The Democrats Must Be Terrified

The what-passes-for-thought, leaders of the Democrat party must be absolutely terrified. For the longest time, it was (and still is) the Republican Party that needed (needs) to find a more effective method of communicating conservative thought to minority communities. Even our own conservative writers have preached this.

Read: No, Black Democrats Are Not Brainwashed

The Democrats, in a decades long, directed information operation, have managed to instill in minority communities, a profound mistrust of the Republican Party. This mistrust makes it hugely difficult to approach, much less persuade members of those groups.

This is especially ironic considering that it has been the Republicans who have historically been responsible for almost all of the efforts to remove legal and social fetters from minority communities. It was of course, the Democrats who put them on in the first place and had to be persuaded to remove them at bayonet point. Even then, it took a series of Constitutional Amendments, Legislation and once again, on more than one occasion, the deployment of rough men with bayonets on the ends of their rifles to enforce those freedoms.

Then came President Donald J. Trump, who famously asked the minority communities, “What have you got to lose?” A few, but enough to be significant, took him up on that and flipped the lever for him in 2016. Based on the latest economic reports, especially those affecting Blacks and Hispanics, coupled with rising poll numbers in those same demographics, indicate that the Democrats have a problem in a couple of their core constituencies. They are worried that those 2016 crossovers are going to be back to vote for President Trump—and will be dragging a few of their friends with them.

That makes todays commentary by Antjuan Seawright in Real Clear Politics very significant.

Read: Democrats, You Must Engage and Persuade Minority Voters

Seawright starts off with a fairly long tirade on how serious the 2020 election is and what the consequences are for failure. He has an inkling, but he’s understating the case.

We do not have to spend our time telling you about the significance of the 2020 election because you already know how high the stakes are up and down the ballot all across the country. You – Democratic political officeholders and candidates — already know that health care, education, infrastructure, the environment, wages, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, redistricting, justice, character, decency, and normalcy will all be on the ballot next year.

As a black man, I do not have to tell you what this election will mean for communities that look like mine and the generational impact the results will carry. So I won’t waste my time or yours talking about what you already know.

Here’s the money quote (emphasis mine)

Instead, I’ll remind you that you can’t govern if you don’t win and you can’t win — we can’t win —unless you engage us, persuade us, and don’t forget about us.

This is is significant. By no means am I spiking the ball on an election that hasn’t really gotten started yet. However, we must admit that something fundamental has shifted. Up until this point, Democrats had pretty much taken the minority vote for granted. Given current circumstances, the Trump Effect must be being felt in minority communities…at least enough to have some leftists very worried.

This is good news. At the very least, something has happened that is significant enough to force Democrats to expend effort to deal with it. Heretofore, the only time Democrats paid attention to their core constituencies, was close to election time. Otherwise, they took them for granted, never really expecting to have to perform. Just look at Elijah Cummings’ (rest his soul) district.

Although based on the numbers, Donald Trump will in all likelihood get more minority votes than in 2016, those numbers might not be huge. However, because the leftists have to actually earn minority votes—-have to actually expend campaign resources on them, that means that fewer resources will be available to persuade those coveted “middle-of-the-road” voters.

As Mr. Seawright indicated—If the Democrats don’t pay attention to us, we might not vote for President Trump, but we will stay home on Election Day. The left is currently caught between two equally bad options—Spend resources to keep a historically solid constituency and possibly lose persuadable independents, or ignore what is happening and watch that heretofore loyal constituency, at best, stay home, or at worst, flip the lever for somebody the Democrat Party hierarchy absolutely despises, President Donald J. Trump.

Mike Ford, a retired Infantry Officer, writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

Follow him on Twitter: @MikeFor10394583

You can find his other Red State work here.