Why Democrats lost voter confidence

Why Democrats lost voter confidence

by Bob Topper

1138 words

Democrats are relieved by the outcome of the last election. They think that the people finally see the Trump administration for what it is, a fascist-leaning government that favors the rich and well connected at the expense of the poor. The wins are impressive, but to move past the Trump era, there is much more work to do. 

 Democrats lost two presidential elections to a charlatan and the party’s approval rating is abysmal. A Wall Street Journal poll conducted in July showed their favorability at only 33%. They should understand why they lost voter confidence and recognize how it happened.

Critics say that to regain their standing, Democrats must return to the center. They point to the governorships in Viginia and New Jersy that were won by moderate candidates. But coming to center will not address a more serious and fundamental question, which is this. Beyond turning Trump out of office, what is the party’s purpose? 

The Lost Identity of the Democratic Party

As the Republican party moved farther right, it took on a new identity becoming the party of MAGA theocrats. At the same time, the Democratic party shifted farther left and also lost its identity

The objective of democracy is the benefit of the common good. Roosevelt understood that. Under his leadership, government worked for the benefit of rich and poor alike and he led our nation out of the Great Depression. FDR was a capitalist who worked to restore confidence in both banking and industry. And he understood the plight of American farmers and working families, which he addressed with direct relief, and programs like the Workers Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corp, which provided jobs. And with the Social Security Act of 1935 he created a social safety net.

In this process, he reshaped the Democratic Party’s identity, forged a new coalition of voters, and established a governing philosophy that expanded the role of the federal government. The Democratic party became the party of traditional liberalism, which emphasized the rights of the individual, equality before the law, equality of opportunity and free markets, and it strived for the common good. But FDR’s vision gradually faded and with the Clinton Administration, the Democratic party broke away from the Roosevelt legacy. 

Historically, the Republican party had resisted organized labor, and from the 1950’s on, it supported market globalization. In 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), endorsed and signed by Bill Clinton, confirmed that, like the Republicans, Democrats also favored globalization. Clinton argued that NAFTA would create employment, but the outcome was a net loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, which moved to Mexico and Canada. The working class was abandoned.

Underutilized and unemployed working Americans watched wages stagnate and trillions of dollars move from their pockets to the investment accounts of wealthy Americans. The increased disparity in both income and wealth showed that American government no longer worked for the common good, and that the American worker could no longer rely on the Democratic party for protection.

Broken Promises

Donald Trump promised change, and on that promise won two presidential elections. 

Many of his followers now realize that he is a charlatan. While ignoring the plight of people who depend on the government for food and health care, he destroyed the east wing of the White House, celebrated with wealthy friends at sumptuous parties at Mar-a-Lago, and increased Trump family wealth by five billion dollars. It was obvious that his promise to working people was a con and his presidency a fraud.

What is more, his policies exacerbate the problems he guaranteed to solve. His trade policy is a shell game. Tariffs will transfer an enormous amount of money from consumers to the wealthy. He said that tariff proceeds would offset the revenue loss from the tax breaks his “One Big Beautiful Bill” gave to the well-to-do and corporations. But tariffs are another form of taxation, taxes that are paid by the consumer. 

Trump also claims that the tariffs will bring jobs back to America – another promise that will be broken.

Fifty years ago, tariffs would have been an appropriate way to discourage offshoring and protect American jobs. Neither party supported that strategy and manufacturers moved production to less advanced countries where wages were low and there were fewer regulations. When production moved, the manufacturing infrastructure and know-how moved with it. 

Despite Trumps plan, those jobs are not coming back. Manufacturing methods have evolved, and most jobs have been automated. Moreover, manufacturers have little incentive to make the enormous investment that will be needed to build modern manufacturing facilities and to develop a skilled labor force, as highlighted in a recent article in the Economist on North Carolina’s furniture industry.

Prioritizing the Common Good

Trump policies attempt to replicate the past. But effective government looks to the future. And planning the future has never been more important than now. With the advent of AI, our world will once again undergo fundamental change, as it did with the industrial revolution and the computer age. This advance will impact white-collar jobs as well as blue-collar jobs. How will government work for the benefit of the common good in this uncharted setting? This will be one of many immense challenges for every government. 

But the main concern of today’s Republican politicians is culture wars, and the administration’s concerns are building an extravagant White House ball room, pardoning the people who attempted to overthrow our democracy, and prosecuting people and groups he dislikes. Our current government is hopelessly not up to the task.

To build a new government, one that balances interests of the rich and poor alike will take more than bringing democrats to the center. Zohran Mamdani’s election in New York, and Bernie Sander’s popularity in the 2016 campaign, and Trumps two elections show that people want more. 

People want another FDR. Someone who is honest and believes that our democracy can be dedicated to the common good; someone who knows that science and liberal education are not our enemies but our best hope for finding solutions to the complex problems facing our nation and humankind. The solutions will not be found in superstition or ancient scripture, nor will they come from an autocracy. 

A committed leader is unlikely to emerge from the current Republican theocratic Party. People with the qualities of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Eisenhower have been expelled. Fortunately, there are visionary Democrats and independents who seem up to the task. Connecticut’s Murphy, Illinois’ Pritzker, and California’s Newsom come to mind.

Under a modern-day FDR, Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill,” the world’s most successful liberal democracy, may survive. On its present path, it will devolve into an autocratic oligarchy, and government serving the common good will be a memory of what made America a great nation. 

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Bob Topper, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a retired engineer.