Since election night last Tuesday, all manner of post mortem analyses have sought to assert the true meaning of the results, even while several races are yet to be officially decided. Party partisanship dictates interpretation. Democrats did successfully take control of the House of Representatives, but at the same time, Republicans increased their majority in the Senate. Down ballot, several governorships flipped to the Democrats as did many state legislative seats. Democrats won the popular vote – again! It seems clear to me that a Democratic “blue wave” did happen that night despite President Trump’s counter claim that “I thought it was very close to complete victory” for him. What is happening now is debating just what size a wave it was and what happens next.
I don’t care to become entangled in those debates about the size of the “blue wave” but I am interested in what it all might mean as we press forward with less than 2 years to the next Presidential election. This election was not about ideological differences and policies between the two main parties. It was all about the deepening and cementing of team partisanship expressed in identity and race terms. Trump clearly wanted these mid-terms to be a referendum on his Presidency/leadership – “Pretend I’m on the ballot.” And while Democrats, wisely I think, did not take that bait but for the most part concentrated on more local than national issues, it would be wrong to think that in the aftermath of these results, they don’t see it as some evidence of voters expressing a wish to curb/restrain the direction and excesses that emanate from this White House.
Politics today, however, is defined less by economic or ideological concerns than by questions of identity. Now, in many democracies, the left focuses less on creating broad economic equality and more on promoting the interests of a wide variety of marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities, immigrants and refugees, women, and LGBT people. The right, meanwhile, has redefined its core mission as the patriotic protection of traditional national identity, which is often explicitly connected to race, ethnicity, or religion.[F. Fukuyama]
Trump the malignant narcissist, never one to take blame and responsibility for his words and actions, no matter how incendiary or batshit crazy they are, strikes out at the Republican faithless and his Democratic opponents with equal venom. -“Mia Love [Utah Republican] gave me no love, and she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that Mia.” His death grip on the Republican Party is complete now – there are no GOP moderates in the party of Trump. Ideology has little or nothing to do with it. The only currency that Trump cares about is unflinching loyalty to him! He has no personal moral compass to guide/restrain him, and he regularly rejuvenates himself in the raw emotionalism of his adoring base by feeding them a sense of belonging while both stoking and legitimizing their baser instincts of white nationalism. He plows ahead impervious to the cries of objection from his critics, confident in the unwavering support of his base. He just doesn’t give a damn about reaching out to others. Indeed, he needs the others to demonize in order to maintain his dominance and power over his base. Make no mistake, just like the scorpion in Aesop’s fable, Trump will continue as before because it “is his nature.” If anything, I fully expect him to intensify his efforts at societal divisions.
Trump is a clownish and embarrassing tool of the kleptocrats. His faux populism is a sham. Only the rich like his tax cuts, his refusal to raise the minimum wage and his effort to destroy Obamacare. All he has left is hate. And he will use it.[C. Hedges]
And yet Trump’s rise did not reflect a conservative rejection of identity politics; in fact, it reflected the right’s embrace of identity politics. Many of Trump’s white working-class supporters feel that they have been disregarded by elites. People living in rural areas, who are the backbone of populist movements not just in the United States but also in many European countries, often believe that their values are threatened by cosmopolitan, urban elites. And although they are members of a dominant ethnic group, many members of the white working class see themselves as victimized and marginalized. Such sentiments have paved the way for the emergence of a right-wing identity politics that, at its most extreme, takes the form of explicitly racist white nationalism.[Fukuyama]
For their part, the Democratic Party, basking in the warmth of the largest mid-term victory since 1974, needs to be careful not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The reality is that the progressive wing of the party, such as it is, did not perform particularly well last Tuesday. The loss suffered by Beto O’Rourke in Texas was particularly painful. The party is still predominately a centrist-right establishment entity firmly controlled by and in the image of the Clintons and Obamas. Democratic socialists will increasingly realize that there is not really a true home for them within this party and that their policy agendas can never be activated, let alone achieved, within this framework.
Self-styled liberals and progressives, as they do in every election cycle, are urging us to vote for the Democrats, although the Democratic Party in Europe would be classified as a right-wing party, and tell us to begin to build progressive movements the day after the election.[my emphasis] Only no one ever builds these movements.[Hedges]
Left-wing activists focused on identity issues are seldom representative of the electorate as a whole; indeed, their concerns often alienate mainstream voters.[Fukuyama]
On the issues of identity and race, the Democrats will continue to promote themselves as the party of inclusiveness [of all identities] and multicultural membership. The one large group that they cannot seem to reach at the moment is the white working-class male, both rural and urban. As the party going forth embraces more persons of colour, women [especially white educated women], immigrants, LBQT, and other identities, into its renewed version of a “rainbow coalition” it increases the sense of isolation, frustration, and abandonment of the white working-class male. Given the overall size of this group and its participation in the voting process, the Democratic Party will need to address, and more importantly, overcome this issue if it wants to ensure future electoral successes.
The Republican Party is becoming the party of white people, and the Democratic Party is becoming the party of minorities. Should that process continue much further, identity will have fully displaced economic ideology as the central cleavage of U.S. politics, which would be an unhealthy outcome for American democracy.[Fukuyama]
In this era of Trump, American politics has become a more rigid partisan team sport. Evidence of earlier bi-partisanship in governance is today meaningless. Compromise and collaboration between the two parties is not going to happen. This reality is much easier [and familiar] to a Trump led party than the Democrats. Trump always thinks in terms of win-lose relationships. The Democrats cannot simply walk toward the 2020 election year with a simplistic “we are not Trump” message. They will be forced to advance an agenda for legislation which deals with issues beyond the narrower restrictions of minority identity politics like improving health care for all, lowering drug costs, ensuring pre-existing conditions, DACA, immigration reform, electoral reform, etc.
This new Democratic leadership in the House will have to walk a dangerous path of undertaking investigations into Trump and his Presidency, supporting the Special Counsel, while down-playing the threat/intent of impeachment. They need to be strong in their responsibilities to govern while avoiding the inevitable traps of manipulation and fabrication that Trump and company will pepper them with daily.
CALL TO ACTION: Resolve to see the truth, hear the truth, and speak the truth!
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Francis Fukuyama, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/americas/2018-08-14/against-identity-politics-tribalism-francis-fukuyama
Chris Hedges, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/scum-vs-scum/
