Part one of my second cousin Michael Mindell’s letter, written last May.
To: The Honorables Elissa Slotkin, Ritchie Torres, Jim Himes, Chris Murphy, Gavin Newsom, and Pete Buttigieg.
While I am not the constituent of any of you, you give me hope as some of the Democrats who are “getting it”.
It’s the Republican Party, Stupid.
(in case it’s necessary to explain, I’m not calling you stupid, I’m quoting James Carville)
The Dems’ intense focus on Trump and the accountability for the fetid policies and consequences thereof, is somewhat misguided or at least incomplete. As much of a foul person as Trump is, he would not be able to do what he does without the republican politicians who are prostituting and ruining America for personal gain. If they are given a pass by the Dems’ focusing too intently on Trump, the voters will not link their own problems to these politicians and will not hold them accountable at the voting booth.
AND YET, for half a century, the Dems have failed to articulate why their policies, their successes, and their hearts are better for America than those of the republicans’, and worse, ceding them to the republicans. To wit…
Newt Gingrich put the nail in the coffin of any shred of republican decency, of true patriotism, and of a functioning 2 party democracy with his orders to his fellow republicans to pursue total victory for the republican party, no cooperation or fraternization with “the enemy”, etc. How does that help Americans?
AND YET…
Through the decades-long PATTERN of Dems having to correct our economy after republican financial malfeasance by running up the credit card bill to line the pockets of the rich, while lying to the people by telling them that it would trickle down. Yet they continue to have the reputation of being the party of fiscal conservatism while the Dems are the “tax and spend” party?
AND YET…
Bernie Sanders routinely attracted 30,000 people to political speeches in his 2016 presidential bid and he still does. The Dems learned NOTHING from this phenomenon in 2016 and there still does not appear to be sufficient learning. I voted for Berny in the 2016 primary for precisely that reason. I wanted the Dems to learn from his good stuff and from his intuitions but I intended to, and did, vote for Hillary as I felt that she was the most qualified person for the job and beyond that, had the right heart for America. It is arguable that perhaps the “likeability problem” that cost her the election could have been helped by learning from Berny, an octogenarian who appealed to the entire age AND POLITICAL spectrum. As a U.S. born dual Israeli citizen, I have serious issues with Berny for obvious reasons, but still recognize and value his positive qualities.
*Side note to the above. Elissa, I agree with you on the use of the word “oligarchy” but be careful to not insult people by assuming they don’t understand the word even if many may not. Such patronization, real or imagined, continues to cause serious damage to the Dems over the years. Perhaps a solution is artfully working the definition into speeches and communications to be sure everyone understands the full meaning and ramifications of the word and its practice.