Make Elitism Great Again: Democrats Return to Their 1860 Roots

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Posted on 11/25/2024 8:18:59 AM PST by Starman417

by Jeff Childers

The New York Times ran (another) deep post-election analysis over the weekend headlined, “How Democrats Lost Their Base and Their Message.” It described what is gaining speed to potentially become the Democrats’ worst-case scenario.

The article began by contrasting Trump’s 2016 and 2024 strategies. In 2016, Trump won using an electoral “Moneyball” approach, surprising Democrats by gaming out exactly which handful of key counties were needed to win the Electoral College. The 2020 election proved the Democrats learned their lesson and weren’t about to let Republicans win again through cherry-picking.

During his 2020-2024 wilderness years, amidst fending off FBI raids and a mudslide of political lawfare persecution, President Trump discarded wonky statistical manipulation. Instead, he leaned into his roots, his undeniable genius: marketing. The new strategy was not to win through statistical sleight of hand but by actually selling Americans on a better vision, a vision of a better America that was and an even better America that once again could be.

Make America Great Again. It was pure marketing genius.

Only President Trump could have done it, and that is because he is quintessentially American: part P.T. Barnum, part Teddy Roosevelt, part Abraham Lincoln.

Commonly referred to as a “master showman,” P.T. Barnum was a genius of spectacle and self-promotion. Like Trump, Barnum enjoyed an uncanny ability to captivate audiences, transform controversies into publicity, and consistently manifest a larger-than-life persona. Like Trump, Barnum built his fortune in Manhattan.

Like Trump, President Teddy Roosevelt (1901-1909), who coined “speak softly and carry a big stick,” was also a dynamic, larger-than-life figure, beloved for his populism, rugged individualism, and his feisty, combative spirit. He shattered political norms and redefined the GOP for a generation, delivering a "Square Deal" for America by waging war on the entrenched power structures of the day, especially big corporations (the “trusts”). Teddy was a strong Republican leader, but he shattered political norms by embracing the working class through his trust-busting, anti-corporate, and consumer protection policies.

Finally, Trump is easily compared to President Abraham Lincoln (1860-1864), who is regularly ranked as the nation’s greatest president by presidential historians. Like Trump, Lincoln was (and remains) deeply divisive. Democrats in 1860 were so enraged at the election of the first Republican president that seven heavily Democrat southern states quickly seceded between Lincoln’s election and his inauguration. They didn’t even wait for Lincoln to take the oath to see what he would do.

You could call it Lincoln Derangement Syndrome (LDS). And, of course, they shot both Lincoln and Trump in the head after each president’s first term.

There are many points of similarity, but here’s just one more: like Trump, Lincoln was also elected through a unique confluence of electoral events: a disunited Democrat party shattered into three competing candidates, paving the way for the first Republican to be elected president in the nation’s history.

I am not arguing Trump is just like these three great American men, not at all. President Trump is a unique modern amalgam of their circumstances and their best, quintessentially American qualities.

Regardless, during his presidential interregnum, master marketer Trump undertook to give the GOP a much-overdue brand refresh. He hawked conservatism to core parts of the Democrat base, the parts that don’t enjoy full membership benefits enjoyed by that party’s elite ruling class.

But … was it a re-brand? Or did Trump, like Teddy Roosevelt did, shift the GOP from an off-skew slant back toward its home base?

Trump’s success at communicating with discarded, disenfranchised Democrats is undeniable. Consider this chart from the New York Times’s analysis, calculating the 12-year shift toward the GOP:

In other words, men and women included, Trump gained with: young people, working-aged folks, college-educated minorities, black folks, Hispanics, Asians, all “other race” people, and working-class whites.

Now consider this: These gainers are all folks who would have voted for President Lincoln in 1860. Think about what that implies.

It got better. The next chart in the Times’s analysis showed the paltry three groups that improved for Democrats—the demographics that shifted away from Trump’s populism—and one group in particular stuck out like monkeypox:

The first outrageous implication, which I won’t dwell on because why pout about things you can’t change, is that if it had gone the other way, had Republicans only gained with over-educated whites, the New York Times would be jumping up and down shouting “white supremacy!!” from the skyrises.

But which party is actually, by the numbers, the party of “white supremacy?” Trump exposed the Democrats. The only group who solidly slid away from Trump’s populist MAGA movement was college-educated whites. Insufferable, pasty-skinned, wealthy coastal elites.

In other words, the same people who would have voted Democrat in 1860.

Nothing has changed! Nothing about Democrats has changed except, for a long time, the Democrats were able to fool minorities and working-class whites into thinking they’d abandoned their elitist, slave-owning roots. They tricked the same groups that, down south, the Democrats had consistently fooled before the Civil War.

But the Democrats have not, in fact, changed. The numbers prove it, and the Times’s analysis agreed. “Democrats,” the article explained, “became the party of institutions, the national security apparatus, norms and, ultimately, the status quo — not change.”

(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...

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1 posted on 11/25/2024 8:18:59 AM PST by Starman417

To: Starman417

2 posted on 11/25/2024 8:25:19 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (My decisions about people are based almost entirely on skin color. I learned this from Democrats.)

To: Starman417

3 posted on 11/25/2024 8:26:01 AM PST by DPMD

To: Starman417

4 posted on 11/25/2024 8:26:58 AM PST by Frank Drebin (And don't ever let me catch you guys in America!)

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