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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Political Strategy Notes

MSNBC correspondent Joy-Ann Reid shreds the Trump facade and does it better than anyone so far in her Daily Beast post, “Dear White Working Class, Your Man Trump Is Pretty Establishment After All.” An excerpt: “Far from offering something new that could rescue the white working class and restore their life chances, Trump is rolling with a bunch of Calvin Coolidge bluebloods who probably wouldn’t wipe their noses on a blue-collar worker, let alone have any interest in restoring the solid, middle-class jobs they used to count on, back when unions still had strength in the manufacturing world and the New Deal mostly helped people like them. Erect big trade barriers and resurrect the American steel industry? Who’s going to lead that initiative in the Trump administration? Cerebrus Capital Management CEO Stephen Feinberg or billionaire poker player Andy Beal? Good luck with that, Sheboygan…It’s no real surprise that Trump, the scion of a wealthy father who has stiffed so many U.S. banks none of them will do business with him anymore, leaving him to borrow money from Credit Suisse and the Russians, may have pulled the ultimate con: charming the working stiffs while the monocled Monopoly Men hid in the background, waiting to be broken out of CryoFreeze and put back in charge of the economy…So surprise, working-class white people. You thought picking Trump was your way of sticking it to the establishment? Apparently, the establishment has decided that you’ve had your fun, and now, they’re taking control of the Trump campaign.”

Former GOP congressman Chris Shays provides a good example of a Republican endorsement of Clinton:

Abby Phillip takes a peek at Clinton and Democratic longer-range strategy in her WaPo Politics post, “Is Hillary Clinton contesting Texas? Not really, but she is trying to expand Democratic influence into deep-red territory.”

Marc Caputo notes at Politico that “Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy is catching up to Sen. Marco Rubio and is nearly tied with him in a new Quinnipiac University poll that suggests Donald Trump is a drag on the incumbent Republican.”

In addition to the growing exodus of GOP elected officials now denouncing their party’s presidential candidate, Brain Trust Republicans are also deserting at an accelerating rate, as post columnist David Ignatius reports: “Fifteen prominent Republicans who had served in past GOP administrations met Sunday for a private soul-searching session that one attendee described as “painful and empathetic.” The next day, eight of them joined in signing the public declaration by 50 top GOP former national security officials warning thatTrump would be “the most reckless President” in U.S. history.”

Nate Silver has a sobering FiveThirtyEight post explaining why Dems should not get too overconfident, despite Trump’s meltdown.

You may have noticed that TDS is not in the business of advising the Repubican Party. But, looking at the big, longer-range picture, a better GOP would be good for America and good for the Democratic Party, encouraging Dems to step up their game, which is also good for the US of A. In that spirit, here’s a worthy suggestion from Vicente Feliciano’s post, “If Trump loses, does GOP establishment lose its working-class base?” at The Hill: “…Two generations ago, the Republican leadership accepted that President Franklin Roosevelt’s Social Security program and unemployment insurance, which were initially fiercely resisted, were here to stay. Some years later something similar occurred with President Lyndon Johnson’s Medicare initiative. Now ObamaCare should be, however grudgingly, accepted…And the Republican business establishment should accept that it is time to climb down from their high horse of unfettered free-market policies and get on with the dirty task of advocating market-friendly government interventions that advance the interests of the working class. Otherwise, the “blue wall” of 18 states and the District of Columbia — which provides Democrats with 242 of the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency, and which Democrats have won in each of the last six presidential elections — will reach the 270 mark. And rightly so.”

Also at Politico, Burgess Everett has some insights about Democratic strategy to stop Trump in the Rust Belt: “…Trump is threatening a serious play for voters in this part of the country with visits to Wisconsin Friday and Michigan on Monday — including this city in conservative Western Michigan where the state may be lost and won, top officials in both parties say…If Kaine and Clinton can help take these two states off the map now, it gives Democrats more resources to spend in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania and even traditionally GOP states like Arizona and North Carolina as the general election draws near. That will not only help Clinton but Democrats in competitive Senate races in all five battlegrounds.”

Alas, in the state that hatched Priebus, Ryan and Walker, the hydra-headed voter suppression snake refuses to die. Ian Milhiser has the bad news at ThinkProgress.

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