The days are dwindling in the most caustic presidential campaign in modern history. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay wonders if we can learn some lessons.
In the twilight of the most unenlightening campaign anyone can remember, we can dwell on the many mistakes. Or we can look for lessons. Democrats and Republicans and can learn an awful lot.
The Rhode Island Republican debate watch party for Donald Trump Wednesday in Warwick was a window into what has become of the party that harkens to Lincoln. Local Republican meetings once resembled a mix of a Brown alumni event, a small business gathering and small-government rally. (Republican events used to sport more blue blazers than a Brooks Brothers warehouse. Not so much these days).
Those days are gone. The Trumpification of the party has meant far fewer establishment Republicans flying the party banner. It’s easy to see why . His platform, such as it is, is a strange mélange of big government, an isolationist foreign policy and crass appeal to such low instincts as xenophobia and racial animosity that chase away the noblesse oblige instincts of earlier generations of New England moderates.
Yet, whatever one thinks of Trump, one element can’t be denied: he has brought new people into politics. He won the state presidential primary in a romp. There is nothing the Rhode Island GOP needs more than fresh faces and people willing to perform the grunt work of politics: planting the lawn signs, gathering the signatures and running for the local offices that Republicans too often cede to Democrats.
Just how bad is the Republican brand in the Ocean State? Let us count the ways. The party’s state Senate caucus can fit into a Prius. The House caucus into a soccer mom’s van. No member of the state’s Congressional delegation is Republican. Neither are any statewide elected officials. What’s evolved is a business class that no longer gets involved in Republican politics, instead hiring lobbyists connected to General Assembly Democrats when they need help on Smith Hill.
The challenge, says GOP national committeewoman Lee Ann Sennick , is to bring the Trump loyalists into the party’s tent. If these people are one-timers, the Trump campaign will be nothing more than a footnote.
There is a larger barrier: Republicans must come to grips with a 21st century state and nation, not the society they had. This means reaching out to the new immigrant and young Rhode Island. This would be both good politics and good policy. If not, Republicans will consign themselves to history’s dustbin; there aren’t enough cranky old white Trumpeters to win. A party whose base erodes with each day’s obituaries has scant future.
Polls show Trump likely won’t win, but his campaign has exposed a working-class anger that Democrats would do well to heed. Put aside the poison and megalomania of his campaign and focus on his message about how the global economy has contributed to the hollowing out of the middle-class. His one-liners about big companies evading taxes, abandoning the United States and moving jobs abroad have been well-received.
Democrats once were the party of struggling workers. Organized labor is still a slice of the party’s foundation, but too often it has looked in recent years as if identity politics has overtaken Democratic blue-collar roots.
Everyone deserves their rights and an equal chance in our state and nation. Yet such issues as transgender rights, gay marriage and abortion rights sometimes seem to overshadow the interests of families trying to put food on the table.
Hillary Clinton never talks about the harm her husband’s big bank favoring administration and corporate-friendly trade deals did to working people. On these issues, she has been a chameleon on a plaid couch.
Closer to home, Rhode Island lawmakers followed Massachusetts in approving gay marriage, a welcome move. But come January, the minimum wage in our state will be $1.40 an hour less than the Bay State. How did Gov. Gina Raimondo and Assembly Democrats let that happen? Perhaps they were listening to the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce instead of the RI AFL-CIO.
Too many workers believe that neither party cares about them. They see the system as favoring big companies and their lobbyists, who buy access to politicians of all stripes.
What’s needed even more when this desultory election cycle ends is a renewed campaign to bring a semblance of civility and compromise back to our politics. What would your marriage, workplace or friendships be like if no one compromised?
Scott MacKay’s commentary can be heard every Monday on Morning Edition at 6:45 and 8:45 and on All Things Considered at 5:44. You can also follow his political analysis and reporting at our `On Politics’ blog at RIPR.org. Scott will be on vacation next week but will return the following week.
