There was no one more wrong in the 2016 election than Joe Lieberman. Well, Lieberman, No Labels, Third Way, the Democratic Leadership Council, the New Democrat Network, the Blue Dog Coalition, with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair along for the ride. Anyone, in short, who ever maintained that there was a socially progressive/fiscally conservative “third way” out there waiting to capture the swing voters of America.
There wasn’t. There isn’t. And absolutely no position has proved both more deceptive in characterizing the mood of the nation, and more long-term destructive to the Democratic Party.
For three decades, seekers after elusive votes have contended that there was a magic sweet spot to be found somewhere in the realm of open-hearted penny pinchers—Americans who would welcome that new immigrant at the local school, so long as they didn’t have to part with 27 cents to cover the kid’s breakfast. Explorers using expert triangulation could unlock the secret land that’s home to a vast horde of voters longing for some sensible alternative to either left or right. They knew it had to be so. There were books. And think tanks. Think tanks!
And yet, somehow, every movement built along that theme has proven itself to be as limp, useless, uninteresting, unsuccessful and ultimately distasteful as a cocktail whose feature ingredient is dish soap.
Nope. What ultimately coughed up all those mythical Reagan Democrat votes and brought otherwise disinterested Springer viewers out of their living rooms wasn’t the promise of a more open society or a desire to bring the budget under control. What won the day wasn’t socially liberal/fiscally conservative. It was socially fascist/fiscally chaotic.
What packed in white voters who blamed minorities for their declining job prospects? Vengeance. What touched the souls of “Christian” voters who feel that their religion privileges them to treat anyone they don’t approve of as untouchables? Vengeance. What moved a whole swath of voters who couldn’t understand how all the numbers looked shiny, but their own lives didn’t match up? Vengeance.
And what moved them when it comes to fiscal policy? Who gives a shit.
No, seriously. Who? Because if there was one thing we learned for sure in 2016, it’s that no one cares about conservative economics. Not even conservatives.
The truth is, no one ever did care about conservative economics, though they pretended to do so. That’s because conservative economics never made a bit of G-D sense. It wasn’t Democrats who pointed out that Reagan’s supply napkin scribbles were “voodoo,” it was his soon-to-be Vice President George H. W. Bush. Conservative economics is yada, yada, yada, take money we would have spent helping poor people and give it to rich people, yada yada yada. The end.
It’s that old cartoon where a lengthy equation is interrupted by the phrase “and then a miracle occurs” except no miracle is ever forthcoming. What’s forthcoming is bank failures, economic collapse, and massive deficits. Bubbles. Lots and lots of popping bubbles.
Voters took those economics for a decade, and watched as policies failed to address the declining position of the working and middle classes. Then they took Clinton’s version of those policies for a decade, and watched as policies failed to address the declining positions of the working and middle classes, then took W’s version then …
Donald Trump came along and offered a white nationalist vision in which immigrants were tossed screaming into darkness, cops were allowed to hold a (more) open season on minorities, women were required to do whatever men wanted, white people would be given even more of an edge, jobs would pour from Trump’s ass, and … banks would be free to engage in high risk instruments, corporations would get fewer regulations and lower taxes, and billionaires would get an enormous tax break.
Some of Trump voters read the immigrant part, and that was enough. Some heard the whole thing in the voice of a Peanuts’ teacher except for the part about cops or women. Some didn’t fall into line until they got the full kick out the Mexicans, shoot the blacks, grab the women panorama. But nobody looked for the part after the ellipsis. Steven Mnuchin could give his next Treasury talk using entirely terms lifted from Star Trek. No one would notice.
Fiscally conservative is not a thing. What’s it supposed to be again? Balancing the budget? George W. Bush didn’t balance the budget. He blew up the budget. So did Reagan.
Donald Trump isn’t even going to try to balance the budget. He’s promising to spend endless money while giving enormous tax breaks. He’s going to do for the deficit what a 75-degree day in March does for your daffodils.
The third-way position emerged out of the gloom after the defeat of Walter Mondale, and it seemed to be confirmed with the election of Clinton. It was the result that launched a thousand “taking back the center” books and thrilled ten times that many corporate lobbyists.
But it never worked. There is no there there, and certainly no voters.