The Perez Democrats The Obama wing wins, but Republicans are foolish to gloat.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-perez-democrats-1488145719
Meet the Donald Trump-era Democrats, same as the Barack Obama Democrats. That’s the essential meaning of the election Saturday of Tom Perez, the Obama Labor secretary and man of the left, as the new head of the Democratic National Committee.
Mr. Perez, who supported Hillary Clinton for President, won a close race on the second ballot, 235-200, against Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, who was supported by progressive activists and Bernie Sanders. Mr. Perez won because more DNC regulars think he will be better able to rebuild the party for the midterm elections in 2018, and they may be right. Mr. Ellison, with his anti-Israel record, might have alienated some major donors. Mr. Perez also had support, including personal lobbying, from Mr. Obama and Joe Biden.
Messrs. Perez and Ellison agree on most policies, and party mainstays aren’t doing any ideological soul-searching. They don’t think their defeat in 2016 had much to do with Mr. Obama’s policies or record. They view it as an accident of FBI Director James Comey’s intervention, Russian hacks, and at worst Mrs. Clinton’s campaign mistakes. Mr. Perez, whom Mr. Obama describes as “wicked smart,” will make no concessions to the GOP on taxes, health care or military spending.
Mr. Perez quickly made Mr. Ellison his deputy, but some progressive activists who supported Mr. Ellison are grousing that the party establishment shut them out. No less than President Trump piled on by tweeting that “The race for DNC Chairman was, of course, totally ‘rigged.’ Bernie’s guy, like Bernie himself, never had a chance.” He added that “I could not be happier for [Mr. Perez], or for the Republican Party!”
He might want to hold the triumphalism. Mr. Trump has failed to enjoy a new President’s typical honeymoon, as his low 44% approval rating in the WSJ/NBC News poll suggests. Democratic opposition to Mr. Trump and the polarizing politics of aide Steve Bannon is likely to overwhelm any hard feelings from the DNC fight.
The message for Republicans is that the Democratic strategy going into 2018 will be remobilizing the Obama coalition in total opposition to the Trump Presidency. Democrats are betting that Mr. Trump will fail to govern successfully, fail to repeal ObamaCare or improve the economy, and so they can prosper without a political rethink.
The test for the Perez Democrats will be whether they can revive the 50 state parties and nominate candidates for Congress who fit their districts. The party’s leftward shift and its losses in the Obama years have shrunk the Democratic talent pool. Newcomers inevitably emerge, but to win in swing states and districts they’ll need broader appeal than the Democratic candidates in 2014 and 2016. The models are the candidates recruited by Rahm Emanuel in 2006 when Democrats regained the House after a dozen years.
If Mr. Trump can’t govern, and Mr. Perez can mediate the party’s divisions, Democrats will have a better chance than the President reckons to retake Congress in 2018.
Comments are closed.
