For decades, the Democrats have tried to turn certain groups of Americans into victims. African Americans are the victims of systemic racism even though for most people that ended decades ago. Hispanics are victims also of systemic racism, although here too there is not much evidence of it. Women are victims of the "patriarchy" even though most don't know it. Muslims are victims of Islamophobia. Gays suffer at the hands of homophobes. These folks are all victims and they need the government to protect them, and to do that, they need the Democrats in control. At least that is what the Democrats push year in and year out.
In 2016, things changed. On the GOP side, Donald Trump appealed to a different group of victims; he pitched his campaign to the forgotten Americans. Those are the people to whom the government never listens. The white working class vote is the largest single component of the electorate, and Trump pointed out how those people had been victimized by the government and he promised to deal with their grievances. Hillary provided a big help to Trump by calling these people "deplorables". She confirmed that she wouldn't be concerned with them at all. As a result, this group of new "victims" moved to the GOP and Trump won.
It wasn't just in 2016, however, that the politics of victimization blew up in the faces of Democrats. For eight years, American voters were able to reject the idea of separating us all into tribal groups. As a result, the Democrats lost more seats over eight years than at any time in American history.
Now, the Democrats are getting stuck on their own groups of victims fighting each other. In New York City, the statue of Columbus was just vandalized and called a symbol of hate. That may play well with the far left at the core of the Democrat party, but it seems like an attack to the average Italian-American voter in the city. The mayor who is running for re-election will soon have to decide if the Columbus statue stays up (angering the SJW crowd and Antifa) or comes down (angering the Italians). No matter what he decides, he loses.
The best politics is something that brings us all together, not something that splits us into little groups of winners and losers. Maybe someday the Democrats will learn this lesson.
In 2016, things changed. On the GOP side, Donald Trump appealed to a different group of victims; he pitched his campaign to the forgotten Americans. Those are the people to whom the government never listens. The white working class vote is the largest single component of the electorate, and Trump pointed out how those people had been victimized by the government and he promised to deal with their grievances. Hillary provided a big help to Trump by calling these people "deplorables". She confirmed that she wouldn't be concerned with them at all. As a result, this group of new "victims" moved to the GOP and Trump won.
It wasn't just in 2016, however, that the politics of victimization blew up in the faces of Democrats. For eight years, American voters were able to reject the idea of separating us all into tribal groups. As a result, the Democrats lost more seats over eight years than at any time in American history.
Now, the Democrats are getting stuck on their own groups of victims fighting each other. In New York City, the statue of Columbus was just vandalized and called a symbol of hate. That may play well with the far left at the core of the Democrat party, but it seems like an attack to the average Italian-American voter in the city. The mayor who is running for re-election will soon have to decide if the Columbus statue stays up (angering the SJW crowd and Antifa) or comes down (angering the Italians). No matter what he decides, he loses.
The best politics is something that brings us all together, not something that splits us into little groups of winners and losers. Maybe someday the Democrats will learn this lesson.
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