Democrats have a chance to peel away some Trump voters. So why are they making it so hard?
It’s no secret that the presidential election in 2016 was run between two really unpopular people, who had their discrete subsets of frenetic supporters, but left large swaths of voters stone cold. In fact, the numbers of those who were hostile to both reached record numbers, with Trump big among the “neither, thanks,” set.
If Trump had faced a Democrat less toxic or threatening, those 77,000 decisive votes might not have flipped. He might not be president now.
Now in three years, in he has done some things well and at times been impressive, but like the girl with the curl he can also be horrid, and that side of him is taking its toll. Even Republicans who sort of liked these three years may be starting to think that four years is enough, and that eight years might really be too much to swallow.
In conditions like these, you might expect Democrats to develop plans for wooing unhappy Trump voters. But as of this winter, that job became harder. It’s their own fault, and it may be the reason they lose.
According to the press and the Democrats (but we repeat ourselves), the new culture wars started this spring, when some red-leaning states in the south and outside it produced bills restricting abortion. But the calendar shows that the culture war began before that. On Jan. 22, New York started the ball rolling by passing a bill allowing abortion to the very last moment of pregnancy.
Did the Democrats forget it was issues like this that had won the election for Trump? Did they forget that religious conservatives distrusted them enough to enter their transactional relationship with Trump — to forgive him his sins of the past in exchange for his protection from those trying to destroy them?
For yes, by 2016, social conservatives had ample proof that the Left wanted not just to face them off but to destroy them completely, placing them outside the acceptable limits of social discussion. They wanted to make sure that pro-lifers (Kirsten Gillibrand now says they’re just like racists, outside the realm of reasonable discussion) and supporters of traditional marriage can’t even hold a job.
Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich was forced from his position in 2014 because of a donation he made to a group that supported traditional marriage way back in 2008 — back when Barack Obama pretended to support marriage between a man and a woman.
A decadelong movement was launched to drive the Chick-fil-A fast food chain out of business.
The federal government took measures to force Catholic nuns to fund contraception.
In 2016, social conservatives felt they were under siege. They responded accordingly.
And in 2019, they feel this even more. Masterpiece Cakeshop is now being sued for the third time. Democrats running for president have made clear that they will not protect the conscience rights of medical professionals, and Diane Feinstein has made it quite evident she wants no Catholics at all on the bench.
Is this the right time for Left to remind all those depressed Midwestern Trump voters just how much they hate them?
