In spring 2013, after their defeat in the 2012 presidential election, the Republicans
conducted an autopsy on their party to determine how things went wrong. There were recommendations for tactical and organizational changes, but the most important of them involved a call for outreach to groups of Americans who had either been shunned by the GOP or been considered unlikely recruits to the ranks of their voters: African Americans, Latinos and members of the LGBT community. In one of the more ironic developments in modern American political history, three years later, Republican primary election voters chose a man who espoused views that were the very antithesis of those recommendations.
The paradoxical result of the inquest should not be read as proof of that such exercises are useless. In truth, there is no reason why such autopsies should be conducted only by the losers. Winners such as 2020 Democrats would be well-advised to conduct one of their own about why
74 million Americans voted against them and why they
lost strength in the House of Representatives.
Soul-searching is not a prevalent mood among Democrats right now after the
invasion of the U.S. Capitol and the
re-impeachment of former President Donald Trump. They are entitled to a temporary feeling of triumphalism, but there is also cause for them do some reflection on how they should reach out to the tens of millions of voters who rejected them and who are sullen and even rebellious. This is not to argue that hardcore Trump loyalists or believers in implausible conspiracies can be won over. Rather, it involves how hard the winners are willing to work to understand the losers.
The Democratic Party since the 1930s has been the home of both the better-educated and racial minorities. But for most of the period was also the political home for blue-collar workers. By the 1970s, two of its most reliable bases of support found themselves at odds with each other. As African Americans advanced demands for both the expansion of political rights and economic advancement, the Democrats’ blue-collar voters perceived these gains as coming at their expense.
Busing to achieve integrated schools and
affirmative action became emotional flash points.
Bridging this divide became a kind of political high-wire act for Democratic presidential nominees. They did not always manage this very well, as seen in Hillary Clinton’s “
basket of deplorables” reference to Trump followers in 2016 and Barack Obama’s dismissive “
they cling to their guns and religion” in 2008 in reference to some GOP voters.