democratic Party has, in my view, yet to articulate a clear statement of what it stands for, what its vision of the future of America is, and why that's better than the status quo. Until it does so, my money is, regretfully, on Mr. Cohen's prognosis of the current incumbent staying in office until 2025.
7
Dr. Bob,
Do you think that trump has "articulated a clear statement of what he stands for.
He has changed his mind so often that it can make a mind spin.
2
Dr. Bob: Quick question: has trump yet articulated a clear statement of what he stands for? It depends which minute you ask him.
Roger Cohen is very astute but I hope that he is wrong about the state of our electorate and people. I remain stunned that millions of us watched Trump say that President Obama was a Kenyan Muslim, mock a disabled man, and brag about being a sexual predator, then voted for him. I hope and pray that this was an aberration, and that the revulsion which is the majority reaction to Trump will lead to our regaining our common sense and concern for truth and decency.
But if Mr. Cohen is correct, America is simply lost.
477
Mr. Cohen is correct, and unfortunately, if not lost, America will require generations to repair the damage.
I hate everything Trump and many of his Republican cohort stand for. However, we simply must find candidates who can speak honestly and directly about real solutions in as simple a manner as possible. Ideally, this should include a wise balance of humor that is cleverly designed to undercut whatever Trump says without throwing red meat to those who support him.
Let's not forget he made fun a war hero and mocked a Gold Star family, not to mention the horrible horrible lying.
The majority of Trump voters were forever GOP, faithful to the bitter end. The "left behind" rust belt folk were a small minority given status by the Electoral College.
1
And then there's all those times when "telling it like it is" is also telling lies.
7
If the NYT readership is representative of today's Democrats,Trump is a shoe in for 2020.I say this as a Democrat who is as as upset and scared by the current administration.This reason Trump continues to get away with lies and ignorance i not just his base, but Americans in general.As an example, today's culture means that no one is willing to confront him in ,yes, a politically incorrect ,yet effective way.Where are Democrats when he makes a false statement and qualifies it with one of his usual "outs" like "that is what I have been told"?Why doesn't anyone press him relentlessly about who it is who told him and when?Where are Democrats when he changes the subject or conflates kneeling to the anthem with disrespect for the Military?Democratic leaders continue to refer to him as "the President" and dance around his nonsense rather than taking him on and making criticism stick?by being mealy mouthed and respectful, in other words politically correct, they are missing opportunities to get the attention of most of the 60% of Americans who are not his base.NYT readers and Rachel Maddow watchers alone will not get him out of office.Nor will the winning formula of the 1960s ,a focus on big societal issues like minority rights or climate change.And finally, taking him on directly is not 'sinking to his level",it is being effective in demonstrating why he is unfit for office.
3
Democrats will keep losing elections as long as Republicans keep cheating by gerrymandering, suppressing the vote, generating propaganda through the right wing media, and colluding with Russians.
3
Hillary lost the election, tRump won by default, and chicanery. The biggest threat to American Democracy is cynicism, not tRumpism.
1
We hear this week from George W Bush about how bullying and fabrication are decimating public discourse. George W Bush tells us this. And he's celebrated and he basks in the glow of his rehabilitated image.
When we look to W for lectures on the "fabrication" of news, you know we are in dire straits.
W's lies costs 100s of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. Does no one remember?
Yes, Trump is a dangerous liar and will possibly lead us to real ruin. The real question is if someone can be worse than W and his lies, who will be worse than Trump? There is zero reason to believe this trend won't simply worsen as we head into the future.
5
My two cents: absent the strident anti gun rhetoric of HRC's, and my local (Pa) politicians campaigns, HRC is president today. It's really that simple. It was obvious to many well prior to the election that this was the case. A lot of woke folks may need some more coffee.
1
I wish we would stop trying to rationalize an irrational moron and his followers. Wrong is wrong.
6
Mr. Cohen: Oh, how the Democrats are going to protest your words and think that it is crazy for Trump to be re-elected. Yes, Trump may indeed be re-elected and it probably will again be largely the Democrats fault. Trump could have been beaten in 2016 by any real mainstream Democrat. But the Dems chose to have Clinton & Sanders in the primary, and make the rest of us have to chose between Trump & Clinton in the general election. No good choices there.
Probably, the Dems will nominate in 2020 a candidate as old & unlikeable as Clinton, or one even more left wing than her. Dems, put up a Sanders or a Warren, & see how you do with mainstream Americans. Let's see if the Democratic Party can even take the Congress in 2018. If you can't, you probably can't beat Trump with your usual stable of liberal Democrats in 2020. Why not nominate a mainstream Democratic governor with the smarts to know how to confront Trump without alienating most of the mainstream electorate? You did that in 1992 and it worked for you. But now, the Democratic activists want someone much more liberal than Bill Clinton was as President. It probably won't work with a left wing liberal preaching free education, identity politics, income inequality, accommodation with our enemies and free health care.
4
It's still the economy stupid. Come up with a plan that will make the lives of everyday Americans better without any condescension and they will vote for you. Trump was a temper tantrum but he'll only be reelected if Democrats give us the same old corporate America candidate.
Take a page from FDR and run on a platform that benefits the working class. Affordable housing, affordable food, affordable education, investment in infrastructure, tell us what you're going to do to make our lives better and we'll vote for you.
6
This phrase is becoming too common and I wonder what the original source ways.
"contempt in a Democratic Party that often seems to have lost touch with ordinary Americans"
It seems to say that American are liars, that they love to be lied to. That they have no moral center. I find this very disturbing and eventually the voters will get it right. That life does not always imitate art.
So really, what we need is a plainspoken Democratic candidate who speaks in very simple terms, but with actual facts.
3
I'm going to restate something I quoted elsewhere. It is from my daily A Word a Day email:
"A society which is mobile, which is full of channels for the distribution of a change occurring anywhere, must see to it that its members are educated to personal initiative and adaptability. Otherwise, they will be overwhelmed by the changes in which they are caught and whose significance or connections they do not perceive." -John Dewey, philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer (20 Oct 1859-1952)
5
Run, Joe, run!
I don't get it...Trump won 3 states by 77,000 votes, lose those votes in 2020 he is not President. Do you not think that there are at least 77,000 voters if not more in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that are seriously regretting their choice.
I do.
28
Yep and all the people who couldn't hold their nose and vote for hillary are also regretting that they did not see that voting against trump was the honorable move.
1
Democrats can win the next elections. As Mr. Cohen points out, it requires candidates that have well defined policy interests and spoken in language of middle America. Any and all anti-Trumpisms must be in the form of positive policy intentions that are better than what is currently offered.
What Democrats must do, however, is get rid of every little bit of Trump bashing rhetoric. I have total contempt for Donald Trump and his sycophants. Yet I have grown weary of the continual barrage of ridicule directed at Trump the ignorant, insensitive, boorish clown. That isn't policy. It won't make life better. It won't clean out the swamp.
Shortly after the election, much of the liberal press admitted that detailed, incessant coverage of Trump's antics could have contributed to his election by keeping his name in the news. It continues. It is appalling the level to which a possible insensitive statement in an apparently well-intentioned call to a military family can have blown up into national debates and extended coverage when Trump demolition of Nafta, the EPA, and the consumer side of the DOE are left in the background. It sells newspapers. It will re-elect Trump.
369
He's all they've got -
2
Thank you, David, for expressing what many of us feel about the role of the media in the election and the continuing horror that is the Trump Administration.
3
Good luck. The media, this paper included, still don't get that they were complicit in Trumps' election and the majority of Op-Ed pieces (which most American's don't distinguish from hard reporting) are still overwhelmingly over the top in their efforts to convince people Trump is a narcissistic demagogue.
News flash NYT - Trump does that all by himself. But by continuing to publish Op-Eds like the one I read recently where the author passively-aggressively implied Trump is like Hitler is not rebuilding credibility, something we desperately need these days. Instead it just continues to entrench the belief that the media is biased.
Last, I see little hope that Democrats will recognize the Bill Clinton still had it right after all these years when he tried to convince Hillary's inner circle that it is still the economy. The Democratic party has become a party of humanists that have inverted Maslow's pyramid and placed their particular views on self-actualization at the top.
Cohen quotes McCain: “Somebody who speaks to common-sense American values — that is what the Democrats need.” He adds: I’m not sure who that person is but am pretty sure she or he does not reside in New York, Massachusetts or California.
I’m a 65 year-old native Californian, and I’ve lived all my life within no more than an hour of the Pacific Ocean. New York, Massachusetts and California between them are home to a fifth of the country’s population. It’s passing strange to hear Roger Cohen—London born, raised in South Africa—dismiss us as lacking “common-sense American values.”
15
I see Trump getting 35% of the vote in 2020. However, if he runs against (1) a main-line Republican, (2) a Wall-Street Democrat, and (3) a progressive Democrat, he will eke out a victory.
The Democrats can win if they stay united, and run a candidate who can relate to the working class (Biden), who can appeal to the millennials (Bernie) or another minority who can mobilize that bloc (Booker or Harris?). Go with another Clinton, and lose.
3
So, according to a Republican political operative, Donald Trump speaks to "common-sense American values." Now, what would those be? Apparently, lying, cheating, self-dealing, naked greed, nepotism, misogyny, war-mongering, and hatred for minorities and the poor are at the very the core of so-called "American values." Maybe the 60 percent of Americans who actually are "decent and smart" should check into Canadian values because American values just aren't cutting it anymore.
20
"...the Democratic Party has not yet begun a serious reckoning with its defeat last year." Nor has the New York Times had a serious reckoning with its role in this defeat - its total bashing of Bernie Sanders.
5
Once again I am being labeled a 'not real American'. Pot calling kettle. Trump built his entire shtick on identity - white versus any color - politics or to put it more plainly, racial hatred and fear.
Here's a clue Mr. Cohen, as an American I will not give in to the current movement to revitalize and revere racism again. We are a far from perfect union in constant need of good honest work to attain the ideals that serve to define America, Equality and Justice For All.
Many "real" Americans reject and will continue to push back against Trump because he uses racial hatred to deflect from his being a member of the greedy corporate elite. Trump's "talent" as you praise it is divisive and disgusting.
Let's remember that Obama served as President for 8 years and HRC won the popular vote. All that support came from "real" Americans who reject white nationalism.
None of the above addresses the real issues facing ALL Americans today from unaffordable healthcare to low wages to no jobs. Globalization is both good and harmful to American prosperity and can be managed with good policy from either side of the isle. To not acknowledge that globalization is here to stay is to put your head in the sand and not take up the challenge to make it work in America the best we can. Being left alone is not a realistic answer. So what is Trump actually doing about it?
He spends 80% of his time trying to divide this nation into camps. I reject that out of hand and it must stop.
26
> Mark Swenson, told me: “America was formed by a bunch of people who just wanted to be left alone.”
Interesting. Remind me again how many Native Americans were murdered and shipped off to reservations by "people who just wanted to be left alone"?
PS Rebecca Solnit's "The Ideology of Isolation" is a very good read - https://harpers.org/archive/2016/07/the-ideology-of-isolation/
3
Trump is worn-out lunatic buoyed up by, lies, by smallness, by meanness, by those ready on short notice to hurl racial threats, be born again, or buy a semi-automatic weapon. Surely Trump and his kind are out numbered. But, what if they're not....
4
I'm pretty tired of being labeled as someone who is out of touch with "ordinary Americans". I am a middle class New Yorker, born in Baltimore from lower middle class means, went to public schools, have two children, and vote and pay taxes. I am about as ordinary as they get, and am intelligent enough to know that Donald Trump is unqualified to be President of the United States. Anyone who believes otherwise is the out of touch one.
41
"...worldview elicits contempt in a Democratic Party that often seems to have lost touch with ordinary Americans." I've never understood this. Why aren't Democrats ordinary Americans? I feel like I am pretty average. Grew up in the south. Got a decent education. Migrated across the country. I make ok money but I live in a small house in a suburb, have 2 kids and work for a living. Am I not average because I'm educated? Because I'm coastal? Or is it just the D by my name? Since when did Republican come to mean "ordinary"?
761
Democrats are ordinary people, who identify with the wealthy elites & glitterati, who talk identity politics.
1
I think what has happened is that you (and I) have been painted with the same brush as the most extreme "identity" types. I can tell "how many genders there are" and I bet you can, too. But the same isn't true of many of our fellow Democrats.
1
"Ordinary" means "normal" which is to say (in sociolinguistic terms) "unmarked". White is normal; colored is not. Evangelical Christian is normal; Catholic may not be and Jewish or Moslem or Buddhist or Hindu certainly are not. Republicans are normal; Democrats are not. It is normal, ordinary and right that Republicans should rule. It is extraordinary and not normal for Democrats to be in office.
Since when? See the Powell memorandum. See the "permanent Republican majority" (which does not depend on numbers).
What is at work is the evolution of a myth of how life in USAmerica is supposed to be and therefore how it is normal to be. Anything that deviates is by definition deviant, i.e. wrong.
Talk about learning nothing from the Trump phenomenon. 10% chance of impeachment, 25% chance of reelection. Totally made up statistics, right? Just like that Hillary firewall that Trump would never breach in 2016. I think his ‘chances’ were set at 25% on election eve.
You’re right. His base has not budged. I’d put his chance of reelection at I haven’t the slightest idea and neither does anyone else, least of all the same stable of political consultants that have been so utterly wrong the past two years.
Roger, you are allowing yourself to be conned again. It’s the second time, so shame on you.
3
>... the Democratic Party has not yet begun a serious reckoning with its defeat last year.
No, it hasn't, but the reckoning is not what you imply. The Democratic Party can be an egalitarian party or a party of the socially-liberal aristocracy. It cannot be both. (God willing, it will never be the party of Coughlin, DeWit, Swenson, or people who share their views.) Clinton vs Sanders was a proxy for that battle. While the two camps share some priorities, they have some interests that are fundamentally at odds. With respect to their differences, 2016 settled nothing. Both sides recognize Trumpism as an existential threat and will oppose it. Absent a common enemy though, presume their internecine conflict will continue and intensify.
2
The narrative espoused here, that only Trump voters represent "ordinary Americans" is not just insulting, but demographically false.
The first definition is truth; the second definition is style.
An unusually terse column from this quarter, but for a change accurate in it's assessments. The most prescient of these of course is the widespread rejection of the democratic party's most ardent catechisms and the widespread electoral damage - beyond repair under the present circumstances - the circular firing squad is causing. Throw in the whine-a-thon from you-know-who, and you have a future pasting at the polls only Dukakis can appreciate.
Everything we need to know about Donald Trump can be had by merely watching Andy Griffith's "A Face in the Crowd." Here 'Lonesome' Rhodes uses the beliefs and ignorance of the people to become rich and powerful. Trump does the same thing just to make himself think he's superior to all others - and to get their vote. He is setting himself up for a fall, just like old 'Lonesome' Rhodes.
See:
RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
1
Who really elected Donald Trump? Analyses like this usually fail to cite the 89 million American voters who stayed home in 2016 as a significant determinant. Of course, some of these people usually don't bother to vote, but it is impossible to gauge how many of this 89 million simply could not bring themselves to vote for either candidate. Trump's crude divisiveness, Hillary's emails, James Comey, take your pick. Whatever, if more Americans turn out to vote, all bets are off!
2
to those who say "he's just pandering to his base" WAKE UP. thirty something percent is a BIG BASE. fool a few more, buy some others and intimidate all you can. that's a winning formula. not good for freedom and democracy
Agree that it would benefit the Democrats to have a central figure but then again the Republicans had a number of them only to have them decapitated by Trump. One can understand the frustration many feel with politics and politicians but to vote for an unqualified person such as Trump and then continue to support him in spite of mounting evidence of his coarse behaviour and continual lying as well as his now obvious inability to lead makes those who continue to support himn equally guilty.
So far I have not noticed the Democrats flying the white flag. It takes time and effort to dispose of a despot and they do seem to be taking the first steps.
1
If we spend just ten percent of the time we moan and groan and grouse about Trump actually working to remove him (work on the campaign of the Democratic nominee in 2020), he can't win.
No president with approval in the thirties - and he'll make it worse no doubt - can win.
I love you Roger, but next time lift the hopefulness of your readers.
Trump is the most vulnerable president ever.
And Mueller hasn't even chimed in yet.
Set your sights and your brain on Trump's crushing defeat.
3
If The NY Times, Paul Krugman, et al, hadn't come out too early and too eagerly for Hillary Clinton in the primaries; if they placed their ears to the ground and listened to the dull roar of the left asking for new leadership; listened to angry voices on the right seeking populist answers to their discontent; if the DNC hadn't put its thumb on the scale in favor of Clinton, Trump would not be in the White House.
From the outset, Bernie Sanders polled much––repeat, much––better against Trump than did Clinton.
Clinton had a history of losing elections to charismatic upstart politicians in elections where votes are proportional to discrete regions. The only election she won was in NY; and there she won because of heavily Dem NYC.
By backing so ardently what it incorrectly perceived to be the safe bet, the establishment left of Wall Street, think tanks and the DNC failed its millions of adherents.
Trump is a self-inflicted wound.
3
it feels like one half of the country is screaming at the other half to get out of the wrong lane of the highway before we're hit head on by a truck, and they're telling us to stop being so loud and condescending.
1
Trump basically pledged to Make America White Again, and whites bought it despite voting against their own economic interests. Trump's tax cuts for the rich, protectionism, and healthcare cuts won't help them. That tells us that the Civil War really just went into remission; whites just wanted someone to tell them they were better than every non-white. It's not OK to be a Republican anymore, but they control all the levers of power despite losing the election by over 3 million votes.
Can this be fixed? It may take a generation to get enough non-whites in the country, distributed around and not just in cities, to make America as great as it can be.
4
All of my life I looked down at countries that fell under the spell of obnoxious demagogues, confident that the U.S. was better than that, that we were better than that. Here we are today, with our own Duterte/Chavez.
So much for the smug assuredness of my youth.
5
This is some of the weakest logic I’ve ever seen in the NYT opinion pages. GOP doubles down on white identity politics after their 2008 drubbing, and it’s the Democratic Party that has an identity politics problem. The blithe “won’t come from NY, CA or MA,” shows how little actual thought or research was put into this other than a superficial rehashing of theories of the election from 11/9/16 that have since been shown to be factually incorrect based on th statistics underpinning electoral turnout and voting patterns. I’m from a dying manufacturing and farming reliant town of 500 people in Northern NY that went for Sanders heavily in the Democratic primary and Trump in the general. Am I incapable of understanding the challenges that face the Democratic Party because I’m from NY and now live in NJ? Have you spent your life with the very working class whites that *helped* elect Trump, or did you interview a couple people seeking media attention? Did you base your opinion on the fact that the election essentially just broke down on party lines with slightly lower turnout in a couple states driving the electoral college? Did you speak to anyone like me, a rural liberal that had to leave due to career opportunities that now sees my vote being worth a fraction of a midwestern voter due to an archangel electoral college system? Speaking of 2008, did you find a piece of how the GOP has an identity problem and just switch out he nouns and add a couple current quotes?
2
Cohen is right about one thing—that Democrats need a more coherent vision. He is wrong in all particulars and betrays both bigotry and arrogance in his prescription.
2
I don't understand how Mr. Cohen can deride the Democrats' "identity politics" and then state that: to win, a candidate can't come from New York, Massachusetts, or California.
All politics is identity politics. What else could politics be? Issues define segments of the electorate as surely as geography. Trump and the Republicans don't eschew identity politics; they excel at identifying their base and catering to it. They practice identity politics much more effectively than the Democrats. Trump won by using identity politics.
1
Democrats will lose. They say Sanders, or Harris or maybe even Clinton again, can win. If those are not lies, I don't know what is.
Americans are no fools. They recognize lies, such as :
We should welcome undocumented immigrants (illegals);
Russia colluded with Trump (Obama is the one who remained silent when he heard of them possibly meddling, or yet: Obama approved the sale of uranium to Russia) (Fusion GPS was probably funded by Democrats)
Comey did not question Clinton regarding her emails (concluding before even questioning her and others from her staff everything was fine);
Obama wanted only justice when he sent the Dear colleague letter (even if presumption of innocence went out the window with that one);
Globalisation is a great thing (tell that to all who lost their job);
Half of US citizens are déplorables;
Trump is a white supremacist (yea sure);
Kneeling when the national anthem is played should be applauded (tell that to family of the fallen)
I could go on and on......
I'm not worried about Trump winning another term. I am convinced he is in steep mental decline and might not make it full term. Get ready for President Pence!
3
Wait. Bernie Sanders didn't speak the plain truth? He ran as a Democrat.
2
Stop telling Democrats to leave their principles at the door in order to get elected. That's what Republicans do.
6
Exactly. Democrats don't need to become Republicans in order to win. We just had eight years of a popular, successful Democratic president who happened to be non-white. Trump represents whiny, entitled white people having a tempter tantrum in response, nothing more.
People, and Democrats in particular, need to be reminded that Bernie Sanders, with an approval rating of around 75%, is the most popular politician in America.
There IS a way forward, and it's not the way of the Clintons, the Wasserman Schultz's, or the way of "I'm no populist" Chuck Schumer.
4
Bernie need to run as an Independent. He is too far left to be attractive to many Democrats. He will also be a bit old by 2020. I realize age is an individual thing, but I am old and realize that I have lost my edge a bit on some things. Even so, I am several years younger than he is.
3
What the bleep is this "commonsense American values" dog-whistle with regard to Trump?
Groping women and bragging about it on videotape?
Defrauding suckers with "Trump University?"
What part of "decent smart Americans" is this?
Roger is refusing to confront the obvious: Trump's appeal is his criminal license. It is not a bug, it is the feature. It is what distinguishes Trump from the wide range of other politicians who espouse whatever policy Trump espouses du jour ... indeed Trump's utter fecklessness about policy (other than his own enrichment) is a feature, not a bug.
I don't think that Trump will be reelected .. but this depends on the idea that the majority of Americans do actually have a shred of decency and some ability to discern reality. If I am wrong about that, then it will indeed be a dark day.
But the idea that the Democrats need to run somebody who is a "little bit Trump" is grotesque. "Hard nosed realism" means understanding that about a 1/3d of the American electorate does ardently support Trumpismo. That's scary. But a "Democratic half Trumper" is no answer any sane person could support.
5
Seems to me that somebody has confused "truth" with "opinion," "belief," or "conviction." Saying that something is "my truth" or "your truth" is simply unvarnished nonsense. Now obviously one can have cases in which numerous people subscribe to a single belief, opinion or conviction--for example, "the earth is flat," "global warming is fake news," "Barack Obama was not born in the United States," etc. Regardless of the size of the cohort involved, these statements represent opinions or convictions. They are demonstrably not accurate portrayals of what is actually the case. They are, in other words, untruths. Discourse is impossible when the participants ignore the meanings of the words they use or arbitrarily assign new meanings to conform to their personal points of view.
So basically we are saying that truth and facts do not matter and the country will go where it will go.
That may true if the rest of the world was following the same nihilistic path but they are not.
Fact do matter and eventually they will resurface and wake us all up. When that happens I really hope that all the present riff-raff will get their due.
As far as the country is concerned, it will go where it will need to go with a good chance that it will not be at the top and, hopefully, not with a ruthless China holding the financial powers of the planet.
When we finally wake up from our slumber, isolationism will not be something we will consider ever again.
Hope and pray there is no distracting national crisis which derails his marathon ability for blaming those who legislated before he came into power.
I disagree when you state that some of his supporters include 'decent smart Americans'. Anyone with a brain or half a heart would have rejected this poor excuse for a human being months ago.
What liberals don't get or don't want to admit is that the American population is full of mean vicious ignoramuses. The cruel institutions of slavery and genocide didn't come out of nowhere. Democrats will get nowhere trying to appease this crowd.
Fire must be fought with fire by organising and getting out to vote the better half. Only in this way can good triumph over evil.
2
I wonder how Trump supporters will feel when:
1 They ultimately lose their health insurance.
2 When the effects of the NAFTA changes or it's dissolution are felt by the Midwest farmers, by the effects on the Canadian and Mexican economies which than directly affect us.
3 By seeing their tax bills actually go up as they lose the few write-offs they have and ultimately their mortgage interest/property tax write-off.
4 When they realize that jobs for the uneducated i.e. Coal, never reappear.
5 When they and their families develop a rash of illnesses to due increased pollution and contamination of our food, water and air.
6 How Trump families find themselves further cut off from quality education which has become only affordable for the wealthy.
7 While more and more money is spent on the military and military actions with more deaths, meanwhile watching Trump and his cronies smoking cigars and drinking fine scotch at various Trump branded hotels.
No matter though, when and if the Trump supporters actually wake up, it very well might be too late and the U.S. will now be operating like a corrupt third world oligarchic nation. Who will they blame? Jews, Afro-Americans, Muslims,
people who speak Spanish...probably. Themselves...never!
1
Democrats aren't going to win elections with "hard-nosed realism," they are going to win by using the same "everything is rigged" narrative but with actual solutions instead of just bigoted bluster.
Most Americans just want to someone to tell them It's not your fault you lost your job and house. It's not your fault your kid is addicted to painkillers. It's not your fault you didn't go to college. Everything has been stacked against you. You're entitled to free healthcare and college, and a livable wage too.
And single payer and free state college tuition are very possible, the only people who will tell you it isn't are the ones whose taxes will go up as a result.
1
Trump belongs to a species of politician that has long thrived on the local and state levels, but had never won the presidency until last year. I would describe him as a 'candid liar,' a person who disdains the truth while openly revealing his character through the flimsiness of his lies and the transparency of his hatreds. A slick politician like Ted Cruz conceals some of his prejudices behind "dog whistles" and other kinds of ambiguous statements which nevertheless resonate with his base. Nixon and even Reagan also excelled at this more subtle form of subterfuge, which made it harder for critics to expose the dishonesty behind such canards as the prevalence of 'welfare queens.' But Trump either scorns such tactics or lacks the ability to use them. His lies emerge unaccompanied by any perfume to hide their stench.
Most critics of the Democrats, in trying to explain why these campaign methods worked, stress the failure of Clinton to appeal to the average voter in the heart of the country. This analysis raises the question of why Trump's transparent falsehoods resonated with a white demographic who would have gained far more benefits from a Clinton presidency.
Other than differences over the key issue of abortion, I believe the explanation lies largely in her gender and her membership in the discredited political establishment. The Dems must craft a more inclusive message in 2020, but they must also choose someone from outside the inner circle of the party.
1
Democrats need to wake up. Obama and Hillary put us to sleep.
================================================
Trump is waking people up, because he is a constant threat. Obama was no drama and Hillary was boring. In this age of the internet, people demand instant messages, not long winded policy statements. Democrats please wake up!
And NY Times, please wake us up. Your lengthy discourses are not resonating.
You make interesting points, but they are quickly forgotten. We need instant notes, instant arguments, instant slogans, repeated over and over, again.
For example,
Trump has his OK sign. Why not repeat it over and over to put him in his place?
OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK?
============================================
1
Some strong stuff coming up here.
In this same issue, I saw (but passed over) an article about California. California (I gather) proposes to issue ID's for people who are NEITHER male NOR female. "I guess I'm just not HAPPY being a guy." "I guess I'm just not HAPPY being a girl." "I just can't make my mind up WHAT I want to be. Give me a day or two. Or a week. A month. A year."
I ABHOR Mr. Trump. The night he won the presidency--that night (for me, for millions) was one of the worst in my life. Every day he appalls me in some NEW way--some bizarre tweet, some speech, you name it.
But this about California! I saw the headline--I thought, "Is the world MAD?" Seriously. "Is the world MAD?" Stuff like this is beyond bizarre--this lunatic twenty first century society in which--I don't know!--my every whim, my every predilection, my every little hang-up must be oh so tenderly! cossetted and pampered and ministered to. Every pillow and cushion (so to speak) must be arranged and plumped up so I can settle myself on it.
And listen to me! I sound like a right wing Republican. A fringe loonie. A founding member of the Tea Party. But I'm not. Seriously. I'm not.
ALL THIS. . . .
. .to react to that bit about coastal elites being so miserably out of touch with "core American values." Democrats wondering how many genders there are.
Mr. Cohen. . . .
. . .I'm afraid. . . .
. .. you're right on the money.
But thanks anyway.
1
As I write this, a purge is ongoing at the Democratic National Committee and the non Hillary faction is being purged by the so-called "moderate" Chair Tom Perez. The Clintonites will take the party down before they let go of it and milk it for every last cent they can squeeze out of it.
The enablers- from the state and local staffers that pushed back on the Sanders Campaign by any means necessary to the corrupt National Committee that actively slanted things toward Ms Clinton last year need to go. If they do not go, the rest of us need to vote with our feet. I will not vote for another Republican Lite, Democrat In Name Only in 2018 or 2020- so no Clintonites need apply and expect my vote.
What is happening in the Democratic Party is what happened not long ago in Labor- Mr Corbyn will likely be Prime Minister over the objections and projections of the Blair wing (Clintonism's British version). The Dems can clean out the Clintonites and build to win or can keep losing with Bill and Hillary's fan club.
And, as a subscriber, I would ask that the New York Times not endorse someone before Iowa next time. I blame you for Trump along with Ms Clinton, DWS and the DNC.
7
We are talking about an obviously unhealthy man in his 70's who can't cope w/ the job stresses now, and he will not last out this term. He can't take it. There are vibrant dynamic people in their 70s & 80s but Mr Trump is not one of those hearty types....not to mention his legal issues which will only increase his stress load. It's a matter of time, let's facilitate this process so we can get on with real life.
272
If we can figure out a way to cost him money, that would kill Trump.
I've noticed in a few photos of trump lately that he's hugging himself, arms across his body. I take it as a protective posture and believe the stress is getting to him. Let's hope it doesn't lead him to irrationality, as in war with NK.
Just what alternative reality do you live in? He seems quite healthy to me. How do you propose to facilitate it?
I wait for this-
One clear voice - calm, plain, folksy, even funny - which conveys a smart, solution-based populism without the double talk and chaos that Trump offers.
One clear voice that reinforces what Americans, by all polling, believe:
- Republicans are the party of the wealthy
- Democrats want to preserve the social programs that affect people directly where they live and expand opportunity
- Republicans have been hijacked by radicals
One clear, reassuring, rational voice which shows understanding of the everyday life and everyday issues of the everyday person trying hard and faithfully to do better.
One clear, uplifting voice that contrasts with the shrill, coarse lunatic pronouncements of the President. A voice, a way, a feel that stands miles above the petty fray we get daily.
That one voice, that will feel like a fresh breeze, like a new kid in town - appealing, humble, smart, approachable - is out there.
It obliterates Trump and his psycho noise.
Exposes him. Overtakes him. Buries him
Find that voice.
Find that person.
Someone new.
We are all waiting.
5
Mr. Trump and his minions have been saved so far by the fact that they have accomplished exactly NOTHING to date. Sure, they overturned some Obama Executive Orders and blocked a few others. But so far they haven't killed the healthcare system (not for lack of trying); they haven't raised taxes on the poor and middle class to pay for tax cuts for the rich (but that's coming); and Trump still hasn't started a war (not for lack of trying here either). When some of these "policies" take effect, and some of them will, Trump's support will evaporate except from the angry white racists that comprise the core of his base.
That said, the Democratic elites better get their act together. The basse of the party is passing them by and they may find themselves replaced by a Tea Party of the Left, this one dedicated to bringing the Democrats back from their centrist addiction to Wall Street and Hollywood, to the values that used to be central - labor fairness, income fairness, tax fairness, environmental security and sensible defense (not billions for the MIC for weapons that aren't needed and don't work).
1
Roger Cohen is right.
Americans better get ready for a full eight year term.
And there will be nobody to blame but Clinton/Obama cabal democrats.
The Democratic Party is disintegrating as we speak.
What has the Party learned from its epic defeat to a genitalia-grabbing, incoherent reality-TV show host with weird hair?
The wrong lessons.
Tom Perez is head of the DNC, handpicked by Obama/lobbyist/corporate donors.
First order of business: take more corporate money!
Then purge long-time pro-Bernie DNC members in favor of lobbyists, donors and proven pro-Clinton cheaters like Donna Brazile.
Claim that the leadership under the helm of Nancy and Chuck, which handed Trump the Supreme Court, both Houses, thousands of state legislative seats and many governorships, was so amazing that they should continue to destroy the Party.
The same congressional democrats (except Bernie) that just unanimously gave the Trumpster an additional $80 billion for an already bloviated military budget, more than Trump even asked for, at the same time they claim that free college and universal health care aren't feasible or affordable.
The same Democrats that are pushing the likes of Joe Patriot Act Biden, Kamala Mnuchin Harris, Corey Facebook Booker, Terry TPP McAuliffe... to run in 2020.
The same Democrats that were complicit in Obama's illegal drone wars and surveillance programs.
This is not looking good, but it seems Democrats would rather lose to the Con Don again than win with a true progressive.
4
Enough with the echo chamber, Rog. Hillary won three million more votes, despite Trump, Putin, Comey, Sanders. It took a horde of men whose goal was to vanquish Hillary by any means necessary. And then it took and outmoded loophole, the Electoral College, another devise of the Founders, a group of elite White Men, to rub salt in the wound.
All that had to coalesce at the same time, creating a perfect storm, to undo Hillary. Can that fluke happen again? I don't think so, because next to Trump no one was hated as much as Hillary. People who don't know her, never met her, just didn't like her. Hillary could do nothing right, though in the end, as we see the horrific damage Trump is doing, some Hillary Haters might be having second thoughts. But it's too late for that. Those who voted Trump have the rest of their sorry lives to contemplate their calamity. They will join those in 1972 who elected Nixon in a landslide. By '74, you couldn't find anyone who'd cop a plea to voting for Nixon. And so it will be with Trump, the worse president ever, worse than Watergate, worse than Nixon. What an honor.
DD
Manhattan
5
Hear, hear, DD! Hear, hear!
1
I think you're mistaken in your assessment of Trump voters' regarding truth. They believe he is telling the truth. They believe Democrats and the liberal news media (fake news) are the liars and distorters of what he says. Political correctness is something else - and they love that about him too (he is like them, he "gets" them). I have had multiple exasperating conversations with a Trump voter in my family, and his mind is solidified into concrete on this: Trump tells the truth; everyone who says he isn't is just against him, and twisting his words and meaning into lies.
2
I get so tired of hearing that baloney; “The Democratic Party has not yet begun a serious reckoning with its defeat last year.” Yea, hello, we lost and we know it. But what you can’t get around is the campaign statements should be’ “Do you want minimum wage increase or not?” “Do you want affordable healthcare or not?” Do you want a healthy environment or not?” Do you want the rich to get another tax cut and inflate our national debt or not?”
If what’s most importing in your life is whether a Democrat politician used private email, then vote against that person. Just be aware that it’s a Republican politician that’s trying to convince you that this should be what’s important to you because what’s important to that politician is you not voting for your own welfare, but theirs.
12
It’s a commonplace observation now, especially among Democrats, that Trump relies on distraction to hide his real initiatives.
But I don’t see too many people commenting on the biggest distraction of all: Trump’s big, red, eminently hateable self.
What if everything we hate about Trump is a distraction? What if hate itself is a distraction?
Think about a fish with a false eye to direct predators to its tail and obscure its orientation. Or think about those punchable bounce-back clowns we use to exhaust violent children.
How long do you have to pound Target Trump before you realize it’s a waste of energy?
How many hit points do you think this glowing, red weak spot really has? Maybe it’s a decoy meant to draw fire away from the real danger.
The farther we get from Election Day 2016, the farther we get from the basic facts of the last election. Let’s not forget that Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a significant margin. But for the quirks of the electoral system that allows for a very small handful of voters in swing states to weigh so significantly in the process, our discussion about “ordinary Americans” would likely be centered around the issues of education, job growth, environmental protection, and global stability.
9
Obama was from Illinois and Hawaii. Biden from Pennsylvania and Delaware. Are these origins sufficient to engender common sense? Funny, but I rather think the women Senators from California, Massachusetts, and New York are right on target. Or maybe we need a race to the bottom, finding someone who thinks climate change is a hoax and that people coexisted with dinosaurs.
21
Roger Cohen seems to have forgotten Martin Niemoeller's words:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
17
“America was formed by a bunch of people who just wanted to be left alone.”
That sounds so peaceful, but it's fake news. What they really wanted was to be left alone with their human slaves while they stole the country from the natives, all the while claiming they represented 'We the People'.
5
Nearly a year into this chaotic and unproductive presidency and the Democrats remain without a clear and coherent alternative. Trump has not offered one either. He has merely filled a vacuum with reality show unreality. This is exactly what the postmodern theorists articulated as a theory to replace the Marxist utopia that never arrived. The left is as much to blame for this vacuum as the reactionaries that have filled it.
3
As an old school American with a brain, I don't mistake a fashionable candor for telling the truth. That's what was missing from your premise.
3
Remember when the Republican party lost a can't-lose election in 2012 and instead of having "a reckoning" of improving their appeal to a broader, more diverse constituency instead delivered Trump by harnessing the most extreme of extreme white voters?
3
I firmly believe that people who make their living as "political consultant" or "political operative" are just as culpable as the politicians that win by turning people against each other and appealing to the fear and anxiety of average Americans. Supposedly, these people know the tactics and strategy to win political races, but is there more than just getting in to office?
2
Sorry, I think there are some points in here that are dead on. Coastal echo chamber, identity politics; and I absolutely agree, any Democratic presidential candidate best not come from New York, California or Massachusetts; the sensing by many folks out there that democrats and liberals sneer condescendingly at their values and lifestyle and interests; and again, sorry my fellow liberals, but the best line in the whole column was the campaign strategist saying if you can't tell us how many genders there are, that ain't gonna fly.
I'm telling you, we just set ourselves up for defeat every time.
173
It isn't leftists who started passing all the bathroom bills and screaming about gay people.
3
So how come trumpsters sneering at my values is ok?
1
You do realize that Trump is from New York, don't you? So is it just Democrats that can't come from those states? And why not? New York and California are home to about 19% of the U.S. population, almost 1 in 5 Americans lives in those 2 states - don't we count? Don't we get a voice?
2
If this administration is not defeated, shoved, pushed, out of office, all of them, we as a nation may never recover. Our politics may have a history of being divisive and politicians as a breed are untrustworthy, but what is standing in the White House today is an example of unmitigated lies foisted upon the American people by a master manipulator, and with every word he udders, he and his sycophants demonstrate unethical and immoral behavior. Wake up America.
6
It's getting pretty hard to be a member of the coastal elite. We have been told so many times that we aren't real Americans we are starting to believe it, and maybe it's true.
A crude, anti-intellectual buffoon is President and we find ourselves in the legislative minority almost everywhere except for our coastal strongholds. At times it feels as if we lost the Civil War, as an angry mob of rural regressives unwittingly partners with their economic masters to roll back principles we once thought were firm.
It is not surprising that our response is a hatred of Trumpism that is becoming self-defeating in its violence. Based on our certainty that the other half of America are deluded half wits, we can't hear how our righteousness sounds in flyover country.
I am angered that Mr. Cohen thinks that no Democrat from Massachusetts, New York, or California can be President. Why do successful candidates need to come from the South or the Midwest? Why are we the ones who need to concede?
But, as Mr. Cohen concludes, that is where we are. Basic psychology says that you can't deny the validity of some one's feelings. So let's begin by accepting the feelings of the other half, and then find a candidate who can deliver an emotional message that can move just a few percent of these people. If that candidate must be from a purple state or may not pass a certain litmus test, then let's accept that as the price of victory.
Rage and ideological purity will not get us anywhere.
8
I agree with many of the comments here that running as Republican-lite is not going to generate any pizzazz and probably will put too many democratic voters to bed rather than bring them to the polls on election day. Also, as noted, people need to get out and vote and not just complain about Trumpists. A clear universal healthcare plan needs to be developed, with details on how it will be funded, advantages to business and workers needs to be clearly delineated. Ideas for dealing with income inequality need to be put forward. Develop detailed plans for debates, etc but also good, not too intellectual, slogans. The power of short slogans never ceases to amaze me. "Make America Great Again." "Government isn't the solution, it's the problem." "If the glove don't fit you must acquit." And as in the last example, it helps if things rhyme.
1
"An overriding lesson of 2016 for liberals is that without hard-nosed realism about the state of the country and Trump’s talents, you lose."
I think the real lesson is we live under an undemocratic system where the candidate who won the election by 3 million votes can still be barred from office by something called the electoral college, which has more power in our country than the American electorate.
23
It's punditry like this that gives the no-nothing Trump crowd and its beloved leader more power and credibility when they deserve neither. The Trump supporters I know are just Obama haters. Their love for and support of Trump is based almost solely on their hatred of Barack Obama. That hatred is based on bigotry and racism. And they don't just hate Obama they also hate any person who isn't just like them--white, heterosexual, and Christian. As this administration moves on, we are going to see more policies and legislation and out-right public slander and eventually violence against people of color, non-christians and LGBT folks too.
So don't preach to Democrats about Trump bashing not working when it is blatantly obvious that Trump love is just racially-motivated Obama hatred turned inside out.
12
Exactly right. Well said.
All political advice talks in generalities: "common American values" "what people really want", "speak straight to the people", etc. Have you ever wondered why the contents of these wise suggestions are never listed? Then there are people, like Cohen today, who accuse Democrats of identity politics. What the two together mean is: don't identify the injustices to women, minorities or religious groups. Stick to generalities, promise general prosperity, announce that the common people will be rescued from their economic troubles, promise that millions of jobs will be created, repeat continuously that they will get needed tax cuts. And when it comes to action, forget about them: remove estate tax from the super rich, reduce their tax, cut corporate tax by nearly half, allow them to set up phony businesses so that they can pay less. Oh, yes, remove the few deductions from the middle class so they can have the money to cut the tax of the wealthy. And then, toss, like paper towels, a couple of hundred dollars to the middle class,
7
While I agree with elements of what's being said here, the problem is that Trump is simply unacceptable (he lies, he cares for neither the poor nor the disenfranchised, he mocks veterans and the disabled, flirts with white supremacy, and he acts from a place of pure hatred and narcissism). Whether or not some of his supporters are "good, smart people," they've made a terrible mistake. I hope Republicans rediscover their soul and/or realize that Trump has done more harm to their cause than any Clinton or Obama could ever do. The time, I think, for strategy is gone. We need a moral revival which unites Democrats (and hopefully Republicans) around what is right not what is strategic.
5
What we have in this country is pendulum politics, and the greater the swing to one side in one presidency, the greater the swing to the other in the next.
So the reckless Trump was a reaction to the overly cautious Obama, Obama was a reaction to Bush, Bush to Clinton, and so on.
So where does that it leave us next?
I predict Elizabeth Warren. I can’t think of any politician more anti-Trump.
1
The presence of large reserves of anger in people's minds is underrated. Anger is a far more potent political force than the desire to do good. Salvos of anger are misunderstood as "He is angry because he want to fix things." No. He or she is angry from a thousand thousand perceived or real insults and depredations, political or non-political. The politician who can stoke this anger wins. And there is no rose garden afterward. Psychologists who study anger, and how we hide it from ourselves, are too few.
Where is leadership? Has it ever occurred to some of these guys, Mr. Heiler included, that perhaps a real leader would look at a crowd and find an empathetic way to say "Grow up and start being sensible: we, the people, are the government and have allowed our country to reach this point by not getting involved in politics and not studying the issues"? Playing to the base will continue to pull us down, down, down.
1
But in a certain sense, the US has always been post-truth. "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." is not statement of fact, but of ideals or values -- that is, things we *want* to be true.
This does explain why things can so easily go awry with us. If we lose faith in our ideals, or if we forget our values, we are already primed by our history to be hijacked by cynicism, conspiratorial thinking, and scurrilous outright lies.
This makes Trumpism the definition of a tragedy: a fatal flaw that has emerged as a result of what was once a noble characteristic.
We used to be dreamers. Now we are just deluded.
3
Both parties are ideologically bankrupt. The republicans do a better job of hiding their true agenda and appealing to fear and resentment. Given power, as we see today, the republicans will shamelessly seek to pamper and protect the rich while ignoring the interests of everyone else. The democrats have over-committed to identity politics. They've sliced and diced the population into little groups to be appealed to separately. Everyone has an identity except for the white working class that democratic strategists have ignored for decades, and those voters resent it bitterly. I think Cohen is mostly right. Most voters are unimpressed by coastal notions of political correctness. They want to hear about real solutions to the real problems they deal with every day. If democrats can't learn to talk convincingly about real, bread and butter issues that matter to most Americans regardless of their assigned identity, the democratic party may be irrelevant for a long time.
5
I agree with this assessment. The bi-coastal talking classes are living in a bubble. Elite bi-coastal liberals, leftists, and many conservatives are out of touch with how ordinary working Americans feel about the establishment political parties -- both of which abandoned them many years ago. Mr. Cohen is right on when he says the Democratic Party (and I would add the broadcast and print pundits) has no clue why Trump won; and moreover why it is unlikely that he will be impeached. I think his chance of winning a second term -- if the Democrats and their surrogates remain consumed by identity, Trump's bad behavior, and Russia-gate -- is even greater than 25 percent.
2
Dear Mr. Cohen, there are more - and in the long run more important - players in this game.
The crucial factor your article is missing is control of majorities in both Houses. As you know the President has very limited agenda setting power if he will have no sufficient grip on the Houses. Mr. Obama was blocked by an effective obstruction of his legislation by his political opponents.
Mr. Trump has been trying hard to obtain control over legislation but had already been blocked several times by "desertion" of many GOP representatives on several issues that led to the firing of Mr. Priebus and Mr. Bannon. He has no majority yet and Mr. Bannon is creating a group of politicians within GOP. Remember the "Moore" issue. In case of success this faction could be the used as an "internal" obstruction power. Then the president might be caught in a "GOP faction trap" because no bill badly required for his agenda could be passed and so he will be unable to deliver anything substantial to his supporters. This might take away his supporters - and beyond that any major political change could not be made until 2020. This might start an internal "war of attrition" he will loose sooner or later.
To avoid an outsider´s surprise attack in 2020 he would be forced to break out from this pocket no matter how.
This might not be a classic game of "candidate against candidate" or "Dems against GOP" as it had been in the past.
Nothing is like it used to be. It´s very hard to predict today.
1
It is not just Liberals who fear Trump's actions and attitudes. There are plenty of Moderates and Conservatives who do as well. In addition, the football players are not protesting the flag, the military or the National Anthem. If I had been treated with disdain, distrust and brutality most of my life, I would be feeling that pain until I died. They have a right to their protest and I hope positive change comes because of it.
Trump needs to grow up, but I am sure at 71 he does not have enough time.
I am hoping that he is found guilty of Treason when Mueller's investigation is complete, along with the rest of his cronies.
5
Trump is the conductor, but he didn't write the music. That came from years with a large segment of media developing alternative facts and pushing identity politics as the only possible response to a changing country. The Republican party collaborated as a way to increase their own voter turnout. Now, they are reaping the whirlwind as the party is split and traditional Republicans aren't on the winning side. Finally, Putin saw what was happening and decided to help encourage the schism.
The hope is that Democrats will find a leader who can deliver a positive inclusive message, a new Bill Clinton, who can speak to all of the country. He or she could come from the coasts, but the sensitivity has to be with the heartland. The far left craziness is a distraction the country can ill afford.
1
Many Democrats and Liberals are in love with themselves. They love their identity as selfless, caring and inclusive and free of any prejudice. They see themselves as saviors. It is that identity that is hardest for them to honestly break apart because Democrats and liberals are not all selfless, caring, inclusive and free of prejudice. No one is completely selfless, caring, inclusive and free of prejudice. Trump voters at this time are responding to the liberal savior posturing by reacting like any annoyed teenager by being selfish, uncaring, uninclusive and even prejudiced themselves. And, wow, those Trump voters are enjoying this ride. So, yes, Republicans will keep us all on this Trump travesty as long as the Democrats choose to react to all situations as if they are the all-knowing, idealized and perfect parent there to save the world. Democrats need to be a little more honest with themselves. I know, as a liberal with Trump voting family, that is what I am trying to do.
3
New Deal Democrats gave us 50 years of essentially good government, and were able to harness populism and channel it into good policy and a liberal consensus. The movement was so powerful that Republican Richard Nixon, seen by many as a Republican villain, was more progressive than many present-day Democrats.
Triangulating Democrat neo-liberals gave us a temporary and rather ineffectual reprieve from the dying of the light, but they are no longer able to gin up the excitement needed to move enough progressive voters to get up off the couch and actually vote.
Democrats would be well advised to look at their New Deal roots and remember that economic justice is the number one issue. When people are doing OK, when they have good jobs and can send their kids to college, when they can look forward to aging gracefully...only then will they be immune to demagogues, race-baiting, and other appeals to their lower instincts. Take care of economic justice, and the other issues, e.g. civil rights, become much easier to handle.
1
The winner of the next presidential election will be the candidate that fires the voters with an optimism based on humanitarian values for America.
These humanitarian values will be based on traditional beliefs toward patriotism and pride in America.
Unless the democratic candidate usurps the Republican candidate with unvarnished optimism the Republican will win by default.
The key to the future of the United States is to sell the dream of America at home and around the world as the unquestioned leader.
Anything less than this ideal will be found as depressing to the voter and to our traditional allies, and hence will be rejected in the voting booth!
1
The Dems have been pointed the way by numerous authors, for example Robert Reich and Thomas Piketty, and it’s shown to be politically viable by Sanders and Warren. The leadership is just too comfortable with big donors to move ahead.
248
This country will not survive much more Trump. Luckily his so called bullet proof base will be as fickle as everyone else.
This is the lie that Sanders told. It's the lie that defeated Hillary, that made Trump president. Sad that so many Democrats believe it.
1
John Brews' post doesn't past the smell test.
It can't be the "big donors" that are the problems for Democrats.
If "big donors" were the problem, then there would not be a Republican Party — home for the big donors — and Donald J. Trump and his White Supremacist pals wouldn't be in the White House.
No, it ain't the "big donors" that is the problem for Democrats. However, the Republican-elites' economic policies — policies some Democrats supported and that have created vast economic inequality in America — could be the problem. Also, the problem could be praise by the Trump's (and Republicans') base for Southern traitors who rebelled against the United States of America in the defense of slavery (a nod is proffered to this NY Times editorial: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/07/opinion/sunday/robert-e-lee-christoph... .
1
Cohen's comments about identity politics and Trump bashing are an accurate reflection of HRC and the NYT.
3
Wow, you just scared the dickens out of me! And maybe that was your point! Time to wake up Democrats! It hasn't even been a full year yet and I find myself saying "I can't take this hell much longer" and packing my bags for Canada. Making it through 4 years of this is going to be hard enough...I can't imagine what a full 8 would be like!
One other option is that the Republican party splits and we get a three way race which dilutes Trumps support enough for reason to prevail...one can only hope.
1
I appreciate Roger’s recognition and clear statement that the Democratic Party is completely clueless as to what it needs to do to regain any political power. The ‘A better deal’ proposal embraces and acknowledges the idea that ‘of course democrats suck but we suck less than republicans so vote for us’. Open borders and Baskin-Robbins number of bathrooms are LOSING policy. The democrats will WIN with a simple platform with a small number of promises: 1) Universal Health Care, 2) 15$/hour minimum wage which will turn more Americans into stakeholders that pay taxes, and 3) Free tuition as public universities (for those who meet certain admission standards). Some other commenter to another NYTimes article suggested this new motto for the Democratic Party - “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” I could not agree more. The Democrats will continue to lose if they think they can win with LGBTQ and Hispanic voters only.
2
A president with an approval rating in the mid thirties can be picked off easily by an appealing candidate who's rational, smart, calm, reassuring demeanor and good ideas will contrast starkly with the babble of the moron in chief.
Donald Trump is going down in 2020.
One clear thinking, plain-spoken, non-psychotic alternative candidate is all that's needed. Easy.
Stop focusing on doom.
Work on removing what most believe is a stain on our country. He is the most unpopular president ever.
That's actual truth.
Work on the campaign and vote.
We will win.
1
The title of this op-ed was enough to scare the living hell out of me.
2
The great American issue for the next election will be the decline of the American dream both at home and abroad.
As an expatriate living through the Trump candidacy, victory, and misdirected administration, I feel the disappointment of our traditional allies and shock of adjusting to this new world reality.
The winner of the next election will be the candidate that most convinces the voter that he or she will lead America out of the decline and into a renaissance of the great American dream.
4
"That’s partly because the Democratic Party has not yet begun a serious reckoning with its defeat last year. It hasn’t grasped the degree to which it lives, still, in a coastal echo chamber of identity politics and Trump-bashing. Being anti-Trump won’t cut it."
The media today is feeding that.
That serves certain interests, but those interests are actually rather narrow.
First, the Democrats who were the Hillary Team got an awful lot of money from donors, and fear being seen by donors as having "wasted" the money. They fear that because more money would not come from those of that opinion. They have reason to fear that because donors were saying it immediately, and donations did fall off badly. They need to excuse what they did, and in doing so excuse Hillary, who of course is naturally prone to that and leads it.
Second, those who expected power (with Hillary) did not get it. Neither did the Republican establishment. There are a vast number of "outs" these days, all bitter and entitled.
Third, The Blob that constrained Obama feared losing that power over Trump. It seems to have re-established its power to wage wars and control everything it declares to be national security. It has backed off Trump now, even sometimes calling him Presidential; that is a giveaway.
Fourth, there is the deep frustration of those who were shocked by loss. They are doing the Stages of Grief, and departing from the path to win next time in their reaction to losing last time.
5
Can you explain how the millions of people who are members of the Democratic party are not ordinary people? Or how of the 65 million people living in New York, Massachusetts and California there is not a single person who can effectively communicate common American values? I registered as a Democrat in 2016 because I was offended by Trump's bigotry and appreciated the open-mindedness and inclusiveness of the Democratic platform. I consider myself a very ordinary America.
77
Authenticity really is a form of truth. He may be wrong, but he believes it.
That is more important where the opponent is notably not authentic. Then it is authentic vs inauthentic, and voters see that as honest vs dishonest, even when the authentic is objectively not true.
7
"The center, where it was long held that elections are won, evaporates."
That has long been held by Democrats. Not by Republicans.
Republicans win out on the right, by mobilizing their base.
Democrats move away from their own base, and try to get the middle away from Republicans. The problems are twin: that decreases motivation of the base that "has nowhere else to go" but can and does stay home; and 2) the middle to which this appeals are not highly motivated, they are in the middle by definition.
The middle is one pool of potential voters, but not the only one. Those who can be motivated to vote, who otherwise would not, are also a substantial pool. In America, they are near half of all potential voters.
I don't mean to say Democrats are wrong, or Republicans are right. I mean to say there are two ways to do this, and problems with each. The big problem with the Republican way is that the total numbers which they seek to motivate are just not that large a percentage.
Likely some of each would be best, using the 80:20 rule of 80% of the benefit comes from the first 20% of effort. Get both 80% groups and win.
Democrats appealing to identified interest groups were not appealing to the left or their base. Those interest groups did not all respond very well either. Both these points are because those interest groups are not blocs of voters with identical interests. They are quite varied, not in the bag.
5
Roger Cohen should focus on the fact that the US is not a democracy and there is no sign it will become one in the future. Candidates are elected who don't get the most votes; the Senate majority is based on a minority of the population; the House is so gerrymandered that its majority represents a minority of the national population and the Supreme Court is selected by the above mal-apportioned institutions. Cohen dismisses New York, California and Massachusetts, the states that gave us FDR, JFK, and Reagan because those states don't represent American values? What has happened to the American dream of democracy and equality when vulgarity and prejudice become the path to power?
236
It is a Republic. The Founders feared real democracy, for its potential tyranny of the majority.
That is still true. Recently the US has declared "not real" the democracy that wins elections because the majority is not sufficiently respectful of minorities -- see for example Egypt.
The Founders sought protection for both majority and minority in a system with checks and balances, not in a system that is perfect majority-win democracy in every facet. One might disagree, but they had a reasoned point that we ourselves make in reference to other nations.
3
You're absolutely right that the U.S. is not a democracy. It is a collection of 50 states, each one of which is a democracy. The governor of each state is the one who does receive the most votes. Since most states have their elections off the presidential cycle, it is incumbent (pun intended) on all voters to vote in state elections. However, Democrats and younger voters vote in much reduced numbers in non-presidential elections. Why is that?
1
Trump has an untouchable 40% approval and always will. It never wavers no matter what he does. He is an outsider who smoked 16 GOP folks...sitting senators and governors.
Nobody can touch Trump in 2020. Because there is no way to siphon off his supporters. Only 60% of voters remain.
Only Trump can ruin Trump. But he has no record of self destruction. Quite the contrary...Trump has a long record of success.
Trump until Jan. 2025, then Pence.
47
What is solid is less than 40%, and it could lose motivation if it stops feeling the emotions now driving it.
Democrats can win that by shifting opinion and emotions. To do that they need appeals to all, not just to identity groups that can tend to drive off other not in-group.
8
Are you talking about the guy on his third marriage and who has filed for bankruptcy three time while screwing his partners and throwing 100’s of working class people ( oh sorry Trump called them “loser” back then) out of work.
This guys a product of his old mans money, nothing more no thing less. Everything he’s personally touched, his “university” 25million out of court settlement for fraud, Atlantic City, where his old man went down and bought 5million in poker chips before they were bankrupted, were colossal failures.
When are we going to see the tax returns? Some ones got something to hide.
8
Yep. The Resistance could learn a lot from Mr. Cohen...but they won't. They've made their bed and aren't leaving. 'cept those that move to Canada I guess.
1
Well, now we know who Roger Cohen is, if we didn't already. Seen clearly, this man's analysis is actually disgusting. Like all pundits who decry "identity politics" on the left, Cohen deliberately steps over the obvious: Trump's election is the triumph of the true practitioners of identity politics, those who demonize already marginalized and oppressed communities in order to gain political advantage. he is also profoundly irresponsible for the nature of Trump's victory, which resulted from narrow victories in three swing states totaling less than 80,000 votes. A tiny uptick in Democratic turnout would have swung the election. Cohen, of course, knows all this, and therefore he either knows or should know that his plea for centrism is really a call for capitulation. He may as well be a right-wing troll, and perhaps, in his heart, he is.
145
Your response does Cohen's work for him.
There is the world that should be, and the world that is. To win elections, you first see the world that is, so that you can then lead the way towards the world that should be. I think it's a very safe bet that President Obama and, now, Secretary Clinton are far more likely to concur with Cohen's stance than they are yours.
Okay, let's say we're willing to throw our souls under the bus. The practical problem (whoever you are) is that Cohen's plea for moderation, if actualized, won't win. Only Democrats concern themselves with reaching out to those who disagree with them - and they consistently lose while Republicans consistently win with uncompromising positions. There's no one left to convince. Turnout will win in 2018 and 2020. Cohen's prescription is more of the same and it will depress, not stimulate turnout.
Hilary Clinton's near loss cannot be used as an example against centrists policies. Her position on many issues are clearly in the center or arguably to the right of the center.
Perhaps a left of center candidate could have won. But 2016 results don't support this.
I wish Al Gore would step in and save us!
7
If we have to wait until 2024 to get rid of Trump, I'm emigrating. I hope Canada offers asylum to those of us fleeing the insane asylum he has created this side of the border.
44
For me the question is not how many genders there are but why that is a question of any interest. Who cares how many genders there are except some sort of bigot.
179
The Democratic party cares very much. It just made California declare, as a matter of official policy, that there are more than two.
Most people think this is nuts. And are repelled by those who make it part of their platform.
1
It's odd to hear Roger Cohen talking about a post-truth society, when he helped create that world himself by taking an uncritical view of imperial geopolitics. He had plenty of opportunities to tell the truth and instead he promoted American empire.
8
I'm pretty sick of this kind of column. What exactly is the Republican party? We all know. Does Mr. Cohen suggest we define ourselves in a similar tribal manner? Hillary Clinton had policies on everything. No one bothered to read them. The Democratic party stands for plenty - and Mr. Cohen obviously gets his news from right wing propaganda that paints us as "out of touch." If a Democrat gave a "values" speech would anyone cover it? Page 4 in the Times?
149
"Hillary Clinton had policies on everything. No one bothered to read them."
Many of us who read them did not believe them.
She hired students to write feel good stuff into which she inserted weasel words so she would not be committed to any of it. She tried to steal Bernie's without actually committing to it.
It was inauthentic, like her.
8
Wow, a response for everything. So even though Bernie's plans may lack details, his authenticity makes up for everything? I was not an HRC enthusiast, but she would've made a very good president. So according to you, one needs charisma (a word rarely applied to women), great policy papers, immense, nonstop passion - even if it may not manifest itself the same in everyone. Inauthentic perhaps. But now look what you've got. Happy?
2
tRump is a New York billionaire who literally epitomizes the word "elitist," and practices the most overt form of identity politics with his defense of white nationalism.
But yet the Democrats can't nominate a candidate from New York or California for of being viewed as practicing elitist identity politics?
123
QUOTE - A Democratic Party that can't tell me how many genders there are ... END QUOTE
This is the language of a bigot. Someone who has lived a sheltered life, and deliberately tried to stay within his own cocoon.
Transgendered and gender fluid members of our society have been around forever. They have been in popular culture for decades. I get that the bigots don't like it; don't understand it; don't want to understand it; and struggle against their religious teachings to do so .. but it is just a symptom of a small, closed, petty mind and worldview.
The Kinks - Lola - Released 1970
Lou Reed - Take a Walk on the Wild Side - Released 1972
Crocodile Dundee - Released 1986
48
No, it's the language of someone who recognizes reality. A party that denies evident reality in favor of an ideological agenda will either lose elections, or be destructive if it wins.
For example: Lysenkoism (founded in Marxism) destroyed Soviet biology and damaged Soviet agriculture.
No, it is the language of a realist. I don’t care to understand it, I don’t begrudge a transgendered person from doing what makes them happy, but I do begrudge the belief that we should dedicate large chunks of public discourse to such a trace population. There are larger problems for the US.
1
Thank you, I wanted to say the same thing. I'm proud to be a member of the party that fights for civil rights, not against them. Republicans support repression and marginalization because it helps conservative, straight, white men maintain their power.
I was a child when I learned that putting others down is the worst way to lift oneself up. It doesn't work. It creates nothing, helps no one. I know some bigots, but none of them is happy. Hate poisons the soul.
2
People have heard the "talk" for the past 2 years and they are waiting for results. The broken record of "Believe Me" statements and "fake news" is losing its novelty. They will have the next 2 years to measure the talk with the results. To date, the forgotten man and woman who wanted to give this president a chance remain forgotten. The president has delivered the circus but not the bread.
37
"The president has delivered the circus but not the bread."
Who will they blame for that? So far, it is media attacks and a Democratic refusal of the election outcome that they resent. Add to that an impeachment if they think it motivated by partisanship, and he'll be a shoe in.
2
"His supporters . . . include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently."
Sorry. Trump's supporters, by definition, are most certainly NOT decent, smart Americans. If they were, they wouldn't support the train wreck who sits in the Oval Office.
459
"Trump's supporters, by definition, are most certainly NOT decent, smart Americans."
That is remarkably arrogant. Don't suppose they'll agree with that and vote for you.
5
Sorry, that's part of what being out of touch means on the left.
My extended family, around 40 people, covers the spectrum (except the violent fringes); I'm biased but their bare-bones biographies are decent by any measure: steady employment based on at least one identifiable skill, little or no debt, some community or activist service, no convictions or even arrests, a few divorces and affairs, a few military, a few gun owners, etc. This group probably cancelled out their votes - mixed pickles.
No, Mark, I don't expect that you and your fellow Trump supporters will agree with me. And I'm not real worried about getting your votes since I'm not running for office.
3
I am so sick of reading articles that try to define/explain Trump voters. Millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently? Culturally alienated from the globalized metropolis? You are too kind. Those millions of "decent, smart Americans" lobbed a Molotov cocktail into our government and clapped their hands at the pretty fire it made. They may never understand what they did--and the Republican party's paymasters couldn't be happier.
432
The government needs to have a lot of dead wood burned out. The quality of services vs cost and generally horrible customer service is unacceptable. Just compare calling, say, the IRS with, say, Amazon.com. Guess which call get what you need done faster...and guess which employee is constantly assessed for the quality of the job they are doing.
You’re pretty sure this plain spoken true American won’t come from one of the three most states in the country that have a combined total of over 60 million people. How arrogant Roger!
49
I wish someone would define "ordinary Americans" for me. Am I automatically excluded because I live in Massachusetts? I suspect that plenty of "ordinary" Americans despise Trump as fervently as other "ordinary" Americans love him.
862
Are you a Patriots fan? Then yes, you are excluded.
@JVN: As a Massachusetts person, you're excluded because of the blanket condescension people in this state exhibit toward non-coastal Americans. Think I'm exagerating? Just spend a month telling people you're from, let's say, Indiana, and see how all the natives here respond. I know, because I'm originally from Hammond, Indiana--heavily industrialized and diverse, bordering Chicago. But saying 'Indiana' puts me on a farm in the minds of the ignorant locals here in metro Boston.
By the popular vote about 3 million, not that it mattered, or matters still.
“Truth can take on all comers”
Richard Rorty
2
Moe people voted for Clinton than Trump, but we're supposed to adopt their values? California, Massachusetts and New York are the future; Alabama and Arkansas are the past. In fact, they were never even the past. They always were going nowhere.
Identity politics? America always has identity politics. It's just that until recently, only whites got to call the shots.
Reaching out to the other side? The only way to reach people like Chuck Coughlin or Jeff DeWitt is to become them. From my point of view, No Way. No Way in Hell.
You know, I've always picked up census work of one kind or the other as a temp gig for some extra cash. But each time I've done that, I've had to take an oath. Part of that oath was to swear to defend the Constitution against "all enemies, both foreign and domestic."
I consider Trump's fervent supporters, both through their words and their actions, domestic enemies of the Constitution I have repeatedly sworn to uphold.
6
More people voted for a not-Hillary than voted for her, and many who voted for her held their noses, and many just did not vote at all out of disgust with her as much as with Trump. Own the mistake, don't repeat it.
4
What the Democrats have to remember is that it's very hard to get rid of an incumbent president no matter how much you hate, loathe and despise him. In addition the Democrats and the rest of the Trump haters have to realize that the chances of impeachment are slim to none. Let's also dispel the fantasy of a cabinet led 25th amendment inspired coup d'etat to rid the country of Trump by reason of insanity. It's just not happening.
The question is who is going to lead the Democratic charge against Trump in 2024? Hillary Clinton finally got the message and she isn't going to be a candidate for anything ever again. However, the Democrats have been awfully quiet. Not a single potential Democratic presidential gladiator formed an exploratory committee, made obligatory trips to Iowa or New Hampshire or made the official announcement that he or she is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. Maybe the Democrats ought to sit our 2024 and wait for better days in 2028.
Spooky isn't it?
3
To be fair, quite a few younger Dems have been quietly making trips to Iowa. But no, they quite smartly haven't declared yet. I reckon that the geriatric big guns need to be knocked out of the way before that happens.
rtj--Well one major geriatric big gun, Hillary Clinton, isn't running for anything ever again. That only leaves Bernie Sanders and I don't think he's going gentle into that good night just yet.
Democrats should be looking for a really young candidate. Look at the world wide trend of young leaders in France, Canada, Austria and New Zealand. Is there some Democrat out there who's about 35 in order challenge Donald Trump in 2020?
I'd rather "loose" than pander to ignorance and bigotry to "win."
4
There is a third choice, which is what is urged here.
2
We are less than a year in, and we are a mess. Trump's ability to frame his arguments by redefining his opponents' position is astonishing. He has his base convinced that those who support civil rights and peaceful protest are against the flag, the anthem and the troops. How is this possible? He's made it seem unAmerican to support free speech and a free press, to decry neo-Nazis, the Klan and Russian aggression, and even to watch football on Sundays. Again, how is this possible?
14
Why do conservatives think that the "Real American" is only from a rural state and not in a city?. I find it very offensive to hear that I'm not a real American since I spent most of my life in the NYC area. Am I a real American now that I'm in the south in a rural place?
24
"But it would be a huge mistake to conclude.... that his supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently". I wish you would elaborate what you mean by "view the world differently". Is it a world where coal is the future, protectionism brings prosperity, or bullying allies brings benefits? Because that's not smart. Or is it a world where Obama is a foreign born Muslim, the press should shut up, or dictators are actually good leaders? Because that's not decent. I'm actually amazed that what is called "telling it like it is" often ends up being a mash of words very attractive to the ears (put "great" in all sentences related to us, and insults when describing the others) but without much meaning if you dig a little, which I doubt these decent, smart people do.
18
Normally, I agree with Cohen, but this column is nonsense. How could anyone who is not a racist, nativist, xenophobe, anyone who can't see that Trump is an ignorant and vicious demagogue vote for such a man? Trump won, in part, because foolish people voted for silly third-party candidates or lazy people didn't bother to vote or were duped by Republican lies about Hillary Clinton. Roger Cohen should stick to commenting on European politics, where he is superb.
22
How can you be sure he is superb on Europe, when not on the US?
1
Just what we don't need a second term of a serial liar, a delusional person who acts like a 3 year old when criticized and has divided our country. A bigot who is a self-serving narcissist and still totally clueless about the honorable job of being President of the greatest country in the world. The sooner we are rid of this embarrassment the better off we will be.
13
Out of 330 million Americans, there have got to be a couple million people who'd be a better choice. It would be nice if the Democrats would run one, instead of another known problem.
4
"...that his supporters do not include millions of decent, smart Americans who just view the world differently."
Mr. Cohen, how does decent and smart support a racist,dishonest, lying, ignorant, narcissistic, psychopath? Just asking.
7
"Mr. Cohen, how does decent and smart support a racist,dishonest, lying, ignorant, narcissistic, psychopath?"
Hillary was those same things, except ignorant, and corrupt too. And we'd had more than enough of her and Bill (who'd have come with her). That is how.
4
They ignore it. They tell themselves that liberals and Democrats are the problem. They don't think he's lying, racist, or ignorant because he inherited a fortune and somehow managed to keep at least some of it. What is the quote "Trump is the poor man's idea of a rich man. A stupid man's idea of a smart man. A weak man's idea of a strong man."
Trump or no Trump, no Dem (or Repub, obviously) gets my vote without a solid and workable jobs plan in hand. And no, not crappy service jobs either. If we don't find a way to start making stuff again in this country, instead of moving towards a zero value added economy where we all just do each others' laundry and babysit kids, we might as well throw in the towel right now.
Want to win, Dems can make it easier by emphasizing American jobs and wages and labor. Want to make it more difficult, keep banging on about identity politics and the startling newsflash that Trump sucks.
6
" America was formed by a bunch of people that just wanted to be left alone". Sure. But that only includes white males. The rest of us, not so much. Thanks, GOP
36
I remember when John Keey tried to be all war like and Bush Jr. like....it did not work and it seemed inauthentic. Trump is authentically who he is..sure its a racist gauche ignoramus...but so is a lot of America.
Obama spoke to people and so did Clinton...its about a connection. Hillary was never going to connect to people on a big stage; in person..amazing, but not comfortable doing a Bill like connection.
5
Cannot be more true! Democrats will lose with no doubt. Socialism is not the solution. Wealth redistribution is unfair because some rich people deserve it. Most importantly, most of us want to be the 1%. No, we are not your 99%! BTW, where are the "we are the 99%" crowds? It is just un-American. They earn it and it is up to them how they want to spend their money. College should not be free because many college students don't study, so why should tax payers pay for their plays. At least we should demand good GPA before handing them free money. Affirmative action is so wrong and also very unfair. Legacy program is no better. Healthcare should not be one universal service only. Instead, it should be something like the USPS, FedEx and UPS model.
Human nature is ugly. Even California cannot afford universal healthcare for a good reason. Many people will abuse it! Uncontrolled immigration is hurting this nation greatly. The demographic change does not have the consent of US voters. White people in California just voted with their feet. They move to other states. Most ironically, the "coastal elites" are not much better than the racists they condemn. Do people really think racism does not exist in Portland OR? I rather spend my time with farmers and ranchers. Similarly, most of the readers of NYT are the same kind of people. Are they not tired of Trump bashing? To me, Ryan is even worse.
2
"Even California cannot afford universal healthcare for a good reason. Many people will abuse it!"
Nonsense. It would be cheaper. In other places it is a full 1/3 cheaper. We could save a trillion dollars each year.
Also nonsense that it would be abused. Use of health care early keeps costs down by keeping the problems from snowballing into things more expensive. We've seen that in practice as health care has been expanded.
6
"They earn it" hoo-boy
Yes all true - but if the Democratic Party had any one BUT Clinton- would this incompetent bigot be in office.
7
If the Democrats had nominated almost any man rather than a woman, Trump would not be president. Shameful but true.
3
"This world is in a terrible state.
What state, though?"
Roland Kirk, Jazz musician, and philosopher
5
The "truth" is that Ronald Wilson Reagan began his rise with Barry Goldwater's 1964 Presidential campaign in opposition to any civil rights legislation in Jim Crow America.
The "truth" is that Reagan began his own 1980 Presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi where three civil rights were murdered talking about "states rights". Then Reagan moved on to condemning "Cadillac driving Chicago welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks standing in line at the grocery store with food stamps to buy T-Bone Steak". Reagan mused about Dr. King being a communist and did not recognize nor acknowledge his black HUD secretary. After 200+ US Marines were killed when their barracks were bombed in Lebanon, Reagan cut and ran.
The truth is that Donald Trump is Reagan without any of the acting, political and governing talent or experience. While also lacking the Reagan gift for rhetorical for bigoted xenophobic racist misogyny. Two three score and ten plus privileged white men are further proof that not all Neanderthals are extinct.
The optimism that there will any American road in 2024 in the wake of Trump's reign of error and terror is naïve and delusional. Ridding ourselves of Trump is the only thing that can save us while preserving, protecting and defending our Constitution.
The road to Hades is paved with good intentions. Where does a road paved with bad intentions lead?
65
The Nixon Southern Strategy was a big assist, and that was based on LBJ doing civil rights legislation even though he said it would cost the Democrats the South for a generation.
4
@Mark Thomason
LBJ was way too optimistic. A human generation is 25 years. We are near 50 years and counting from 1964 Title VII and IX, 1965 Voting Rights and 1968 Fair Housing.
Johnson's Congressional mentors and friends Sam Rayburn and Richard Russell warned him. But for Vietnam, LBJ would be the second coming of Lincoln and the peaceful alternative to John Brown.
4
Blackmamba -- I agree. I only wish that "but for Vietnam" was not such a huge caveat. In everything else he was remarkable, the substance that JFK seemed to promise.
2
Mr. Cohen, when it comes to politics, any politics, there are no truths, there are "narratives". Everyone with his or her own narrative. The truth in a narrative, left-right-and center can be shaped and molded to fit whatever narrative is being espoused.
3
There are truths, and all of us ignore them at our peril. For the present, and since 1980, the Republicans have been ignoring the truth about their policy proposals, e.g., tax cuts pay for themselves, Mexicans pay for our wall, and their evaluations of Democratic Party proposals and policies. "Narrative" has become a synonym of adult male bovine excrement, more commonly referred to by a term which, thankfully, the New York Times won't print.
2
"Mr. Cohen, when it comes to politics, any politics, there are no truths, there are "narratives"."
Well, that is one narrative. Many politicians believe that, the inauthentic ones.
1
....and whatever the facts, they are edited to conform to the narrative.
1
I’ve been concerned these past months after the election of President Trump (to be clear I don’t respect the man but I do respect the office) about the weird battle within the op-ed class for the soul of the Democratic Party. It clearly is not going to be simple for Democrats (note that I’m proudly one) to continue to espouse at the forefront issues that frankly don’t resonate with much of America in contrast to the bellicose, completely fabricated I must add, black and white stances that ignore complexity by this President and his ilk. But, this is nothing new. Going back to Nixon when does it become easier to discuss matters when the conversation is framed with a broad paintbrush as in silent majority, moral majority, America First, and Make America Great Again? Much easier to frame matters that way rather than trying to debate stuff where the GOP is clearly against the majority of Americans best interests. Regardless, Democratic leaders really have lost touch only inasmuch that their pivot to anyone who writes them large enough checks that end up in refocusing them away from what matters to working people. Don’t get me wrong I do believe climate change is going to be the biggest issue to face America and will require huge efforts to overcome the current administrations rush to the precipice. Social issues matter. But focusing on improving working peoples opportunities has to matter too.
6
As far as the president’s chances for re-election in 2020, the math is clear. With 40% of the country solidly behind him and as the incumbent president, his chances of a repeat win aren’t that farfetched. In spite of his many missteps, outrageous statements and his daily demeaning of his office, his party and his base are quite pleased with the status quo. He may be a public relations nightmare for the GOP but he dominates the daily news cycle with his tweets, public spats with Republican leaders on the Hill, undermining his Cabinet members and White House staff, bashing the Democrats, disrespecting black NFL players, slamming Barack Obama, championing the David Dukes and Richard Spencers of America, re-opening past feuds with opponents to settle old scores on so on.
The president is a walking news alert 24/7 and no scoop, however inane or nonsensical, is to be missed. After all, he is the president. His approval rating may be in the tank today but in 2020 he can’t be counted out. As for telling it like it is, he’s merely an opportunist who happened along at the right time for flyover America. The president’s polling numbers aside, a wide swath of Americans are really on his side.
6
"he dominates the daily news cycle"
Yes, but the media owns that cycle, creates it, controls it.
So, why does the media do this? It is not just because media consumers demand it, because media consumers are already sick of it. Many polls are pretty clear on that.
2
At the end of the 1st Gulf War, George H.W. Bush had an approval rating of 92%. 92%!! Jesus Christ was at 86%. President Bush was literally more popular than Jesus Christ. 18 months later he lost his re-election bid to an unknown governor from Arkansas who was best known for "bimbo eruptions."
At lot can happen between now and 2020, and probably will.
1
The chance of Trump being re-elected might well be greater than the 25 percent that Roger cites here.
It might be even--or better.
UNLESS the people who dislike Trump and what he is doing to the office of the Presidency actually get out and vote. And I'm not only speaking of 2020, but of 2018's Congressional elections. And even this year's gubernatorial and mayoral elections.
Too many Democrats and Independents just don't do that, particularly in "off-year" elections. Younger people, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, etc., have to get in the habit of going to the polls, every election, every time. I am well aware of the feelings of disgust, the idea that voting makes no difference, and of attempts being made to disenfranchise many voters from the groups mentioned herein. But that's still no excuse. People have to register. People have to vote. People also have to fight against those attempts to keep them from voting, both in the courts and in the polling place--yell, complain, make a scene, make them try to deny you publically--and, of course, video it all and post it online.
If everyone who finds Trump and his enablers reprehensible actually votes, there are more of us than there are people who think he's the greatest thing since Benny Hill. But the people who think he's great show up to vote, all the time. We have to show up to vote, all the time. And fight for our right to vote, all the time.
41
@ Glenn Ribotsky
Who knew making democracy work would require effort and paying attention? A good start would be mandatory civics classes.
1
Trump is going to have a serious Republican opponent in the primaries in 2020. The last incumbents who faced serious opponents or potential opponents in their own primaries -- Taft, Truman, Johnson, Ford, Carter, George H.W. Bush -- all chose not to run again or were defeated in the general election.
1
I am a registered Democrat and an unregistered liberal (unless I have been registered as a liberal by Russian intelligence). I have been concerned for several years about the Democratic party's lack of possible presidential candidates under the age of 60. Mr. Cohen has precisely addressed us Democrats' other problem - how to appeal to the less devoted members of Trump's supporters. One way to solve both problems is for some Democrats to address Mr. Cohen's concerns and get her/himself into the public eye. And one thing that would help is for the possible Democratic presidential candidates over 60 - I'm talkin' to you, Hillary, Bernie and Joe - to get out of the picture and get behind anyone under 60 who can emerge as a Democratic presidential contender.
And just to be clear, I am almost as old as Hillary, Bernie and Joe.
19
The Clintons sucked the air out of the room for two decades and the corrupt people who served and enabled them have blood on their hands. Anyone associated with the now defunct (actually just underground) Democratic Leadership Council is anathema to Progressives - be they independent or Democrats.
I would remind you that the then young Senator Obama had not even completed one term as a US Senator when he was elected President of the United States. There are plenty of bright, capable men and women who could ably serve as President and some of them are within the Democratic Party. If the Democrats are smart, they will begin to move younger people into visible leadership positions (Ms Pelosi, find a place for Representative Tulsi Gabbard in leadership).
I will bust my backside and donate for someone who is not a DINO. However, I refuse to lift a finger for any ConservaDem, Wall Street Dem, Blue Tic, Blue Dog or Reagan Democrat.
8
You describe a Democratic party that "often seems to have lost touch with ordinary Americans." You're talking about white people in the South and Midwest, right? Because Clinton won more votes. Are the majority of Americans not ordinary? Yes, she lost, and ran an awful campaign. Her mistake was not ignoring "common-sense American values" (Trump is the one ignoring those). It was trying to appeal to a fictional reasonable, white, suburban Republican voter. If Dems want to win in 2018 and 2020, activate the base, get people excited to vote for real progressive candidates. Ditch the wall street cronies, run on expanding health care and raising wages. Don't cater to racism or leave the base behind. There are more of us, we are younger and growing in number. We have the truth on our side.
29
Re Adam:
"You're talking about white people in the South and Midwest, right? Because Clinton won more votes."
America has NEVER elected a President by popular vote, so please let it go. Hillary racked up a lot of votes in California and New York, otherwise she would have lost badly in popular votes.
When the coastal states delegations supported policies that decimated the rust belt and left it to twist in the wind you birthed the circumstances that enabled a President Trump and Republican Congress. Papers like this one and politicians like Hillary still tell people in the heartland that the jobs gained in port cities elsewhere mean the fact their job and town were decimated is O.K. withe the rush to globalization via these poorly considered trade scams like NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA, etc.
The population center of the country has shifted away from the NE and the political power has followed. California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois has replaced the 1960 paradigm of New York, California, Pennsylvania, Illinois & Ohio as the 5 most populous states. You can expect Illinois to drop out in the not too distant future.
The growth states excepting California are all Red or Purple. Democrats can either adjust their thinking from the "Coastal Elites vs the rest" or become a Rump Party on their way to the fate of the Federalists and Whigs.
3
"An overriding lesson of 2016 for liberals is that without hard-nosed realism about the state of the country and Trump’s talents, you lose."
Yes, you do. However, liberals don't run the presently clueless Democratic Party; corporate centrists do, and they have killed the Democrats. Right behind the corporate centrists are the "progressives", who aren't liberals. Progressives have mired the party in identity politics and are the ones who, in the words of Chuck Coughlin, quoted in this piece, "can't tell me how many genders there are."
A liberal Democratic Party today would fight for working Americans and would champion the idea that there are no second-class citizens based on gender-identity, race, religion, or anything else. By standing up for a simple idea - equality for all - the trap of identity politics is avoided.
A liberal Democratic Party would certainly oppose Trump, but it would also have an economic agenda right out of the New Deal. Further, it would get away from the tepid wonkishness of some previous candidates and address issues with passion. Bernie Sanders, for all his many faults, did this, and his appeal was undeniable.
Right now, the Democrats' corporate centrists are fighting for their political lives, and are dragging that party down with them. If the Democrats don't become the liberal party they once were, they will deservedly cease to exist.
Many Americans want a truly liberal party again, and we will have it.
21
Progressives do not do identity politics- liberals do. The rest is pretty accurate.
Progressives are not hung up on demographic labels and Liberals live by them. That is the difference.
2
Hi, David Gregory -
I guess we can agree to disagree on that. I'm a 65-year-old dyed-in-the-wool traditional liberal Democrat from a family of liberal Democrats. I've never practiced identity politics, nor has any liberal I've ever met. On the other hand, the younger people I've met who identify themselves as "progressives" practice pretty much nothing but identity politics. My experience is clearly different from yours, and guided my post.
Cheers!
4
What is it about being being a well paid athlete that precludes them from excersizing their First Amendment rights to gather in public and free speech?
Too many wealthy Americans are sitting comfortably on the sidelines of this and other debates that focus on the moral and ethical decline of the people in government. These wealthy athletes have the most to lose financially for expressing their political beliefs, and are willing to make at least some sacrifice to call attention to a societal ill that disproportionally impacts poor minorities.
11
We still need to be cognizant of the fact that Trump is only President because of 80,000 votes in WI, PA, and MI. It wasn't a clean victory. Also, HRC would've been a wonderful President but she had 20+ years of negative perceptions to run with. 2016 was a fluke.
20
She'd have been an awful President. We dodged a bullet, only to be hit by another.
She does not wash clean just because in retrospect she isn't Trump.
4
Also, Mr. Thomason, if I may add, Hillary Clinton would not be taunting the leader of North Korea as "Little Rocket Man," thus egging him on towards a military/nuclear confrontation.
There is a big difference between dodging a bullet and dodging a nuclear warhead, don't you think?
2
Really, Mark T?! What we have now is worse than an awful president. You don't have to like Hillary, but it's not hard to admit that she would have been a very good President. This country would be in a much better place than it is now. Of course, the party of no would have given her the "Obama treatment". Hopefully, we can change that balance in 2018.
2
In the best case scenario the leaders of the Democratic Party will read this and take it to heart. Most likely they will continue to do what they have been doing since 2008 which is pushing identity politics, trying to punish Bernie Sanders and his supporters and of course continuing to shed voters and lose elections.
What the Democrats need is a strong economic plan which offers the persuadable voter hope for a better future. They also need a plain spoken happy warrior to lead the charge.
Can you think of anyone like that? I can’t. Well maybe Bernie who’s plain spoken and a fighter and happy in a curmudgeonly sort of way—but of course as Democrats keep reminding us he’s not a Democrat—and he’ll also be way too old as will another happy warrior, Joe Biden. Maybe one of the western governors is a dark horse waiting to show his true colors, but first he or she would have to negotiate the unfamiliar mine field of Democratic primary identity politics. Ask Brian Schweitzer how that worked out.
I have very little hope that the situation will change unless something dramatic happens to change it.
6
I'm wondering where this idea about who the "real" Americans are came from.
Certainly not the millions of immigrants, GLBTQ, and people of color who inhabit small towns and suburbs around this country. Nor the millions who know and support struggles for justice. Nor the millions who might be open to a clear message about inclusiveness.
The real way to lose is to let a backwards discourse dominate our thinking.
5
"...movement of people dying for something different" - truer words have seldom been spoken. And die they will, unfortunately taking many others of us with them.
I'm sorry, but I've really had it with all the analysis of what the Democratic Party needs to do, which mostly seems to come down to forsaking principles and joining the desolate GOP in appealing to the basest instincts of the electorate. Yes, Democrats need to return to FDR first principles. But this nation desperately needs a party that still holds to our founding principles, still champions union over divisiveness, and tolerance over hatred. I'm just less convinced by the day that any of that matters anymore in this me-first nation. And, if not, we're finished anyway, at least as a functioning democracy.
63
While in general I agree that Democrats have seemingly learned little from Trump's election (other than blaming the Russians for doing what we've done to them for many years), I suspect that what many of the hand-wringers want is a Republican-lite candidate. This would include Cohen. Trump got elected because many if not most of his supporters wanted someone to basically blow the detritus right out of Washington, and many would have voted for Sanders just as well as Trump. While I've heard this stated with sneers from many of my fellow non-Trump supporters, I've heard little in the way of a reasoned analysis. While Sanders had and has many flaws and I don't think he would have been successful, he wouldn't have dismantled the basic pillars of our democracy. We wouldn't be discussing the presence of a white supremacist in the White House, nor wondering if the EPA will survive for the next several years. What the Democrats need is someone who will speak the truth plainly, preserve our Democracy, understand the alienation expressed by many in 2016, and convince everyone that they can manage to move things along in Washington, when things come along that are worth doing. If the next candidate is simply a Republicanesque Democrat, no thanks. I'll write in Angela Davis, as I did in elections long ago.
189
VKG,
I was with you until the last 2 sentences.
Although it isn't great to choose between 2 candidates you don't like, in our current system, if you write in someone who won't win, you can get the worse of the 2 that can win. We got the worse one now by an astronomical margin.
2
I think the Democrats you disparage, like Cohen, just want someone who will win. If that someone is a centrist, then I'm all for it because (and I hate giving Mitch McConnell any credit for anything) if you don't win, you don't get a say in making policy.
When Cohen says that Dems have lost touch with ordinary Americans, too many coastal Dems read that as somehow pandering to white Americans. Listen, I live in the San Diego area and my neighbors are Latinos, Asians and African Americans. A couple are refugees from Iraq and others are veterans. I see them as ordinary Americans and well, most of them are not too hung up on identity politics. They aren't professors or intellectuals and many haven't gone to or graduated from college. Most (even the veterans) voted, like I did, for Hillary (though none of us liked her all that much). Opportunity, economics and what the future will like for their kids is what these ordinary Americans are interested in. Bernie interests them (I know because I go to local Dem meetings) but they are frustrated by his vagueness about how you get from here to there.
So, yeah, go ahead and vote for Angela Davis and keep believing in your heart that this is what ordinary Americans want. Me, I really tired of the stupid purity arguments that tie Dems up and make them so ineffectual. Like President Obama, I'm a believer in evolutionary not revolutionary social change. Sometimes that gives you moderates. Live with it.
4
Writing in Angela Davis is one of the things that got Trump elected. By now even the most fervent supporters of Bernie Sanders must realize that Trump is not just a different version of Hillary Clinton. I don't understand the attitude that if one does not get the toy one wants it's alright if the toy store is burned down.
3
There is a left-leaning politician who speaks to common-sense American values. His name is Bernie Sanders.
He was the Democratic party's answer to Donald Trump, and he was ignored by the establishment due to its investment in the Clinton machine. Even after Clinton's meltdowns in Michigan and Wisconsin during the presidential primary, he was ignored. Even now, almost a year after the election, when Bernie Sanders is interviewed, the interviewer pivots to Hillary Clinton.
I'd put our current president's chances of re-election higher than 25%.
82
And the DNC just kicked out the Sanders and Ellison backers. While Clinton is the crazy old lady ranting at ghosties in the attic.
3
Absolutely right.
2
Problem: Sanders is not a Democrat. He is a man without a party.
2
Mr. Cohen is correct.
But the Democratic party rulers fear offending their Wall Street and Hollywood paymasters even more than they fear losing. Exhibit A: Senator Schumer. And upper middle class Democrats revel in shuddering at the horribleness of the Trump base - as they did before he won.
The only possible turnaround can come from the grass roots. The thousands of Indivisible groups around the country are a good start.
44
And the GOP is at the mercy of the Koch Bros, the Mercer Family AND Wall Street.
Hollywood gravitates to the Democrats because they appeal to a more diverse population...the Dems do nothing special to attract them beyond their policy issues. Wall Street gives to both parties, much more to the GOP than the Dems. But the core of the Democratic party is to the grassroots population...and I hope they can motivate them to vote next time around.
30
I am a co-leader of one of those groups. If you think for a second the Cohen's call for moderation in the face of rising American authoritarianism represents me, or any of the people in our movement, you are deeply mistaken. Try talking to us before you talk about us.
3
"as they did before he won"
Except he didn't actutally win: Hillary Clinton got more than 3 million more votes. Republicans are closing their eyes to this fact at their own peril. If the Democrats can find another inspiring candidate such as Obama in 2008, someone who can get voters to turn out on Election Day, even the Republicans worst gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts will fail.
6
"Trump was always about language. It didn’t matter that he was a loose cannon."
No, it sure didn't. His language is so simple, it strikes at the heart of people's fears and emotions, validating their worst impulses.
If they love it because "he tells it like it is," one has to examine what that "it " is. As for alienating a lot of Americans, that includes the middle class, even those on the fringes of the "elites."
"No nothingism" dominates today's ruling class--the more people can swallow legislation that in the end will do them in, the greater the chance for total oligarchy (some say we're already there).
Roger Cohen states there is a large swath of Americans who feel "culturally alienated form the globalized metropolis" but what about the large swath who aren't ashamed of being educated or willing to acknowledge the truth behind Trump's lies?
This large swath (which includes me) are getting pretty sick and tired of watching ignorance become institutionalized, the press demonized, and the smell of fascism just around the corner while a robber baron political party presses on to reward the wealthy.
A country obsessed with the outward show of patriotism while the ruling party robs the people blind and happily lies about it, is no country for old men (or women).
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Well stated!!!
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Well stated, Christine! I, too, am sick and tired of being told that we (those of us who have managed to educate ourselves and can smell a con and recognize a lie when we see it) should somehow try to understand the liars and know-nothings who are becoming normalized by The Despicable Don show coming out of D.C.
I am beyond disgusted that if any Democrat behaved the way Despicable Don does, there would be screaming and hollering from all the faux moral Republicans. But now? Nary a peep. Remember how quaint that Hillary used a private email server? Oh, those were the days, were't they?
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Um.. it's "Know Nothing".... not "No Nothing" - just mentioning.
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Democrats haven’t yet come to terms with their bi-coastal focus on identity politics and Trump-bashing … but over half of Roger’s column consists of Trump-bashing. So much for goads to new and broader-based Democratic arguments likelier to appeal to a center that Roger is convinced has shriveled and been blown away by the winds of bi-polar extremism, but that I see merely as dormant and awaiting energizing.
I’d put Trump’s chances of impeachment not at Roger’s 10% but at 1%; and I’d put the chances of his re-election at “I have no idea”. What will determine Trump’s viability for a second term isn’t the 40% (or less) of the electorate that appears to consist of rabid supporters, but on whether or not he delivers SOMETHING to regular Americans. Tax reformation, regulatory rationalization, comprehensive immigration reform – if he were to catalyze a congressional movement that did something meaningful with healthcare that attracted significant Democratic votes, then he’d skate into a second term. If his trade policy preferences result in bilateral agreements seen to improve the prospects of American middle-class, smokestack communities, and our economy responds with renewed growth, then that alone could propel him into a second term. But if he fails at everything, he probably won’t even run.
Roger mistakes Trump’s efforts to stay in the news and keep the rabble roused as something actually relevant to future electoral outcomes. They’re not. They’re distractions.
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Clearly, short of global thermonuclear war, foreign affairs won’t influence electoral outcomes that much. After all, Obama won a second term despite allowing the world to destabilize to levels we haven’t seen since the run-up to WWI. It really is all about what he can take credit for doing for Americans.
But for the time being, everything is still up in the air. So, despite Roger’s belief that the chances of Trump’s re-election are 25%, and Tom Edsall may believe that they’re even greater, I see no basis at this time for predictions of any kind. The ball is in Trump’s court.
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"...Obama won a second term despite allowing the world to destabilize to levels we haven’t seen since the run-up to WWI."
Damn that Obama and his destabilization wand.
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“Tax reform,” otherwise known as a yuge tax cut for the rich, passed last night with no semblance of the putatively important to McCain “regular order,” nor with a single democratic vote. In fact, Republicans voted down an amendment from NDs Heidi Heitkamp guaranteeing no tax increase on those making under $250K/year. By your actions ye shall know them. That, and Gary Cohn thinking a $1000 tax cut could renovate a kitchen or buy a new car.
What makes Richie Rich think that there will be comity with Democrats when Mr. Embrace the Horror is already discounting the Lamar Alexander-Patty Murray attempts to do just that?
More triumph of the will of hope over experience.
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While I see elements of truth here, I also have a gut reaction to this article. Where do I fit in? Where do people like me fit in? Am I not also an "ordinary American" or are you now saying that the 'real' Americans are Trump supporters or, at least, people who hate the political class, the establishment & gay marriage and who love guns and see the nations as a "Christian nation"?
I grew up on the East Coast, but have lived in the Midwest since the mid 70s. I consider myself to be a practical (and probably somewhat moderate) liberal. Must my party (or at least the one I usually go with) move to satisfy others leaving me and my views aside in order to win? Has my country really become foul-mouthed, xenophobic, and nationalistic? I view globalization as an unstoppable reality. Should we really support curling up, closing in, and building walls in order to satisfy this misguided belief that that is how America is great?
I am old enough that it is tempting to read more novels, care less about the news, and figure that I won't have to deal with the consequences. That however is not in my DNA. I'm an ordinary American, too. I will listen, but I also expect to be heard.
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@Anne-Marie Hislop: this is a dynamite comment. Yes, there are a ton of us like you, who so succinctly ask," Has my country really become foul-mouthed, xenophobic, and nationalistic? I view globalization as an unstoppable reality. Should we really support curling up, closing in, and building walls in order to satisfy this misguided belief that that is how America is great? "
Reading novels really avoids the question--how much can we do, to stop this madness? Well, avoiding the news and putting my head in the sand because I'm closer to the end than the beginning isn't the answer either.
If everyone had done that way back, this country wouldn't have flourished until a combination of forces so malign--polarization, exploitation, and personal animus--made it to the Trump coalition.
I may not be capable of much these days, but my brain still works and I have to keep trying.
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Anne Marie,
I appreciate your comment. But this column and others like it about the "Democrats wandering in the desert" is nonsense. If Republicans had lost, it would be the same (hell, they've won and they're still wandering). Does anyone cover speeches by any of the Democrats running for office right now? Ralph Northam is running here in VA; he speakings plenty of values and goals. All the media reports on is the race. I'm sick of these columns and they just exacerbate the problem, leaving people to think Democrats stand for nothing.
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Globalization is not an unstoppable reality. There are many other options. And they aren't really options. We have no choice but to start putting the health of the ecosystem above the health of the corporate economy. If we don't the most likely future is extinction. If you concede "globalization", you've given the game away.
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