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Since the 1980s, Democratic strategy has implicitly embraced defeat. To remain the "lesser evil," they don't have to do anything but allow the Republicans to be worse. Democrats don't even have to promise anything or even commit themselves to anything other than not letting the Republicans be quite as awful as they're inclined to be. Not only is this a very undemanding strategy, but even defeat holds the expectation that unchecked Republican awfulness will stampede people to the polls to vote for Democrats. Indeed, letting the Republicans be as beastly as they want to the old Democratic base means that the Democrats themselves don't even have to make a special effort to mobilize workers, blacks, women, Latinos, etc. The most obvious problem with this strategy is that works less well the farther we get from civil rights legislation, the war on poverty, etc. Much as they're touting success in the mid-terms, their showing was pretty pathetic when you consider what they were up against. I can't understand how you could run a pet rock against Donald Trump and lose, but the Democrats found a way to do it in 2016, and they've found a way to minimize their possible successes in 2018. And they draw no lessons from any of these experiences. Cheers, Mark L. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
