THE DEMOCRATS’ MIDWEST SUICIDE PACT

December 7, 2016
by Ken Berwitz
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I may not be the greatest strategist in the world, but I’ve always sort of assumed that if a political party wants to retrieve its formerly positive standing with a particular group – say several states which have just voted down its presidential candidate – the party makes sure to clearly show it considers that group valuable; important;  an integral part of its plans.

With that in mind, please consider the following excerpt from Greg Nash’s article at thehill.com:

So much for regional diversity.

House Democrats are in the midst of a post-election leadership expansion designed largely to amplify the voices of lawmakers in the heartland, where voters flocked to Donald Trump and propped up vulnerable Republicans down the ballot.

But after a series of votes and appointments during the past few days, the party’s leadership structure remains tilted strongly in favor of the coasts, sparking criticism from Midwestern Democrats who feel their voices are too often ignored.

The election results prompted a rare challenge to the authority of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has led her party in the House for 14 years. Although Pelosi easily fended off Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan’s bid, his warning that it’s political suicide for the party to ignore “flyover country” has resonated with many lawmakers in the nation’s interior. 

Pelosi…responded by adding a number of leadership posts — some reserved for junior members — and adopting rules to select those positions by a vote of the full caucus, rather than an appointment from the top.  

After several rounds of votes and appointments, however, only four of the top 15 leadership spots are occupied by lawmakers who aren’t in coastal states, and only one of those — Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) — is from the Midwest.

Unless I missed something, Hillary Clinton just lost the 2016 presidential election because Donald Trump unexpectedly won several key states in the midwest that Democrats usually win.

So what is their “strategy” for retrieving those states?

First they re-elect Nancy Pelosi as minority leader – a San Francisco hard-leftist who was completely on board with the the job-losing trade deals and immigration policies that cost her party the midwest – instead of the 33 year younger, far more dynamic midwesterner, Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who understands exactly why the midwest was lost…

….and then Pelosi and her pals fill 15 leadership spots – , with exactly one going to a house member from the Midwest.

Has the Democrat Party gone nuts?  Has it learned nothing from the 2016 election?

This is not a “strategy”.  This is a suicide pact; one which I, as a strong proponent of a multi-party system, do not wish Democrats success with, no matter how hard they try to make it happen.

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