by Jacob Grandstaff
Bill Clinton holds the distinction of being the only elected president since World War II to lose both houses of Congress while leading a trifecta. Republicans swept the 1994 midterms by winning over the working class, which had formed the backbone of the Democratic Party since the Great Depression.
Democrats would have to make similar inroads among working-class voters who elected President Donald Trump to sweep this year’s November midterms. But that would require repairing the party’s brand, which cultural radicals have trashed with these voters, and Democrats’ own social progressivism simply won’t allow it.
Why Democrats Can’t Have Their Own Contract with America
Democrats have an opening to take advantage of workers’ impatience with the economy. Millions of Americans continue to struggle to find good-paying jobs, cope with mounting debt, and afford high costs—largely thanks to Democratic policies.
For instance, after Clinton’s North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) accelerated the offshoring of manufacturing, many young adults took on college debt for jobs that won’t pay off. Others work in the service industry or own small businesses where they compete with a flood of immigrants accustomed to lower standards of living. Making life worse for everyone, former President Joe Biden drove inflation sky high.
If they were still the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, or even Bill Clinton, Democrats would probably have a real chance at breaking into Trump’s coalition. But the key difference between the 1994 midterms and today is that the Republican Party was not out of step with normal American workers on things like social values and patriotism then, whereas influential elements within the Democratic Party today are. Although the undercurrents of elitist social liberalism were present 32 years ago, they would eventually engulf the Democratic Party.
Most working-class voters like Thanksgiving and don’t care that “colonizers” started it. They are also not in favor of removing all restrictions on late-term abortion, downplaying the importance of religion, or diversifying the country by letting in more immigrants to compete for their jobs.
The reality is that any contract Democrats made with America would inevitably entail kowtowing to radical elements on the social Left.
Retreating from Woke 1.0 Changes Nothing
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) recently attempted to distance herself from the leftist lunacy of 2020, telling ABC’s Jonathan Karl: “Woke 1 was crazy.” This shows a belated realization of how poorly those views play with normal voters today.
Rather than renounce the substance of “Woke 1,” however, she blamed the opening of the Overton Window for the Left’s excesses. But as a congressional candidate, she held positions far outside the mainstream working class—such as abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—before “woke” was even added to the Oxford English Dictionary. What happens if the Overton Window again shifts leftward? Can voters expect her and other candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to once again experiment with unfettered leftist radicalism?
Ever since most Americans woke up to the dangers of wokeness, DSA-backed politicians have tried to back away from the Left’s most radical positions such as police and prison abolition. But the elitist Left certainly has no intention of renouncing the assumptions that produced those positions: that American institutions are systemically racist, that disparities in outcomes prove ongoing oppression, and that the United States is an illegitimate country built on stolen land. These beliefs shape the Left’s policy on crime, education, parental rights, and economics.
Economic Populism Can’t Mask the Cultural Chasm
Leftist radicals are trying to soften their cultural rhetoric and lean into democratic socialism to bring the working class back into the Democratic Party’s fold. Though some curious bystanders might be interested in hearing about socialist solutions to their problems, the cross-dressers, transgenders, and drag queens can be counted on to show up at some point as a reminder that this is first and foremost a cultural Marxist parade.
If Ocasio-Cortez and her comrades plan to release a “Woke 2,” it promises little more than a change in tone to Democrats’ social and cultural policy. Taxing the rich and redistributing those taxes to the working class might poll well by itself. But when voters hear the race obsession, gender indoctrination, and calls for open borders, the socialism just sounds like a bribe to help Democrats enact their leftist social agenda.
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Jacob Grandstaff is an Investigative Researcher for Restoration News.
Photo “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
