I’m wondering how successful the Democratic meme of “Trump voters, now you’ll get what you deserve” will be.
Media regularly now run stories “telling” Trump voters how bad their decision was. Many outlets unlikely to be read by Trump voters produce elaborate charts and expert commentary about how whatever Trump is doing with taxes or the economy will negatively affect voters in Red states the most. The implication is hah, hah, suckers, you voted for more jobs and you’ll get nothing! Tag-on articles also include dubious surveys showing vast numbers of Trump voters agree with statements like “Even though Trump policies will definitely kill my mother in front of my eyes, I’d still vote for him.” That’s a two-fer: you were dumb to vote for him once, Cletus, and you still won’t admit how freaking dumb you are.
The highbrow version of those nasty little stories is the literal glee of too many progressives over how poorly Republican health care plans will work out. Following their defeat in the House over so-called “Trumpcare,” Democrats as one pivoted to saying their loss was their gain, as Americans will suffer and maybe even die as a result of the new rules, and finally realize how wrong they were to vote Republican.
So a serious question: do party leaders really think this will translate into votes for Democratic candidates in a few years? That badgering people to admit they were wrong is a good tactic (we all know how much anyone likes to admit they were wrong)? That mocking voters for their 2016 choice will bring them to your side in 2018? That hoping enough suffer under even worse health care policy to vote for the party that stood by chortling and watched it happen?
Alongside this very odd strategy of gain through others’ pain is the issue of Undead Hillary. The two are connected.
The standard for a losing candidate is to quietly go away. Mike Dukakis (Remember him? No? That’s my point) is the perfect example. For those losers who don’t want to simply write a memoir and fade away playing golf, they can also respectfully reemerge after some time has passed as an elder statesman (Walter Mondale) or as a specific issue spokesperson quietly tolerated at the sidelines of the moving-on-now party (Al Gore and climate change.)
The problem for Democrats is that Hillary Clinton is not yet convinced, nor are many of her supporters, that she really lost the election. They act in some ways as if the campaign is still ongoing.
By basically continuing to run a version of the same full-on negative strategy they did in 2016 (Trump is dangerous, evil, stupid, a threat, Putin c*ck holster), there seems to be this poorly-formed notion that somehow Trump will disappear (Emoluments Clause, impeachment for something, whatever) and that it will then be Clinton, not Pence, waking up the next morning in the White House.
In other words, until the Democrats can stand up as a party and say “We lost. There were a variety of factors but at least some sizable part of the electorate wanted what Trump offered and did not want what we offered” they will continue to push Undead Hillary forward as if she and her negative campaign still represent a hope back into power.
Until then, no alternatives. No new ideas. No positivity. Indeed, a near-ghoulish sense of “Well, America, you didn’t chose our Clinton so enjoy life in hell as a penalty” pervades. It seems a very unconvincing way forward for a party that currently controls no part of government.