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Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Going Overboard

Eight years ago, after the Obama victory, the common wisdom in political circles was that the Democrats were inevitably going to win elections from that point forward due to demographics.  Simply put, the rising numbers of blacks and Hispanics guaranteed Democrats a victory forever.

We all know how that turned out.  First the Democrats lost the House.  Then more and more governors and state legislatures went Republican.  Next, the Dems lost the Senate.  Finally, the GOP took the White House.  That inevitable Democrat majority turned out to be not so inevitable.

Now we have the Republican pundits telling us that the Democrats can never come back because they cannot appeal to the voters in the middle of the country.  These pundits say that no matter what the Republicans do (or don't do), the GOP has control of the government locked up because the Democrats are just unacceptable to the majority.

This is just as much nonsense as was the inevitable Democrat majority.  No party has a lock on the American electorate.  The GOP has to produce for its voters or it will lose them quickly.  The Republican politicians have to keep in mind that (as the Democrats have failed to learn) it is not what you say that counts, it is what you do.  Accomplishments are the currency of political victory.  The saying is "what have you done for me lately", not "what have you said lately."

Right now, the GOP has blown the healthcare issue.  It's not a fatal failure.  They may be able to revisit and revive the fight.  Nevertheless, the issue right now is tax restructuring and economic growth.  If the GOP cuts taxes and gets the economy moving into high gear, most voters will forgive a great deal of other things.  President Trump can tweet to his heart's content if the economy is growing at 4% per year.  Put another way, the Democrats can say just about anything, but if the Republicans can grow the economy while the Democrats could not, voters will stick with the GOP.

 

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