No One Wants the ‘Homeless’ Voters
WITH the Republican National Committee resuming funding to Roy Moore’s Senate campaign, some Republican voters are once again asking themselves: “Where do we go now?”
These voters have felt adrift throughout the two years since Donald Trump began his quest for the presidency. With Moore being accused of sexually targeting underage girls, and with video surfacing last week of him agreeing with Vladimir Putin that the United States is “the modern evil” in the world, some longtime GOP voters are feeling more lost than ever.
That’s in part because, rather than make a play for these politically homeless voters, Democrats don’t want them either.
Lisa in Long Island says that the Republican Party “embarrasses” her. “They’re seen as racist, homophobic, backward idiots. I don’t want to be associated with that.” But she doesn’t feel Democrats are offering much beyond being anti-Trump. “I hate Trump but not everything is his fault.”
Matt in Red Bank, NJ, votes Republican on the local level but can’t bring himself to do it nationally. He voted third party in 2016, unable to vote for either Trump or Hillary Clinton.
Lisa and Matt aren’t famous, they don’t have tens of thousands of followers on Twitter. In fact, neither are even on Twitter. And they exist in larger numbers than either party seems to acknowledge.
A Politico poll last month found “84 percent of Democratic voters would choose the Democratic candidate, but just 74 percent of GOP voters would back Trump” in 2020.
Has there ever been a constituency as up for grabs as this one? Yet neither party seems interested in engaging with these voters at all.
In 1980, “Reagan Democrats” helped propel Ronald Reagan to victory. Political writer Dan McLaughlin summed up the candidate’s credo thus: “Reagan argued for the GOP as a club anyone could join.”
Why didn’t “Hillary Clinton Republicans” become a thing in 2016 when so many Republicans clearly didn’t want to vote for Trump? The easy answer is Hillary didn’t want them.
During the election, Clinton refused to compromise with Republicans looking for a way to vote for her. NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald wrote in August 2016: “What economic policy concessions might Hillary Clinton offer up to woo Republicans? If her speech Thursday in Warren, Mich., is any indication, the answer is: Nothing.” That same month, in USA Today, Hillaryvoter Jill Lawrence poohpoohed the idea Clinton should compromise with Republican crossovers in exchange for their support. Criticizing their “audacity,” Lawrence wrote “it’s becoming increasingly obvious from polls and Republican converts like Meg Whitman that Clinton doesn’t need to give away a thing to win.” Whoops.
And after Trump’s win, the “Resistance” made it clear that to join them one had to adopt all of their liberal policies too, from abortion to opposition to Israel. Are the Democrats rethinking any of this?
Sabrina Singh, DNC deputy communications director, told me: “Through our Every ZIP Code Counts program, the DNC is actively working to engage Americans in every corner of the country, including those who voted for Trump in the last election. We’re working to reach all voters, no matter what their party affiliation is, to let them know that while Donald Trump and Republicans are fighting for wealthy corporations and the 1 percent at the expense of middleclass families by pushing through legislation like the latest GOP tax scam, the Democratic Party is standing for them.”
That’s a long way of saying, “The Democratic Party stands with all those who agree with us.”
What’s the solution? Some are hoping for the emergence of a third party to capture these lost voters. Others hope for a return to the Republican Party they remember. That will require an extended battle, one these voters already lost in 2016.
Veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy tweeted on Friday: “My view on [those leaving GOP because of Trump and Moore] is stay in GOP and fight, and fight and fight. But I understand.”