Quote of the Day:
Will the progressive websites publish their annual advice column, “How to talk to your uncle at Thanksgiving dinner”? Maybe this year they should just listen.
Daniel Henninger's column ("The New Trump Democrats") is today's must read. In it, Henninger captures the confusion of the absolutely flummoxed leaders of a party that expected a big win last Tuesday but instead was routed.
Rep. Debbie Dingell seems to believe that her party lost because it didn't pay enough attention to the exotic folks in the Rust Belt. Ms. Dingell, Democratic Party royalty, who inherited her seat representing Michigan's 12th district from her husband, the longest serving member of the House, took Bill Clinton to a shopping center! But it was too little too late. She never considers that policy or philosophical changes might be in order.
Henninger explains that the cause might have been something deeper than Democratic leaders' preference for hanging out with Beyonce and Jay Z over (ugh!) trips to the mall:
This generation of Democrats doesn’t even know what the economy is anymore.
For the Democrats, America’s daily life of work, profit and loss across 50 states is essentially an alien phenomenon that sends them revenue, the way a pipeline transmits natural gas. This pipeline fuels their “economy,” which is the thousands and thousands of spending and line items in the $4 trillion federal budget.
Some would call this redistribution. The Democrats would call it their life’s work. Truth is, it isn’t working for them anymore.
There is no possibility that the Democrats are going to gain back enough of these Trump voters unless someone in their party stands up and shouts that these emperors of “economic fairness” aren’t wearing any clothes.
Other than the direct injection of infrastructure spending, you will look in vain through the party’s postmortems for a policy idea that would lift the economic prospects of people in places like Wilkes-Barre, Pa., who went over to Donald Trump.
Henninger's great bon mot is that the Trump voter has become "journalism's biggest archeological excavation site."
If Ms. Dingell wants to woo these voters back to her party, it will require substantive changes, including on the social issues (on which the Democratic Party is far in advance to most Walmart shoppers!).
Telling your driver to head to the nearest shopping center to mingle with the people won't be enough.
The people are not that dumb.