I’ll be brief. You are experiencing a Nov. 5 concussion. Soul-searching is warranted, but the association with Christianity and disassociation with abortion would be anathema.
My unsolicited recommendations: You don’t need a message. You need a vision. What’s the difference between the two? A message is a soundbite or ad hominem attack devoid of substance. A vision is earmarked by content; for example, Make Americans First Again, a ceasefire and peace in the Middle East, ending the conflict in Ukraine, slashing illegal immigration, lowering interest rates, cutting taxes and ending wasteful spending.
Saving democracy is not a vision. We have a republic featuring checks and balances and separation of powers to forestall majoritarian tyranny. As Thomas Jefferson observed in his “Notes on the State of Virginia,” “173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one. … An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.”
Stop blaming the voters. I was howling on Wednesday night over folks such as MSNBC’s Joy Reid and “The View’s” Sunny Hostin lamenting voter stupidity in picking former President Donald Trump. What about soaring inflation, a languishing economy and 20 million illegal aliens invading and plundering the country?
Don’t blame fundraising. I heard MSNBC apologists the day after the election insisting that Vice President Kamala Harris was “outspent.” That’s absurd. The Democratic Party raised $1 billion in a matter of weeks. Harris couldn’t spend it fast enough.
Stop equating civil rights with erasing the distinction between boys and girls. America rejected transgenderism. Telling Jackie Robinson that he cannot play with the Brooklyn Dodgers because he is Black is not the same as telling him he cannot play on women’s baseball teams because he is a man. That is a self-evident truth.
Identity politics is DOA. Votes are cast by candidate merit, not by candidate skin color.
Latinos supported Trump at 45%. African Americans jumped from 8% in 2020 to 13% on Nov. 5. Asians climbed to 39%. Trump’s support among women and youths inched up.
These polychromatic voters are neither racist nor dumb, contrary to Reid, Van Jones and Joe Scarborough.
I have volumes of more wisdom to impart. But I must stop as a concession to the shortness of life. I leave you with this gem: Your party ran an untested candidate, without a message that connects with the plight of voters. Harris has run for president twice. Last week was her first election. She never won a primary. She made no attempt to break loose from President Joe Biden’s albatross.
Politicians or political parties who fail to remember history are condemned to repeat it.