Dancing with insanity

That is how many of Nancy Pelosi’s colleagues it took to vote her back into power despite having lost her third consecutive chance at winning back the majority from the Republicans.

Her win over Youngstown Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan for Minority Leader proved two-thirds of those House Democrats have more interest in someone who is a deep-pocket fundraiser than someone who perhaps could have made the party more competitive in swing districts or more cohesive in their message to the voters.

Or perhaps both.

Their decision was arrogant, tone deaf and a smack in the face to the voters who once proudly supported this party and were waiting to see if someone would lead them back out of the progressive wilderness.

Kevin Lawson, 22, is one young Democrat who would have preferred Ryan over Pelosi, “We need a message that resonates not only with young people, but a much broader swath of the country,” he said. “Ryan talked about the economy in his local race, but the overall message from the party was flat and uninspiring.”

Lawson, a senior at Youngstown State University located in the district Ryan represents, says it’s not going to get any easier in the 2018 midterms, when the party needs to win 24 seats to regain the majority in the House.

For whatever reason, Ryan’s argument going forward to win those kinds of numbers through solid recruiting and a sound economic message landed on deaf ears within his caucus.

Democrats fell wildly short of expectations once again this year largely because they had not formed a unified message around the economy and the public’s distaste with the costs and burdens of Obamacare, said Lawson, “And they also underestimated the impact Donald Trump would have in some of their competitive districts.”

Democrats don’t just have a House problem either. Their woes down ballot, where a vibrant, robust bench is typically built, are crushing.

In fact, Democratic control in state legislative bodies is in its weakest spot since the Civil War; Republicans now hold control of a record 68 percent of the 98 state legislative chambers in the nation. In total they hold 4,100 of the 7,383 seats, more than they have held since 1920.

So why after such a gloomy Election Day for their party aren’t Democrats properly agonizing over how to reconnect with the working-class voters who abandoned them instead of supporting the same leadership who has not been able to win them back since 2010?

Democrats began cutting loose these New Deal Democrats after winning their support in the 2006 midterm elections. By the time the 2008 presidential campaign rolled around Democrats did not even try to pretend that they wanted or needed white working-class, predominantly male voters from their coalition in favor of building cosmopolitan-centered coalition of minorities, elites and women.

They believed Barack Obama formed a new coalition for them; what they missed is that Obama formed a new coalition for Obama, not them, and certainly not for Hillary Clinton.

That move left displaced voters with nowhere to go except toward the Republican Party, for which they turned out in large numbers in the 2010 and 2014 midterms and gave the GOP historic wins in state legislatures, governors’ offices and Congress.

Pelosi is symbolic for a lot of wayward Democrat voters of all of the things that pushed them away from the family; she was the defensive coordinator and face for the president’s hallmark Obamacare that has savaged their pocketbooks, she stridently supported the unpopular bank bailouts as well as the regulations and trade deals that have contributed to their livelihoods crumbling and their communities suffering.

In short, she represents everything that caused them to start dropping away from the party of their roots and into the arms of the Republicans, and it’s not that they like the Republicans all that much more, but at least they have a message that tells them they have their back.

And while her cosmopolitan roots, wealth and lifestyle are not that dissimilar to the wealth of Republican President-elect Trump, he at least spoke to the voters and offered them a tangible benefit; Pelosi, like Hillary Clinton, spoke at them and ran on her past accomplishments and resume.

Democrats used to be able to win swing districts in states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, where the Republicans now hold super-majorities in their state’s House delegations. But they won them with moderate New Deal visions and faces such as former representatives’ Jason Altmire of suburban Pittsburgh and Kathy Dahlkemper of Erie.

The House Democrats danced with insanity last week when they repeated the same mistake over again for the third time by keeping the same leadership intact to represent their future. Perhaps they thought that with a Republican in the White House they could play off their power vacuum with the same person who led them out of the wilderness in 2006 and pull off an upset win again in 2018.

Or perhaps they still believe that the same message and policies that got them thrown out of power by 2010 might find favor again; while it is too soon to speculate, it is hard for blue-collar Democrats to find a way back to the party if the reason they left still holds the power.

Salena Zito is a columnist for the Washington Examiner.