Over at the Washington Post, Paul Waldman highlights what he believes to be a double standard: Sen. Elizabeth Warren was criticized for refusing to go on Fox News, but President Trump hasn’t received similar criticism for failing to go on MSNBC. He asks: “Why aren’t Trump and Republicans pilloried for failing to ‘reach out’?”
The answer, however, doesn’t have to do with any sort of different set of standards for Republicans and Democrats. It just has to do with the fact that political analysis is often heavily biased toward the last election. In 2016, Trump was able to win without reaching out to many voting blocs in a traditional way while motivating the white working class in key states. Thus, this created the perception that Democrats need to find a way to win back those voters to retake the White House so that Trump cannot successfully deploy a similar strategy.
Looking to the most recent election for lessons that apply to the upcoming election is quite common. In 1992, it was argued that Democrats needed to appeal to Ronald Reagan voters who stuck with George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Bill Clinton made a concerted effort to counter perceptions that he was a Michael Dukakis-style weak liberal. After Obama’s victories, Republicans were told they needed to reach out to minority voting groups and younger Americans. In the 2016 cycle, Republicans were criticized for snubbing Univision as a debate host.
Should the Obama coalition return for Democrats in 2020, forcing Republicans to contemplate a post-Trump universe, I’m sure that in the lead-up to the 2024 Republican primary, we’ll see a similar sort of commentary about how GOP candidates need to appeal to a changing America.
To the extent there is any difference between the commentary concerning the need for Republicans or Democrats to “reach out,” it’s more tied to the results of the previous election than any sort of separate standard for the two parties.
