Both the Democratic and Republican parties have changed drastically over the past twenty years. For the Republicans, it has been a blessing. For the Democrats, it may be the beginning of their becoming a minority party for years to come.
Like most immigrants, my parents were staunch Democrats. To their dying days, they took great pride in having voted for only one Republican in their decades in the US. The exception in question was a family friend running for a judgeship in Illinois. I proudly voted for Walter Mondale at my first opportunity to participate in the great process of “democracy.” I used to joke that we were not rich enough to be Republicans. And that was not too far off from the truth in those days. The Republican party was lily white and represented the wealthy and business interests.
After becoming more religiously observant, I also became politically conservative. As Sheldon Adelson noted in his famous Wall Street Journal op-ed, the Democratic Party left him, and many like him. I saw the 2012 convention when those assembled clearly booed the plank recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The position was accepted, but clearly against the will of those present. As the US has only two viable political parties, by necessity, each gets its own fringe. The Republicans once had the “Birchers,” and I’m old enough to remember their signs on the Interstate demanding that the US leave the UN. The Democrats have always had the communists and other lefty loons like those of Occupy Wall Street. Israel has over forty recognized political parties, so a person can almost always find an ideological home. While that may be of some comfort, the arrangement of Israeli politics almost always leads to political gridlock when a majority is needed to form a government or vote on a controversial piece of legislation.
The Democrat/Republican arrangement was the state of affairs for decades: the majority of each party held the reins while the fringe elements held demonstrations outside of the national conventions. And then something changed. The Tea Party first came into national consciousness in 2009. It was a grassroots movement that the Obama IRS infamously tried to kneecap prior to the 2012 election. The Tea Party clearly identified as Republican, but its platform and focus were not in keeping with the goals of the party leaders who would have felt more at home at a Chamber of Commerce black tie soiree than at an Iowa barbecue.
The Tea Party claimed some scalps in the 2010 midterm elections, but it was still a minor player in the Republican party. If you had asked someone around that time who would be the one person who would take the ideas of the Tea Party movement and bring them into the White House, that person would not have mentioned the name of Donald Trump. Donald Trump, in those days, represented decadence, marital perfidy, loud-mouth reality TV, and self-promotion with no bounds. Then came the 2015 escalator ride. When Donald Trump spoke, he sounded like the living embodiment of the Tea Party: a closed border, jobs for American workers in the US, lower taxes, a strong military, and a focus on making America great again. Having few like-minded members of Congress hamstrung his stunning victory in 2016. Paul Ryan was still running the House and had no interest in Donald Trump’s agenda. John McCain got his revenge over Trump’s Vietnam criticism by casting the deciding vote to keep Obamacare alive.
Fast-forward to last week’s convention. Firstly, Donald Trump has many more comrades in Congress or running for seats than he had in 2016. But also look at the program. The focus was on normal people, some who have been through hell on earth with the murder of their loved ones by illegal aliens or the death of their children through Joe Biden’s helter-skelter retreat from Afghanistan. These were the people who could have been at the Democratic National Convention circa 1984. But the Democratic Party has no need for them anymore. Just as the Tea Party ideas have become the core of the Republican Party and the unlikely standard-bearer is one Donald Trump, so the Democrats have been devoured by their left flank. Lefty billionaires fund a party that wishes the destruction of capitalism, holds that men can be women by just declaring as much, prefer criminals over police, and are fine with a completely porous and open southern border as long as cooks, nannies, and gardeners are among those coming in. The party is completely unrecognizable from its past when it was the supporter of the working man, a friend of Israel, strong on defense, and the party of police unions.
Today’s Democrats may have what’s left of Joe Biden at its head, but it is the party of AOC and Bernie Sanders. They are fully behind the open border, the weakening of policing, inflationary monetary policies, a weak and woke military, and guys walking off with women’s medals and trophies. Such a situation is an enormous opportunity for Donald Trump and the Republican Party, and from the national convention, it is clear that they plan to take advantage of it. While many people do not like Donald Trump personally, in the end, normal people tend to vote for their interests. Democratic voters in cities and states throughout the nation suffer the same problems as their Republican neighbors:
*Gas is too expensive and eats up a big part of a family budget.
*Food is so pricey that they do without meat and other staples.
*Crime is something that they feel or know someone carjacked or home-invaded.
*Their daughters cry at the loss of races to guys claiming to be girls
*Illegal aliens are making their hometowns less livable and more dangerous.
All of the above maladies are products of Joe Biden’s pro-Bernie policies. If the Republicans can get a large chunk of Democrats to vote for their pocketbooks, their personal safety, and traditional values, the Democratic party may be reduced to its core of tech billionaires, college-educated radicals, and the poor whom Democrats have made dependent on government largess for decades. The Republican party could grow to represent all good Americans worried about their safety and their country’s future. The Democrats do not have a center to return to. The combined age of their Congressional leadership would take them well before George Washington’s day. The Democrat’s young members are their future, and that means the policies of “the Squad”; most normal Americans do not want such a future for their children or their country.
If the Republicans can peel off enough Democrats by reminding them that the miserable state of the country is the doing of Joe Biden and the left, then Donald Trump might see a landslide victory not seen since Ronald Reagan clobbered none other than Walter Mondale.