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Donald Trumps populist victory has turned conventional political wisdom on its head. Going into the election, the media and the electorate largely believed Hillary Clinton would crush Trump and become the first woman president. But as the night of November 8 wore on, it became clear that Trump would edge Hillary out. He ended up winning the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote by a record 2.1 percent. In contrast, George W. Bush lost the popular vote by just one half of one percent.

Democrats have won the popular vote in six of the last seven elections: 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016. This is an astonishing feat, which in any other country would have solidified them as the party in power for the foreseeable future. But because we have the Electoral College, the deficiencies in the Democratic coalition are thrown in contrast better than they would be elsewhere.

November 8 revealed that the Democratic base is retreating to urban areas (mostly along the coasts). Their decision to cut bait with working class whites was a mistake. And the Obama coalition disintegrated as soon as Obama was off the ballot. Unless Democrats address these issues, they can expect to see even more losses over the next four years.

The following two points are not mutually exclusive: power ebbs and flows between the two major parties, and parties can die. The valley that the Democratic Party currently finds itself in may very well be the former situation. But there is a possibilityhowever outside the norms of what weve come to expect from two-party politicsthat the Democratic Party is facing extinction.

The identity crisis facing Democrats is completely different than the one facing the Republican Party. It is even different from the battle for the soul of the Republican Party that came out of the Tea Party movement.

The Tea Party, as Rob Tranciski points out, essentially matched conservative-leaning districts with conservative representatives, especially post-Obamacare when the unpopularity of the law translated into Republican electoral victories. In the Obama era, the fight over the Republican Party was usually between the establishmentthe career politicians in Washington who served as party thought leadersand the base, or the grassroots voters and activists.

These two factions were often at odds over policies like entitlement spending, defunding Planned Parenthood, and, we now know, free trade deals. But despite these conflicts there was never much dispute over most of the core principals of the party: small government, respect for individual autonomy, Second Amendment rights, Supreme Court appointments, and federalism. Cohesiveness on these issues was showcased at the 2012 and 2016 party conventions, as well in outside forums like CPAC, the March for Life, or NRA-sponsored events.

The issue today in the Republican Party is whether or not it will convert en masse to Trumpism and its hostility to immigration, free trade, NATO, and an introverted foreign policy. But as a whole, there are more holdouts to Trumpism than the media and liberals like to admit.

Contrast those issues with the ones facing Democrats: a shrinking base, a shattered coalition, and policies that push people out of the party. One of the main reasons Hillary lost was because of increasing polarization between urban and rural areas. Clinton easily won large metropolises like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She even ran ahead of Obama in those places. But voters further removed from an urban core outvoted the cities and put Trump over the top.

There are number of reasons for this discrepancy. One, Hillary was not Obama, a fact often lost on Democrats during the campaign that is now painfully obvious. The coalition Obama assembled for his two terms was formidable while it lasted. But without him on the ballot, the coalition either stayed home or backed Trump.

A few weeks after the election, The New York Times interviewed a number of less-than-enthused Milwaukee residents about why they voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, and why they stayed home last year or cast a protest vote. To these voters neither Trump nor Hillary were palatable, and for some the thought of voting for another Democrat felt self-defeating because of the stagnation of their communities during the Obama years.

Others felt like they couldnt vote for either candidate so they wrote in non-presidential candidates. This drop off in Wisconsin clearly cost Clinton the state: Trump won by just 27,000 votes. This theme came to the fore in the other closely won Trump states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. When it came time to vote for Hillary, the enthusiasm gap was very real.

Secondly, the policies of the Democratic party increasingly serve as an ideological purity test that lies outside the political mainstream. Internal dissent is often not tolerated. The party position on divisive issues like transgender bathrooms, wedding cake mandates, sanctuary cities, unlimited and unrestricted abortion access, and illegal immigration is mismatched with public opinion. Moderate Blue Dog Democrats, once a large part of the Democratic coalition, are all but extinct. This leaves a party consumed by progressive policies but without a counterbalancing ideology to keep the party apparatus in check.

Finally, the decision to excise the white working class from the Democratic coalition proved to be a fatal mistake. The Clinton team assumed it would win the Blue Wall states on the backs of reliable white working class voters who have voted Democratic since 1992 (and in some states, like Wisconsin, since 1984). But her rhetoric on coal, globalism, social issues and Trumps temperamentcombined with the fact that she campaigned around those statesdoomed her campaign from the start.

Trumps message of economic nationalism, protectionism, and America First was enough to carry Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and proved the wall wasnt meant to last.

Thus, Clintons defeat can be simplified into three core issues: ideological extremism, a deliberate decision to campaign around a crucial part of her base, and the enthusiasm gap. But in a sense, those causes of defeat are also symptoms of defeat. Clinton campaigned the way she did because she was convinced the Democratic Party had a lock on certain demographics and trendsthe so-called demographic destiny theoryso the party could move in any direction and only make electoral gains.

The enthusiasm gap was explained away by saying that turnout is always lower in the midterm elections anyway, and Democrats could count on their base to come out for presidential elections. These assumptions were clearly the wrong ones to make. But it led the party to move far enough left that the middle was up for grabs. And Trump was able to capture it.

The debate among Democrats now is how far left to go, or whether to come back to the middle. There isnt yet much of a consensus (although if Tom Perezs election to DNC chair means anything, the party is feeling compelled to go wide), but pushing even more left will lead to the death of the Democratic Party as we know it, even if its replacement retains the name.

Assuming the party fails to course correct, which is well within the realm of possibility, it will inevitably become filled with progressive candidates and a base eager to vote them into office. Conservatives sometimes joke that there isnt much of a difference between a Democrat and a progressive to begin with.

But the key difference is that progressives follow the policies of American liberalism to its logical conclusions. Under progressivism, liberal openness to charter schools becomes a doubled-down commitment to failed public education and its unions. Religious liberty compromises become government-coerced mandates. Popular restrictions on abortion become a hill to die on for unlimited abortion rights. Supreme Court appointments hinge on the mood of the day. Of course, Democrats and liberals already spar with the right over these issues. But as a whole, the party has not completely moved away from its foundations.

This, then, is how the Democratic Party dies. Its death wont be like the Federalist Party or the Whigs, both of which existed under certain conditions and evaporated when those conditions disappeared with the evolution of the republic. Todays Democratic Party will die by hollowing itself out to progressive ideology and leaving moderate and historically liberal voters behind.

Democrats are learning the hard way that coalitions are not built on identity, but on ideology. The further left the party moves, the more voters are up for grabs by Republicans. If the party moves far left enough, it might continue to call itself Democraticbut in reality it will be the Progressive Party of America. What 2016 showed is that the Democratic Party as we know it is going extinct.

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Is The Democratic Party Going Extinct? - The Federalist

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Posted: Mar 20, 2017 12:01 AM

Can you feel the pulse-pounding sense of excitement thats sweeping the nation in the wake of the sudden rise to media prominence of superwoke everywoman Chelsea Clinton?

I sure can, but then Im a conservative Republican. I totally support the Democrats making Chelsea the face of their party.

Please, please, please make her the face of your party.

Lets be clear Chelsea is not an embodiment of malignant evil, as is her harpy mother. I am aware of acts of great kindness she has personally performed; she does not appear to be a morally bankrupt monster like her parents. Nor do I blame her for supporting her mother or Bill. But Chelsea is a doctrinaire limo liberal who is utterly clueless about her privilege she is one of the rare cases where the use of that term is neither teeth-gratingly stupid or a lie designed to seize unearned moral authority. And she buys into the moral vacuum that is progressivisms received wisdom from going all-in on the global warming scam to seeing all the SJW isms and phobias behind every opponents views to embracing the Planned Parenthood baby-killing racket. She should be left to live her life in peace without harassment, but so should we which means Chelsea must never hold anything like a position of power.

Still, you can see the push to make her a thing; someones clearly hired a PR professional to inflate this obnoxious trial balloon. She gets a non-story story in The Hill nearly every day, like Chelsea Clinton Fuels Speculation of Political Run (Dont follow the link the site has one of those stupid auto-plays; if Chelseas platform consisted solely of ritually disemboweling anyone putting an auto-play ad on a website Id write her a check today).

And shes now tweeting all sorts of mind-numbing clichs, like Inspired by these kids & their fierce determination to combat #climatechange. #ItsYourWorld and Clearly the Congressman does not view all our children as, well, all our children. Particularly ironic & painful on Purim. Evidently, we need leaders in the future who dont understand the meaning of the words our or ironic.

When this pampered princess, whose history of wearing a uniform consists solely of attending a tony private school so she wouldnt have to associate with the poor minority kids in the D.C. public schools, tweeted National service should NOT be a partisan issue. Ending programs that empower young people to positively impact communities is simply wrong, she forgot to add the hashtag #Hypocrisy.

Still, to some Democrats primarily those named Clinton the idea of anointing Chelsea heir to the Oval Office has a certain kind of logic. Well, a certain kind of Chardonnay-swilling, Volvo-driving liberal logic.

First, Chelseas an achiever. She had two kids, which nobody else has ever done. After a world-wide search and intense competition with hundreds of other candidates, she was named vice chair at the Clinton Foundation, where she works several times a week. Only some kind of superwoman could supervise all those nannies and other servants while working several times a week. Oh, she is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where she teaches a global health governance class, no doubt drawing upon her extensive experience in governing health globally. And she held down a $600,000 gig as a Special Correspondent with NBC News. Among her triumphs was this bombshell expose: She interviewed the Geico gecko, asking the little creature, Now gecko, do people recognize you on the street? and, Is there a downside to all this fame? On the upside, at least she didnt pull a Brian Williams and talk about that time she was in the stuff in Nam, or being sniped at in Bosnia.

Pretty much, her main achievement seems to be having been born of Hillary Clinton and, according to rumor, Bill Clinton. Thatssomething.

Now, lets not get all down on this whole idea of dynastic succession. Just look at the track record of greatness of the Kennedy Bros and the Kennedy Kidz. John captained PT-109 and then there was Cuba and, uh, Camelot. Yeah, Camelot. Plus, JFK paid a lot of attention to the needs of women, often two at a time.

His brothers were achievers too. Robert bugged Martin Luther King, according to CNN though the new rule is that apparently when a media outlets reporting of wiretapping by a Democrat becomes inconvenient it can be disregarded, so then Bobbys big achievement must be not wiretapping MLK. Teddy invented the waitress sandwich; on the plus side, at least on that occasion no women drowned. And the subsequent Kooky Kidz of the Kennedy Klan have all been awesome successes, with only a few resulting fatalities. All hail Americas royalty!

Oh, and if you need more convincing of why we should welcome the entry of the children of politicians into politics, theres Jeb!

Next, Chelsea is super easy to identify with. She really connects with regular people. She recently semi-coherently tweeted I'd like to thank whomever discovered toothpaste (plus good scrubbing on a toothbrush) removes crayon drawing from a wall - THANK YOU! Actually, her maids should be thankful. Its not to say Chelsea hasnt faced challenges. She has overcome many crises in her time, like the time Lupita was sick and couldn't come take care of the babies, and all those occasions where she was mistaken for Sarah Jessica Parker. Who hasnt been there?

Out in America, which she has never visited, people are excited. There was a VFW hall in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, where the vets Obama ignored for eight years told me: When we see Chelsea tweeting, we know help is on the way. She gets us, as only the rich wife of a failed hedge fund manager whose dad did a stretch can!

At the International Brotherhood of Pipefitters and Steelworkers, Local 674 union hall in Ypsilanti, Michigan, many of the workingmen feel a special bond with her. Heck, me, Lou, and Big Mike here, we all invested in Greek stocks and government debt just like Mr. Chelsea, and we all took a hit too. It just shows that we got a lot in common. And when she said I was curious if I could care about [money] on some fundamental level, and I couldnt, well, that really hit a nerve with us on the crew. Because we spend twelve hours a day welding steel and laying pipe in the snow for the pure existential satisfaction of it. Right, Lou and Big Mike?

The world is Chelseas oyster. Already, shes hard at work giving vague direction to a ghostwriter about her new childrens book, titled She Persisted. As Chelsea awkwardly tweeted, Persistence has changed the course of history - I'm so excited to share stories of girls & women who didn't take no for answer on May 30th! Well, its about time someone dared to take a stand and say that women are able to not take no for an answer. And Chelseas not afraid to say so! Take that, all you people who think women must take no for an answer!

Maybe she can follow Ivankas lead and create her own fragrance how about calling it Entitlement. Its scent can evoke Chelseas essence, with hints of domestic help and hay.

And if she chooses to keep this political thing up instead of chasing some fresh new squirrel in a few months, as has been her habit, Chelsea Clintons rise to prominence in the Democrat Party should be met with joy and eager support by every conservative. I know Im excited. So, bring on the Chelseamania!

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Who Is Going To Save The Democrat Party? Chelsea! - Kurt Schlichter - Townhall

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) -- More than 200 college-aged Democrats from across the Commonwealth were James Madison University Saturday, March 18, for their 2017 convention.

The theme for this year's convention, "Make Moves," highlighted the importance of young people making their voices heard in state and local elections.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and former Rep. Tom Perriello, both Virginia gubernatorial candidates, were in attendance to share their plans for the future with the youngest members of the party.

"These are really the decision makers of the future who can shape, so much, the outcomes of these elections," said Perriello. "We know when young people come out and they engage in politics, our democracy is healthy and it also tends to be good for democrats."

Northam and Perriello touched on various topics, including healthcare, college affordability and immigration.

They also spoke about the divisiveness created during the 2016 election.

"Virginia is looking for a leader who will fight back against what's happening in Washington, we don't want that to influence the good things that we've been doing in Virginia," said Northam. "And it's also about taking Virginia to the next level.

Northam and Perriello have very different backgrounds, giving them their own set of skills that they said makes them the better fit for this position. Northam has served as an Army doctor and business owner, while Perriello has been a teacher, non-profit executive, congressman and diplomat.

The Virginia Young Democrats convention is organized in partnership with James Madison University College Democrats.

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Gubernatorial candidates stop by Young Democrat convention - WHSV

Dr. Kathryn Allen moved to Utah in the 1980s to complete a medical residency, and has been a practicing physician ever since.

But after a lifetime of practicing medicine, she said she felt called to run for Congress as a Democrat in the 3rd Congressional District after attending U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetzs February town hall.

A lot of the anger directed at Chaffetz, R-Alpine, during that town hall meeting including frequent booing by more than 1,000 people demanding Chaffetz to Do his job was largely because the gerrymandering of districts left many people feeling like Chaffetz did not represent them, Allen said.

At least in the Salt Lake County portion of his district, we felt so disenfranchised, said Allen, who lives in Cottonwood Heights. We never win any elections. We vote anyway, but it doesnt matter because its so gerrymandered that its very difficult for a Democrat to win.

Allen found Chaffetzs answers at his town hall to be unimpressive. He failed to directly answer peoples questions, in a way that came across as manipulative to many in the audience, she said.

I started to think he was a poor public servant, Allen said. And I started to feel sort of called. This thought entered my mind and it stayed there, and doors opened for me to do it, and now I feel like Im supposed to do it.

Anger at Chaffetz, fueled at least in part by comments he made in which he implied that people might have to make a decision between health care or an iPhone, have quickly brought Allens donations on her CrowdPac page to more than half a million dollars.

Her donations were so overwhelming, Allen ended up officially filing for candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday well before April, which was what she had originally intended to do so.

If you make a statement that an iPhone and health care should be a choice, and you dont understand that people use it as a camera, a computer and a lifeline to their families, then you dont understand the people of the middle class, or the people who are struggling, Allen said.

The 3rd Congressional District is overwhelmingly conservative. Chaffetz beat his Democratic opponent, Stephen Tryon, by 47 percentage points in the 2016 contest.

But, Allen said, she hopes to appeal to the conservative block of the voters by finding common ground with them.

I would hope that some of them would feel the same way we do, that our democracy may be under threat, Allen said. I would hope they would also agree that its not OK to have foreign influence in our election.

In addition, Allen described herself as fairly fiscally conservative.

I dont go as far left as some do, she said.

Allen owned a small medical practice for much of her career, which she said helped make her small-business friendly. She understands onerous government regulation, and she doesnt like it either.

I think the government could do better job of providing services and programs and trusting people to run them, and not micromanaging every little thing from Washington, Allen said.

Her strategy also includes simply being authentic and reaching out to people something she said she got lots of practice doing in the medical field.

Though she will attempt to appeal to a conservative base, Allen does not shy away from some platforms that take a more liberal turn.

As a physician, Allen was dismayed about the GOPs proposed replacement to the Affordable Care Act, which she said would take medical insurance away from many who need it. Though Allen said she thought Obamacare wasnt perfect either, she said it could have been amended to be much more relevant.

Throughout my career, I have observed that any greed motive in health care is a negative force, Allen said. I worked in a for-profit health care job for three years I very much disliked it. I didnt want to worry about whether I was making money for them or helping my patients. To me it was a moral conflict of my everyday life.

On her CrowdPac page, Allen says she is against the privatization of things like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

No one should face bankruptcy due to medical bills. Illness is not a moral failing, the CrowdPac page states. Prevention is hugely important, but we cannot rail against the sick that the illness was their personal responsibility.

Her platform also includes that of inclusivity to those of the LGBTQ community.

Also in contrast to Chaffetz and many other state lawmakers, Allen is not in favor of turning federal public lands, or the U.S. Department of Education for that matter, over to the hands of the states.

Though she said she likes the idea of states rights, Allen said she doesnt trust the states to take over certain issues.

Im not ready to have the state manage them, Allen said. Im afraid they would exploit them for the gain of out-of-state companies.

But, Allen said, after being thrust into the limelight as a candidate so quickly, she still has a lot to learn about many issues that fall outside of her realm of medical expertise.

She said she plans to start a listening tour next month so she can learn more about the people of the district who she doesnt know much about, including Native American tribes, and members from rural parts of the district.

I just want to understand the district first, she said. I think since I filed so early, I have time to do that.

Allen is currently the only Democrat to announce a run against Chaffetz, though Republican Damian Kidd announced a 3rd district run in January.

Katie England is the South County and political reporter for the Daily Herald. She can be reached at 801-344-2599 or kengland@heraldextra.com.

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Democrat launching campaign against Jason Chaffetz aims to find common ground with conservative district - Daily Herald

WFLA

First democrat announces run for governor in Florida WFLA FLORIDA (WFLA) A Florida mayor is the first democrat to announce his run for governor. Andrew Gillum is currently the Mayor of Tallahassee. If he wins the election, he would be the youngest, and the only African-American governor the state has ever seen. At gathering of progressives in Tampa, Andrew Gillum says Democrats won't win in 2018 by being 'Republican lite'Florida Politics (blog) all 3 news articles »

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First democrat announces run for governor in Florida - WFLA