I worry about the future of the Democratic party. It has been out of office more than in office during the last 50 years, failing to win the Presidency, and only Bill Clinton has managed a second term since Truman in the 40s. Yet it should have a natural majority, if it were seen as solidly representing the 99% of the population, who are not wealthy. But it has steadily lost ground in the core Roosevelt group: white working class with jobs, but no college degree, for whom it no longer seems to offer anything. Of course, this partly reflects the loss of the South with Nixon’s Southern Strategy but even in the North the Democrats struggle with this group. And it reflects the redistribution of political say away from this group within the Democratic Party.
To understand this a bit, let me resort to a personal story told by a friend of mine. She was one of 12 life long Republican voters, whom I knew from my corporate days, who in 2008, disgusted by the choice of Sarah Palin as Vice President candidate, not only switched to vote for Obama, but actively campaigned on his behalf to ‘stop Palin’. Since then my friend, who has always been a strong environmentalist, has become active in her county Democratic party organization. She goes to meetings and what she describes cuts to the core of the problem for the Democrats. There are interest groups there, but in the meetings, the African Americans only want to talk about African American issues, the Hispanics, Hispanic issues, the Gay group, Gay issues, Womens groups, women’s issues, and by the time it comes to the environment attention has waned. And no one talks about the problems of white working class with jobs and no college degree. They are just not present….
Now my friend Bill Ury talks about interests, and points out that in any conflict, there are shared interests, even between two opponents, some things they both want. There are different interests, where the two sides want different things, but they are not exclusive of each other; they are non-rival as economists now call things like shared information on the internet. And there are conflicting interests, where one side can only meet its interests at the expense of the other side.
The Republicans are brilliant at creating coalitions of interest groups that bond around shared interests, figure out and agree to meet different interests, and cut deals on conflicting interests or simply ignore the latter to defeat the Democrats. The Democrats are hopeless at this process. A process they were once masters of.
What do I suggest? Well it might be a start to realize that unless the economy recovers, no one’s interests are met. African Americans, Hispanics, Gays, Women, Environmental groups all need a thriving, sustainable economy that provides jobs and incomes to sustain whatever different lifestyle folk want. Identity politics divides the Democratic Party alliance, and allows divide and rule by well funded Republican politicians. Nothing wrong with identity politics and folk wanting to be respected for who they are, but alliances need to build around common interests. And of course, the day the Democratic Party goes back to the FDR coalition approach: guess what? They may find that the interests the identity groups have in common around jobs and a sustainable planet are also shared by the white working class with jobs and no college degree. Hmmm….or is this too hard?
The last real alliance builder on the left: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945): see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
Let’s not forget their tendency towards being secular.
The fact that this sticks in the craw of the devout seems counter-intuitive, yet there it is.
I cannot count how many people I have talked to, watched interviews of, & etc. who insist on “voting for Jesus” – no other issues really matter at all. Which party is the Jesus party?
What happened in Matthew 4? James 4?
I mean, if you don’t believe then all of this is moot. But if you do, then who exactly is running this circus? Is that someone you want representing your religious interests? Have your voting habits had the effect on this country that you expected? If not, why not?
These are tough introspective questions that do not require an answer, except to yourself.
I’m not trying to sound antagonistic. I’m just struggling with the logic on this one.
@Kyrie Eleison. I agree, but also realize the media is very selective in its reporting. There are huge numbers of devout Catholics in the North East US who vote Democrat as they do in Chicago. Irish and Italians were the core of the Democratic Party and though they have lost ground, they are still there and I know quite a few of them. And the Evangelical Church is heavily represented in African American Democrat circles. And of course the Evangelical left is quite strong in the environmental movement.
Personally I believe in the separation of Church and State as being in the interests of the Church. European countries like Ireland and Italy where the Church is part of the state, religious observance has been damaged because the Church is too much part of the establishment. This was very true of the UK after World War 1 when bishops ‘blessed battleships’ literally and metaphorically and religious belief has never recovered in the UK. The same is true in Iran where Muslim belief is plummeting because the Theocracy is so awful there. Personally again, I think religious faith should inform our morality and our views on political issues but not in the form of the Church trying to run politics. Commenting by all means, seeking political power no. And polls suggest between 60 and 70% of Evangelicals in the US support the separation of Church and State interestingly…
And finally, for me the core of Christianity is the Sermon on the Mount, and I don’t hear much of that from the self styled Religious Right…they seem more focused on the Old Testament in what they quote and their policy stands. Or is that also media imbalanced reporting….
It is true that there are religious persons in both parties, however one party seems to be just a tad too vocal about representing the faith while the other party seems to have been rather quiet about it for some time now.
I have yet to hear a Democrat tell me I need to slash the tires of those heathen Republicans on voting day, thereby doing “God’s work”. I know I’ve used this example before, and nobody seems to want to take ownership of this kind of crap.
An interesting study:
http://publicreligion.org/research/2009/09/conservative-progressive-religious-activists-surveys/
(The PRRI is non-profit and non-partisan.)
@Kyrie Eleison. Good points. Also the data you cite is very useful in the link. Thanks.