Last summer, after Hillary’s campaign released one of their first adverts — kids watching Trump say mean stuff — I wrote that simply attacking Trump as “being an asshole” would lead to a big Hillary loss in November. With very little joy, I found myself proven correct.
Here’s the most important part of my diary:
Thanks to some nudging from one Bernie Sanders, Hillary has recently announced a lot of really, really popular ideas: like support for a public option and ending college tuition for all but the wealthiest Americans.
Americans — a massive number of independents — flocked to Bernie Sanders, because he was crystal clear about what politics should be about: making good public policy happen. The public craves good policy in a country where the trains don’t run on time, bridges are collapsing, health care is an expensive bureaucratic nightmare, and earning a bachelor’s degree is more expensive than buying an Italian sports car.
Hillary will not win if she makes this campaign about Trump being an asshole. She will win if she makes this campaign about celebrating good public policy for the public good.
I beg of you, Team Hillary, please change course...before it’s too late.
As we saw with the Ossoff campaign, not only did he not even aggressively attack Trump — he promised to work with the president on anything related to his district — he failed to articulate a clear vision for what he wanted to achieve in Congress: how would he fix health care? How would he get more people in good jobs? How would he resolve the intractable conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories?
I’m hardly a fan of Matthew Yglesias’ work, but he’s right on Ossoff, especially when he notes how Corbyn achieved significant success in the recent UK election, because he articulated an inspiring policy vision:
But perhaps most of all, running on a bold policy agenda helped focus voters’ minds on policy rather than on the (extremely long) list of controversial Corbyn statements and associations from past years. Pundits had long expected Corbyn to get crushed at the polls, and had Theresa May succeeded in running an election focused on the Falklands War, the Irish Republican Army, and unilateral nuclear disarmament, she would have won. But instead, the UK ended up with a campaign about promises to nationalize utilities, eliminate university tuition, and raise taxes.
In contrast, look at Ossoff saying almost nothing in this advertisement:
I will say this again, in simple language: if the Democrats want to stop losing and start winning, they must begin articulating a bold and inspiring vision of good public policy for the public good.
Medicare-for-all polls at about 73 percent for Democrats, perhaps that’s a good place to start? Or free college tuition? Or a concrete infrastructure plan? Or a pathway to untangling the United States from its problematic — and one-sided — relationships with Israel and Saudi Arabia?
(Republican policy proposals are vile, disgusting, backwards, positively medieval — but at least they articulate something for their voters to get excited about during campaigns.)
Americans aren’t stupid — they can handle policy details.
At this point, I think we are going to be woefully disappointed by the performance of Democrats — in both 2018 and 2020 — if the party doesn’t change course fast.