Tag: Democrats in trouble

Why Change Horses When You’re Drowning in Mid-Stream?

Buck Banks

Despite being out of power in the House for all but four of the last 22 years, the Democrats have not kicked out any of their leaders. While Speaker Jim Wright resigned in 1989 due to scandal, no other Democratic speaker or leader (either majority or minority) has been removed by the party or left early. After losing control in the House in 2010, Nancy Pelosi stayed atop the caucus as the Minority Leader. Her predecessor, Dick Gephardt, maintained his job despite continual failed elections. The same thing happened during Democratic losses of control in 1946 and 1952, with Sam Rayburn sliding from Speaker to Minority Leader.

— Joshua Spivak

Democrats Should Be an Opposition, Not a Minority, Party

Buck Banks

More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump. More Americans voted for Democratic Senate candidates than for Republican Senate candidates. And while we don’t have final numbers yet, it looks likely that more Americans will have voted for House Democrats than for House Republicans. … So why aren’t Democrats acting like it? Why aren’t they trying to force Republicans, the media, and the emergent Trump White House to act like it?

— Ezra Klein

Democrats Just Didn’t Vote

Buck Banks

120 million

Just under 120 million votes were cast for president, the Washington Post reports.”That’s down from 2012, which was in turn down from 2008 — and don’t forget that the population is always increasing. While turnout hit a recent peak of 61.6 percent of the voting-eligible population, this year it was only 56 percent. … What’s also important here is how poorly Hillary Clinton did. She got 6 million fewer votes than Barack Obama did in 2012, and nearly 10 million fewer than he did in 2008.”

Turn the South Into a ‘Free-Market Jesus Paradise’

Buck Banks

With Landrieu’s departure, the Democrats will have no more senators from the Deep South, and I say good. Forget about it. Forget about the whole fetid place. Write it off. Let the GOP have it and run it and turn it into Free-Market Jesus Paradise. The Democrats don’t need it anyway.

— Michael Tomasky, writing in the Daily Beast.

Schumer: Democrats Blew It

Buck Banks

Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them… We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem — health care reform.

— Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), asserting that Democrats made a mistake by passing President Obama’s health-care law in 2010 instead of focusing more directly on helping the middle class, Bloomberg reports.