An Earnest, Sincere Message to the Democratic Party

To be clear, I have held the belief for over 20 years that the Democratic Party is all but irredeemable as an institution and has no interest or capability to adjust itself into any kind of constructive contributor to the course of public affairs.

But -- and it's still, very very soon -- in the immediate aftermath of last night's decisive rejection of their record and agenda, I have seen a handful of committed Democrats who describe themselves as liberal, progress, or both stating that this outcome should be met with an honest, critical reflecting on what their party means and what it offers to the citizens of the United States. But so far, it's only a handful. At the moment, most of the Democratic commentators and influencers I have seen and heard are still in denial about what this election means to themselves. As for the country, all I can tell is that most of them believe today that the answer for them moving forward is "more of the same, but only louder."

OK, that's out of my control but to that small group of reasonable people -- with whom I still disagree with on most issues -- I will offer this as evidence that they are correct about the need for self-assessment and self-reflection -- cite this as striking visual as part of their argurment:


www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-president.html

(NOTE: YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THE "Shift from 2020" button to see the graphic I'm referring to)

This above link is the "political shift" map in the NY Times, which is a county by county visualization of where the voters have moved in 2024 as compared to 2020. It's incredible. The Republicans did not win everywhere in this election, but the DIRECTION of political adjustment -- the "Red Shift" -- in this map is univerasal. In in every sector depicted -- EVEN IN BLUE STATES -- the move has been decisively to the rightward direction. This also crosses demographic boundaries; black voters, latino voters, young voters all moved to the right from where they were just four years ago.

So, as the "more of the same, only louder" faction of the Democratic Party gears up for the fight, I can only suggest: how far further in this direction do you think the citizenry will move if you do listen to the sober members of your own party OR the American people themselves.