Keeping focus on Trump, Dem party crashing again
Democrats are showing once again they’re great at protesting, but lousy at vote-getting.
The anti-Trump message that the party was hoping to carry to victory in Georgia’s special congressional election didn’t work. It turns out voters care more about issues in their district than the latest overhyped Russia scandal.
This should be a warning shot to Democrats everywhere, including in Massachusetts, where the party plans on pinning Trump to incumbent Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.
Not so fast. Even in heavily liberal Massachusetts, Trump alone is not going to defeat Baker. It’s going to take a good candidate with a positive economic message that appeals to independent voters, not just the liberals who are turning out in droves to join protest marches.
Protests are fun and allow millennials to believe they’re doing something, but they don’t win elections. And it’s debatable whether all the young people aiming their ire at Trump will actually show up to vote.
In Georgia, turnout was much higher than a normal special election, but it still fell below 50 percent. In South Carolina, where Republicans hung on to win another congressional election, turnout was much lower.
That means that despite more than $50 million in spending and unprecedented attention on Georgia’s race, a majority of voters still aren’t showing up to the polls. This isn’t the tidal wave that Democrats were hoping to use to swamp Republicans.
It isn’t helping that Democrats continue to make the same mistakes over and over. How many elections do they have to lose to learn? Voters don’t like to be told what to do by outsiders. The influence of outside money that liberals poured into Georgia turned voters off. And next time, Democrats should find a candidate who actually lives in the district.
Democrats are going to win seats in the 2018 midterms — that’s a given. But at this rate — four GOP wins in a row since Trump’s election — they won’t take over Congress. Especially with Nancy Pelosi at the helm.
What Democrats should be doing is listening to people like U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Joe Kennedy III, who have been saying for months that Democrats need to come up with a better message. They need to craft one that speaks to ordinary voters and their concerns. And the message can’t just be to dump Trump.