DECLINE OF THE DEMS – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  Go back to late 2008.  The Democratic Party was in glory.  It had just elected the first black president, and would control both houses of Congress.  Some pundits predicted a permanent Democratic majority.  The Republicans were nowhere, couldn't even get a cab near Capitol Hill. 

Now look at it.  The Dems are a mess, fighting with themselves.  They've lost both Houses.  Their president's approval rating hovers around 40%, and it's that high only because of the understandable loyalty of the black community.  They have only one well-known candidate for president for 2016, and she's fading in the polls.  There is no happiness.  Happy days aren't here again.

And why?  In one of the best pieces I've seen on the subject, Charlie Cook argues that the Democrats lost touch with the American people, especially critical parts of their own constituency.  From National Journal: 

This challenge for Democrats can be sliced and diced a number of ways: by race, by where people live, and—very acutely—by combining race with socioeconomic status. A Nov. 25 report by the Gallup Organization underscored Democrats' problems with noncollege-educated white voters. According to Gallup Editor Frank Newport, "President Barack Obama's job-approval rating among white noncollege graduates is at 27 percent so far in 2014, 14 percentage points lower than among white college graduates. This is the largest yearly gap between these two groups since Obama took office. These data underscore the magnitude of the Democratic Party's problem with working-class whites, among whom Obama lost in the 2012 presidential election, and among whom Democratic House candidates lost in the 2014 U.S. House voting by 30 points."

There are many reasons for this decline in support for Democrats among certain groups. But an argument can be made that it is because Democrats have subordinated their traditional focus on helping lower- and working-class Americans move up the economic ladder in favor of other noble priorities, such as health care, the environment, and civil rights. Whether these were the right or wrong priorities is totally subjective, but they have come at a cost. Sen. Chuck Schumer recently committed the classic case of a political gaffe, once defined by Michael Kinsley as "when a politician tells the truth—some obvious truth he isn't supposed to say." The Democratic Left went crazy when Schumer suggested that the early focus on health care reform in 2009 and 2010, when he says Democrats should have been concentrating on economic growth and job creation, had cost them greatly (something that I have written about for over five years).

And...

At the tail end of the George W. Bush administration and in the early Obama years, financial markets were stabilized (the overwhelming majority of the Troubled Asset Relief Program funds have been repaid, with many of the investments yielding profits for Uncle Sam), and the Obama administration should be applauded for rescuing the automobile industry. But while those actions can be legitimately seen as a good start, we then saw a grand pivot to the environment and health care, with grave consequences for the party. At another time and in different fashion, both are important priorities, but the focus on these issues has effectively decimated the Democratic Party in specific areas and among specific voter blocs. The evidence is the difference in the partisan makeup of the Congress that will be sworn in next month, compared with the one from eight years ago.

COMMENT:  Well said.  The Democratic Party today serves the elites and their intellectual interests.  It actually shows contempt for the very groups that originally built the Roosevelt-Truman-Kennedy coalition.  The contempt for the working American, who is not a minority, is clear and overwhelming.  Eventually, a price is paid.

Some of this can be attributed to the crazy emphasis in universities on "race, gender and ethnicity."  It became a conceit.  Working people might be struggling, but it was just assumed they were racists.  The great works of history were shrugged off as the product of "dead white men." 

This could be the Republican hour.  The party just ran a great campaign.  It had, for the most part, fine candidates, replacing the goofballs of recent vintage.  Now it needs a first-class presidential campaign to complete the retaking of the U.S. government. 

The next two years will be exciting.  They will also be dangerous, as a reckless, embittered Barack Obama does as much damage as possible, and Republicans fight their demons to put a man or woman in the White House. 

December 3, 2014