I don't think Trump will be that much of an anomaly looking forward unless effective action is taken to eliminate the electoral college, gerrymandering, voter suppression etc.
got that right... no matter who manages to become the Pied Piper of that part of the American electorate.
That's why we have to keep in mind that changing a party's way of operating has to be maintained at the grass roots.
School boards, town councils, those went to Republican hands one election at a time starting in the 1990s when Buchanan and Gingrich were amping up the culture wars.
We only
thought the Reagan era (with his then shocking remarks about "welfare queens" etc) was a four alarm fire bell ringing in our ears....
Sure some local races and local legislatures have been flipped blue since Trump landed in the Oval Office, and it's been because of progressives rolling up sleeves and bothering to put candidates on tickets that lots of times didn't even have any opposition to long-term R incumbents. It's been a great start. But we can't quit making that level of effort.
There are still so many Republican governors and Republican state legislatures... and they are who do stuff like appoint Senators in event of vacancies, and draw the Congressional District maps off new census info every ten years.
The Democrats still tend to think in terms of what their star power is and how to keep attention on those names. Well those celebrity photo ops at media-attended events just don't trickle down to the level of Democratic Party bench building. The people living in small towns and rural areas couldn't give less of a damn about celebrity pols much less how well crafted their "message" is.
The message that matters is the one from the voters to the pols... at the polling place. And it's about "what i think of what you have DONE lately."
Every small town resident knows some jackass who talks a lot at town meetings but is never found in the church hall or firehall meeting room holding a saw or a screwdriver during renovations or a pancake turner at the fundraisers.
The only photo ops that count in small towns and rural areas are the ones where someone DID SOMETHING to help and is standing next to it with some of the volunteers and $5 donors for the local paper's photog to get a picture.
A new skateboard park. New steps and a ramp for the library to make it more accessible... and an add-on room to house special events meant to attract kids and keep them coming back to the library as a place to have fun and learn at the same time. A referral center converted from a disused property
on Main Street instead of out in the boondocks where no person desperately needing counseling or a treatment referral could likely even get to the place.
It's easy to kick dirt at the DNC and I don't mind doing it even now... but my point today is more about how it was
voters who gave Donald Trump a fat pink slip, and it was local people
one by one kicking in $5 or making a phone call or printing up posters at demos and so forth who got people to register and to vote. And voters who get ticked off at the no-opposition tickets on ballots and who encourage competent colleagues or kin or friends to run for local public offices.
So it's us... not "them" at the top of the DNC or a state committee who have to keep this thing going. We cannot sit back now and just hang out until suddenly it's midterm elections time and we start wondering if the House might flip red or something. Sure it might flip red if we sit around if that's what we want to let happen... so we can resume complaining?
But I'm going to assume we all give ourselves permission to sit around this weekend, unless we're Democratic Party lawyers or ACLU wonks working the margins of a transition that could get illegal before it gets friendly.
Me I'm making a whole new set of playlists from songs I ain't played in a long time now. Hope everyone has a great weekend. If there's bad news afoot, "save it"...