Democrats should consider this election plan
If one side focuses all its energy on governing and the other spends all its time politicking, who wins?
Score one for the marketers. The Republicans’ rather ingenious plan to work from the bottom up by taking over state legislatures and then using them to gerrymander away congressional Democrats seems to be working. This, along with making it harder for Democratic strongholds to vote — by removing voting machines in the cities to guarantee long lines, gutting voting rights laws and hampering anything that streamlines the process of casting a ballot — has built in a structural advantage that more than makes up for the party’s declining numbers.
Meanwhile, the GOP’s 24/7 disinformation campaign appears to be effective too. State Republican leaders have done everything they can to stand in the way of masks and vaccines — then they convince the public that the spread of the delta variant is Joe Biden’s fault, not the result of their own malfeasance.
This seems to be their model: Work aggressively to hurt the American people, then assign blame to the Democrats.
The Democrats have focused primarily on trying to improve the lives of all Americans — working on legislation that would build roads and bridges, provide universal broadband, address an increasingly dangerous climate, expand health care and give children of all Americans a better chance in life.
But the days when effective governance mattered seem to be dwindling.
The sad refrain among Democrats that they “just need to get our message out” is the same lament employed by Republicans 30 years ago. The GOP felt that if only Americans understood what they were trying to do, they would come running into the waiting arms of conservatism.
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When that didn’t happen, they began to overhaul the mechanics of politics to gain more power with fewer votes. In North Carolina, only 30% of the registered voters are aligned with the GOP. Yet through gerrymandering, at least 10 of North Carolina’s congressional representatives are most likely going to be Republicans by next fall.
Because the Supreme Court has been packed with politicians instead of able jurists, Democrats have little hope of redress, even when gerrymandering reaches the point of obscenity.
But this is still America and in America the people still rule, which means there’s one sure-fire way to turn the tables: Democrats can register as Republicans.
The goal at this point should not necessarily be to elect more Democrats. The goal should be to once again make the country safe for moderate Republicans to survive.
In the past two election cycles, more than 50 GOP representatives resigned, mostly out of fear of being primaried by a candidate on the far right. These members of Congress were still popular among “normal” Republicans, just not popular enough in a primary to defeat one of the flamethrowers — the ones who have no interest in good government, and exist only to perpetuate the cultural wars that have left this country so torn.
Naturally, there are hundreds of districts across the country where a Democrat has no chance of winning. But by registering Republican, the previously disenfranchised Democrats would actually find a voice. A primary election coalition of previous Democrats and moderate Republicans could block a Jan. 6-styled Republican from achieving office by electing a moderate/conservative Republican (one of those dreaded RINOs) instead.
Republicans might still have the majority, but it would be a majority that would willingly return to the mechanics of government while effectively stamping out the flaming embers of a toxic movement.
For all the dead-ends Democrats are pursuing, from court challenges to futile attempts to prohibit electoral skullduggery, switching parties is absolutely bulletproof. There is nothing a state legislature can do about it. There is no law a Supreme Court can overturn. The far right would of course howl with indignation that this is unfair, but if that faction has taught us anything, it’s that politics is a blood sport.
It should be remembered that all Americans, Democrats included, benefit from a healthy Republican party. It also should be remembered that this existed not so very long ago. It has only been with the rise of Trumpism that dysfunction has become the norm. Even a hyper-partisan like Newt Gingrich wasn’t above negotiation, and even Sen. Mitch McConnell will occasionally vote for something that benefits the American people.
In all the eulogizing of the late Sen. Bob Dole, it has usually been overlooked that he could be a pretty bitter partisan. The fact that a 1990s fire-eater could today be remembered as a paradigm of bipartisanship and compromise tells us how far we’ve fallen. The Democrats have the power to change this, and all it would take is organization — although if they were organized they wouldn’t be Democrats.
Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Democrats should register as Republicans before next primary election
