Well hey, I’ve taken a couple weeks off to get out into the country and reconnect with dear old planet earth. I was hoping and praying for success in some of these special elections and of course was disappointed with most of the results. But you know what? I did see some things in these special elections and the special election in England that gave me hope and I think we might just hold our own in 2018 or maybe even improve our position slightly.
First, let’s get Ga 06 out of the way. Ok, we lost and I am going to do a little finger pointing. I want to ask, what can we learn from this? I think the learning is: Unless we state what we are about and what we are for and connect with young voters and motivate them, we have no chance. We ran a physically attractive millennial and poured money into his campaign but it wasn’t enough. We never stated what we are for, we never gave voters a choice on issues that are important to them. Our candidate stated he was against new taxes and single payer health insurance and was willing to work with Trump. And then, when Repugs viciously attacked our House Leader, Nancy Pelosi, in TV adds, he was silent and did not fire back. He wound up doing worse than Hillary did in 2016.
Let’s move on to SC 05, where we were much closer to winning than in Ga 06. We did it with a fraction of the resources used in the Georgia race where the Democratic establishment was all in. SC 05 flipped to the Republicans in 2010 and will stay there until 2018(?). We came within 3 points of winning in a deep red district in a deep red state and that makes me hopeful.
Going further back to late May in the special election for New York state assembly district 09, I am beginning to become cautiously optimistic about 2018. NY State Assembly 09 is a district where Trump won by 23 points and the Republican candidate for State Assemblyman won by 37 points. But all that was before Christine Pellegrino, Democrat, thumped her opponent 58 to 42 in the 2017 special election.
Wow, now that’s like the lion biting the pig on the back of the neck, picking him up, shaking him and then trotting off to devour him. Way to go Christine! What makes it doubly fun for me is the fact that my staunchly Republican in laws live close by in Levittown. I used to ride my bike through this district on the way to the beach during Thanksgiving visits so I wouldn’t have to listen to them complain about poor people. I am cautious because NY is a deep blue state and is now solid blue in the State legislature so it may not be as great an achievement as it sounds. Also Christine is an unabashed Berniecrat and I will probably get some flak from my fellow Kossaks for even mentioning her here.
Well, since I opened the Berniecrat can of worms, I might as well go all in and bring up NH 06 state assembly race where the first Democrat since 1913 will be going to Concord to represent Wolfeboro. Edith DesMarais pulled off a victory in a district with 2 to 1 Republican/Democrat registration. Sometimes the best presents come in the smallest packages and I hope this is one of those. The Democratic Party Chairman, Raymond Buckley, didn’t mince words about either,
Democrats showed that, in 2017 and beyond, we will reject the reckless and irresponsible policies of Donald Trump and Chris Sununu
So, let’s jump across the pond and take a look at another liberal who has received more than his fair share of vilification, Jeremy Corbyn. Yeah he didn’t go all the way but he sure did gain a lot of ground on the Conservatives who were expecting to roll over on the Labour Party.
Whoops didn’t quite work out that way. Corbyn gained 32 seats in Parliament and will probably force another election soon. He is an unabashed liberal and champion of the working man. It has been a long, hard road for him and I am glad to see him get so close to arriving at the destination he has wanted for so long. He got 70% of young people to turn out. Can you imagine what we could do with that?
Maybe it was all that fresh air and gorgeous scenery that made me optimistic but I think we now know what works and what doesn’t. I don’t think we will lose seats in 2018 and we might even win a few back. But first we must step out from behind our story and develop a narrative that connects the values we already have to young and working people. If we can find a way to do this, our 40 years in the wilderness will come to a happy conclusion with a march into the promised land.