A smug lecture from a Republican whose 'helpful' policy prescription is for Dems to be GOP Lite

[DonViejo]

(I stole the thread title from a comment posted under the article, below, at the WaPo)

Democrats will keep losing, unless they do this

By Joe Scarborough June 22 at 7:48 PM

The Democrats’ long losing streak continued this week in a Southern suburban district that Donald Trump barely won last fall. The party’s great hope for the Georgia seat was a $24 million man whose victory would have likely had a seismic impact on Washington’s direction, rattling Republicans in Congress already nervous about the president. But Jon Ossoff lost Tuesday’s special election to Karen Handel — despite running at a time when the president and his Republican allies in Congress suffer from record-low approval ratings. Neither the GOP’s unpopularity nor the Democrats’ ability to organize marches, raise millions or attack the Trump administration’s crazed approach to governing changed Tuesday’s outcome.

The Democrats simply lost. Again.

The party has been on a historic run over the past eight years — all in the wrong direction. Since Barack Obama’s breathtaking victory in 2008, Democrats have been wheezing their way through one political defeat after another. They have lost more than 1,000 state legislative seats and governorships and now control only one-third of the country’s legislative chambers. And it is not just in red or purple states where Democrats’ fortunes have collapsed. In deep-blue Connecticut, Democrats held twice as many state Senate seats as Republicans in 2008. That advantage has been erased entirely. In the state’s House chamber, Democrats back then controlled 114 seats to Republicans’ 37. Today, the GOP is only a handful of seats away from taking control. All in a state where Hillary Clinton trounced Trump.

Across the country, Democrats are weaker on the state level than at any time since William McKinley was president. They control fewer governorships than at any time since Woodrow Wilson was in the White House and have forfeited more seats to Republicans in the U.S. House than at any time since Herbert Hoover was elected.

The party’s latest setback has only heightened its internal tensions, with some calling for the ouster of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). But an even bigger challenge for Democratic leaders will be managing the intraparty fight between left-wing heretic hunters and more moderate forces hoping to rebuild Franklin D. Roosevelt’s coalition of ideologically diverse allies. Roosevelt’s melange of Northern progressives and Southern conservatives passed Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Civil Rights Act. It dominated Congress for most of the 20th century. Tearing down that big tent in favor of a more ideologically homogenized movement would be a recipe for political disaster.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democrats-will-keep-losing-unless-they-do-this/2017/06/22/9eefb7c4-576e-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html

[DetlefK]

1. I dare to claim that the political landscape has changed since the days of Franklin Roosevelt.

Stuff like:
- the civil-rights movement
- the GOP's open embrace of racism to drive voter-enthusiasm
- the collapse of the GOP into only having two goals: 1. reduce taxes, 2. oppose whatever the Democrats like
- the rise of the Tea Party and the subsequent purge of moderate Republicans from the GOP and the inevitable move from center-right to far-right
- Internet and new technologies leading to a more diverse society
- the 2008/2009 recession proving that capitalism is not the answer to everything
- Trump's primary-victory proving that the republican voters distrust the republican establishment
- Bernie Sanders' successes being proof that social-democracy is no longer a dirty word in the US
- all the civil-rights victories that the Democrats have won and that the Republicans are desperately trying to undo

[IronLionZion]

2. He's not completely wrong

If you toss out the smug republicanism, there are some good takeaways about how all politics is local.

Dems have lost a lot of local elections for state legislatures, and that's who draws the district lines for the US congress. If we want to un-gerrymander these districts, we need to have more Dems in state legislatures.

And if we want to pass any progressive legislation, we need majorities in congress. Even if some red states have moderate Dems, the leadership of our party would still be long time liberals who choose which legislation advances out of committee for a vote. Being a Dem in a red state has got to be the most frustrating situation to be in.