Are We Headed For A Fall In 2018?

Two articles to consider and one big issue to go with them. The issue: are us Liberals, Progressives, and NeverTrumpers in trouble regarding the 2018 midterm elections? At least some observers think so. Joe Scarborough in the Washington Post argues that Trump’s short term successes (or at least successes he can take credit for, even if they aren’t really his) could easily allow the GOP to win the midterms and give Trump and Orangesters yet another two years without serious opposition. The blue wave, in other words, may not be coming.

That’s a scary thought, and it is all too possible that Scarborough is right. But, don’t give up all hope. In the long run, or even the medium, things could look very different. Consider, for example, this article by David Leonhardt, Democrats Are Running A Smart Populist Campaign, in the New York Times. Leonhardt looks at two very different Democrats, Stacey Abrams and Conor Lamb. Abrams, he notes, is very much the Progressive, New-Democrat who sounds like a Bernie Sanders supporter on overdrive. Lamb, by contrast, won by coming across as a just-plain-folks candidate who looked, at times, like a Republican.

In fact, Leonhardt argues, the two are very much alike. If you look at what they are actually saying, they are both making appeals to the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the outraged, and the militant. In their way, both are populist Democrats, and that is exactly the sort of candidates we need in future.

Let’s hope he’s right. Admittedly, when you look at the DNC and the DCCC, it is hard to envision the Democrats being Populists, let alone Smart. But, maybe, just maybe, the candidates in the field, and the voters across the nation, will be able to supply the brains and the populism the party elites seem to lack.