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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Teixeira: The Crazy Catches Up With the Democrats

The following article by Ruy Teixeira, author of The Optimistic Leftist and other works of political analysis, is cross-posted from his blog:

It’s starting to dawn on more and more Democrats that the crazy in some parts of the party really is having a dire effect on the party’s brand. It’s not just a nuisance, it’s an honest to god problem that can’t be batted away by referring to Fox News talking points and January 6th.

This week of course three ultrawoke members were recalled from the San Francisco school board by absolutely crushing margins. When something like his happens In a place like San Francisco, you know a backlash is afoot.

Tyler Cowen in his Bloomberg column asserts that this result makes it a reasonable time to say wokeism has now peaked and will be receding. Maybe. But Cowen rightfully points out that receding doesn’t mean they will disappear anytime soon since they have burrowed into academia, cultural institutions HR departments, foundations, nonprofits and the like. They’ve got jobs and power and that doesn’t disappear so easily.

“The turning point for the fortunes of the woke may be this week’s school board election in San Francisco, where three members were recalled by a margin of more than 70%. Voters were upset that the school board spent time trying to rename some schools in a more politically correct manner, rather than focusing on reopening all the schools. There was also considerable opposition to the board’s introduction of a lottery admissions system for a prestigious high school, in lieu of the previous use of grades and exam scores….

Another trend is how relatively few immigrants are woke. Latinos in particular seem more open to the Republican Party, or at least don’t seem to have strong partisan attachments. More generally, immigrant political views are more diverse than many people think, even within the Democratic Party….

Wokeism is likely to evolve into a subculture that is highly educated, highly White and fairly feminine. That is still a large mass of people, but not enough to run the country or all its major institutions. In the San Francisco school board recall, for instance, the role of Asian Americans was especially prominent….

The woke also are likely to achieve an even greater hold over American universities. Due to the tenure system, personnel turnover is low, and currently newer and younger faculty are more left-wing than are older faculty, including in my field of economics. The simple march of retirements is going to make universities even more left-wing — and even more out of touch with mainstream America.”

Also this week the DCCC released a memo and data showing just how potent GOP attacks, building on the crazy, are likely to be this cycle.

“In swing districts, 64% of voters agreed with the statement that “Democrats in Congress support defunding the police and taking more cops off of the street.” The internal poll found that 80% of self-defined swing voters in competitive districts agreed with the same statement. Politico previously reported on the DCCC warning about the effectiveness of what they refer to as conservative “culture war attacks.”

Sixty-two percent of voters in contested districts agreed with the statement, “Democrats in Congress have created a border crisis that allows illegal immigrants to enter the country without repercussions and grants them tax-payer funded benefits once here.” Seventy-eight percent of swing voters in those districts agreed.

Sixty-one percent of swing district voters agreed with the statements, “Democrats in Congress are spending money out of control,” and, “Democrats are teaching kids as young as five Critical Race Theory, which teaches that America is a racist country and that white people are racist.” And 59% agreed with the statement, “Democrats are too focused on pursuing an agenda that divides us and judging those who don’t see things their way.”

Remember Democrats, only *you* can stop the crazy. If not you, who? If not now, when? Time to say enough is enough.”

2 comments on “Teixeira: The Crazy Catches Up With the Democrats

  1. Martin Lawford on

    Deluded people do not change their minds in the face of contrary evidence. They interpret it as support for their delusion. The recalled president of the San Francisco school board, Gabriela Lopez, insists that being booted from her job by a 70% majority was the work of white supremacists–in San Francisco, of all places. “So if you fight for racial justice, this is the consequence,” Gabriela López tweeted Thursday.

    Terry McAuliffe claimed that he was defeated in the Virginia governor’s campaign by “a racist dog whistle.” “And as I’ve said this a lot, it’s a dog whistle. It’s racial, it’s division and it’s used by Glenn Youngkin and others, it’s the same thing with Trump and the border wall, to divide people. We should not be dividing people in school.”

    Hence, if the political positions of the far-left Democrats (e.g., weak law enforcement, open borders, Medicare for All, cancellation of student loans) contribute to a Democratic defeat in the 2022 elections, the far-left Democrats will interpret that defeat as evidence of systemic racism which they must redouble their efforts to root out. Like the ousted Gabriela Lopez, they will argue, “So, if you fight for racial justice, this is the consequence.”

    Reply
  2. Bob Mulholland on

    In 1972 and in 1984, Democrats lost 49 states in both Presidential elections but some concluded we didn’t educate the voters enough about Socialist Programs. Their grandkids, encouraged by Bernie Sanders, are now yelling the same. We lost a net of 12 House seats in 2020 while Biden was winning by 7 million votes and we ended up with only 48 U.S. Senate seats, so the Message from the American people was Clear- focus on our kitchen table issues and not all that esoteric talk from your Socialist Caucuses, about how America needs to explain and apologize for all our past sins. Bob Mulholland DNC Member (1992-2020)

    Reply

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