What About The Politically Homeless?

What About The Politically Homeless?

– By Ed Kociela –

I was watching the television the other night when one of the wonks described Republicans as the homeless party as it finds itself splitting radically along the lines of the pro-Trumpers and anti-Trumpers who are wrestling for control.

While it is a clever description, it also holds a lot of water if you back off to a more macro view.

First, we know that the GOP is in disarray. It was all twisted up before the election, to be honest, as the opposing forces – some silent, some quite vocal – clawed at each other. Even though the party tried to hide its dirty laundry it still found light because, for better or worse, there are no secrets on The Beltway.

But, the talking head who was writing the obituary for the Republicans on television neglected to add the fact that there are a number of Democrats who are feeling a bit homeless as well.

Look, Joe Biden was certainly not my first pick for the job.

He’s a good and decent man. He has political savvy and clout. He has compassion and integrity, despite the smears from the far right. But, he is a flaming moderate in his political leanings. Yes, he has a social conscience and yes he is a strong women’s advocate. But, nobody will mistake him for AOC, Bernie Sanders, or even Elizabeth Warren.

The Democrats have pretty much curbed their progressive side after some disastrous flirtations with truly liberal candidates. Richard Nixon trounced George McGovern in 1972 in a battle of extremism. Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford in 1976, but that was a retaliatory vote against the man who pardoned Nixon. Carter was beaten so badly by Ronald Reagan in 1980 that he conceded before the polls closed in California on election day. Reagan went on to take down the liberal Walter Mondale in 1984 and his vice president, George H.W. Bush, beat Michael Dukakis in 1988.

It forced the Democrats to go more centrist in 1992 when they won with Bill Clinton, who went on to win a second term. And, no matter what the propaganda machine may spew, Clinton was not, is not, and will never be embraced by the liberal wing. Al Gore and John Kerry, who definitely leaned further left than Clinton, lost to George W. Bush.

The Democrats ran centrist again with Barack Obama, who won two terms.

Then there was Hillary Clinton. While certainly more moderate than her husband, she had the misfortune of being the most unlikeable candidate in Democrat history. It cost her in swing states, so even though she won the popular vote, she lost in the Electoral College to Donald Trump. There was a bitter fight between Hillary and Bernie as they dueled for the nomination that created an acrimonious split among Democrats.

The stakes were high in 2020 as Democrats realized that their main focus was to remove Trump from the White House and that if it meant running centrist again to do so, they were willing, which is how Biden won the nomination. I am sure there were deals along the way. I cannot prove it, but I know that when Kamala Harris dropped out of the race, she did so because she was given the second spot on the ticket, giving her not only a leg up on the others who might want to give it a go in 2024 – bet your bottom dollar Biden will not run for a second term – and, more importantly, secured her place in history. It was an offer she just could not refuse.

What it all means is that the progressive wing of the party was willing to work with the moderates to dump Trump. In response, Biden assembled a very diverse cabinet, stocking it with women and people of color. The bill will come due soon, however, as the president moves through the honeymoon stage and starts pushing serious legislation. If the disheveled progressives don’t see some benefit quickly, it could reflect badly in the 2022 mid-term elections so Republicans are not necessarily the only ones on the cusp of crisis.

Look, I know how I felt after McGovern was hammered by Nixon. I was devastated, just like a lot of other progressives who were convinced that we were going to fix the system. We were going to lower the freak flag long enough to turn on to, tune in, and drop in on the political system and send McGovern to the White House on the wings of flower power. Yeah, you could say we were naïve, but among the devotees of peace, love, and harmony, it seemed possible.

It didn’t work, so by the time we were through with Nixon and Ford, we didn’t want anything to do with Carter, even though he was a fan of The Allman Brothers and Bob Dylan. It was “game over, man” for many of us who decided to sit it out for awhile. Obama was a breath of fresh air, but then it all came tumbling down again in 2016. The saving grace is that things got so bad that many of those who had turned away from the whole political thing came back to the fold willing to vote for anybody not named Trump.

But, for all of the talk about the incredible turnout last November when approximately 160 million people in the United States voted, there were still 40 million who didn’t, adding significant numbers to the politically homeless.

It will be some time until this all shakes down, a good decade or so as the parties reorganize and rebrand themselves and, who knows, we could be on another swap of political ideologies like what happened in the 1930s when Democrats became Republicans and Republicans became Democrats in a set of bizarre circumstances that resulted in The Great Depression, a world war, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt who, elected to four terms, led the nation out of it all.

Sadly, we don’t have another FDR waiting in the wings.

So for those politically homeless, it will remain a case of, “Buddy, have you got a dime?”

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