Thursday, December 31, 2015

Are Democrats being too smug?

From Robert Reich

As we slouch toward a critically-important election year, Democrats are expressing a degree of confidence bordering on smugness, and that makes me worry. This morning I got an email from a key Democratic operative. “The Republicans are showing America how nuts they are,” he writes. “With Trump, Cruz, or even Rubio they can’t possibly win the presidency. They’ve turned off Latinos, women, young people, old people. Odds are they’ll also lose the Senate. Maybe even the House.”

This is dangerous hubris. In 2014, Republicans won their biggest House majority in Congress in almost a century, and most of the winners are every bit as conservative as the current candidates for president. Republicans also control 32 governorships, including deep-blue states like Maryland, Illinois, and Massachusetts. And, under President Obama, Democrats have lost more than 900 state legislative seats. Not to mention the right-wing Republican majority on the Supreme Court.

Anyone who thinks the next election is going to be easy for Democrats and progressives is kidding themselves. Even if Donald Trump wins the nomination, it’s going to be an uphill fight. Which means you and I and everyone we know who understands the damage being done by the extreme Right -- and by the growing concentration of income, wealth, and political power in the hands of a very few -- will have to work like hell.

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