Four years ago Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann published It’s Even Worse Than it Looks. In a 2013 review, I quoted from that book:
“However awkward it may be for the traditional press and nonpartisan analysts to acknowledge, one of the two major parties, the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier—ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive”
And went on to add:
Newt Gingrich bears a heavy burden of guilt, according to Mann and Ornstein, for the extreme polarization that exists today. In order to achieve a Republican majority he did all he could to delegitimize and denigrate Congress, and Washington, DC, so that voters would throw out the incumbents and elect Republicans to replace them. He was successful in creating that majority, but in the process he further undermined American's faith in their governing institutions.
Today, in “The political scientist who saw Trump's rise coming,” Vox’s Andrew Prokop interviews the American Enterprise Scholar Norm Ornstein about how we reached a place where Donald Trump could be the Republican presidential nominee.
According to Ornstein, Newt Gingrich began work in 1978 to win a Republican majority in Congress. It took him 16 years.
He delegitimized the Congress and the Democratic leadership, convincing people that they were arrogant and corrupt and that the process was so bad that anything would be better than this. He tribalized the political process. He went out and recruited the candidates, and gave them the language to use about how disgusting and despicable and horrible and immoral and unpatriotic the Democrats were. That swept in the Republican majority in 1994.
For the past twenty years, the GOP has failed to deliver on any of its promises, but has continued its work of delegitimizing government and polarizing its processes.
So when you get a Donald Trump, who is contentless, and knows less about policy, domestic or international, I would say, than any candidate in the last 50 years — including Pat Paulsen, the comedian — you have a large share of the public who say, "You know, the people who know about policy were the ones who fucked all of this up! And how could Trump do worse?"
By the way, Norman Ornstein predicted Trump’s nomination back in August of 2015 in “Maybe This Time Really Is Different,” an article he wrote for the Atlantic.
The Republicans are paying a heavy price for their war on government, and the price may become much higher in November. But it is important that, rather than bask in schadenfreude, the Democrats take a good look at what is going on in our own house.
There has been a concerted effort during our own primary race to paint the Democratic establishment as corrupt, arrogant and immoral. It is almost as if someone noted how successful the Republicans had been at remaking their party and decided to try it here.
There are genuine policy differences between our two candidates, and they need to be fully examined. He wants free college, she wants debt-free college, he wants single payer healthcare, she wants universal health care, he wants to abandon trade agreements, she feels some are necessary, etc. Debate them, illuminate the differences.
- But do not attempt to win the Democratic nomination by falsely declaring the Democratic Party an illegitimate arm of corruption, meant only to protect the interests of the wealthy. It is not.
- Primaries to nominate a candidate that are only open to members of the party that candidate will represent are not undemocratic. Not when the party is open to anyone who wants to join it. If you don’t like the way primaries or caucuses are conducted, by all means join us in the fight to change them. We can do that.
- Super delegates are not crooks who have purchased a seat at the table through clients' lobbying dollars. If you don’t care for the way they are selected, or for their very existence, join the party and change it. They were created as part of a reform effort and can be eliminated the same way if they are no longer needed.
- Do not misrepresent joint fundraising as being somehow illegal. It is not. And you know it is not. If you don’t like the way the money is raised or who it is used to support, fulfill your own commitment to raise and use campaign dollars.
- Do not misrepresent the selection of delegates to convention committees.
- When Republican states close voting stations, purge voter lists or require IDs to vote, do not attack members of the Democratic party as if they are benefitting from voter suppression. They are not.
It is boring to be the adult in the room, especially in a time of so much inequality. The desire to lash out against an unjust system is strong. But we cannot afford to do that irresponsibly. We already have one party that is batshit crazy. Let us not join them.
Get rid of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, absolutely. Make changes in the party selection process, fine. But DO NOT DELEGITIMIZE the Democratic Party. Resist the temptation to take that route to electoral success.
We must be the adults in the room. We cannot follow the Republican Party’s playbook in order to elect our chosen candidate. The price may not be paid in November, but rest assured, that bill will come due for us, just like it has for them.