Prentiss Smith

There are many Americans who believe the Democratic Party has lost its way. All one has to do is look at the results of the last election. There are a lot of smart people in political think tanks and academic organizations who are searching for the answers to the questions--What happened to the Democrats, who were so sure they were going to win the past election? How did they lose this election? What did they do wrong? Where do they go from here? These are all important questions that need to be explored going forward in order for the party to become relevant again.

Although the Democratic Party is the majority party in the country by virtue of the fact that it has won the popular vote in six out of the last seven presidential elections, it has failed to win the presidency in two of those popular vote majorities. There is a reason for that, and it has a lot to do with the reality that the party has been bleeding support from white working class Americans in the south and the rust belt who believe the party has left them behind. It is not just white working class Americans who feel as though the party has left behind, it is also the black and Hispanic working class Americans whose lives have not improved in recent years. Many of these Americans don't believe they left the party, they believe the party left them and lost touch with their values.

Much of what happened to Democrats in the recent presidential election is exemplified by the fact that the Republican candidate for president won every demographic of white voters in the country. He won elderly whites, young whites, poor whites, educated whites, middle class whites, wealthy whites, female whites, and white males.This has not happened for a long time because the white participation rate in national elections has been declining since the presidency of George H. W. Bush in 1988. The Democratic Party has been losing white voters for a generation, which must change for the party to become relevant again.

It has long been accepted knowledge that demographics would be king in future elections. The browning of America is real and it’s taking place at a rapid pace.The recent presidential election showed that demographics can work in different ways, and in this case, demographics worked in the opposite way that many people thought it would. The Democratic Party lost its political way because of its reliance on trying to appeal to every demographic except the white working class, which used to be the main demographic in the Democratic Party.The party has fallen precipitously, and it's going take a lot of hard work and grass roots organizing to bring working class whites back into the party. Voters don't like to be taken for granted, which is exactly what the Democratic Party has been guilty of.

The Democratic Party has evolved over the last one-hundred fifty-one years from the party of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow to the party of diversity and civil rights. There are many of Americans who believe that the Democratic Party has engaged in too much “identity politics.” The problem with that is that it leaves out the identity of the largest demographic group in the country, which happens to be white people in the south and other rural areas. In almost every recent poll taken, most Americans identify with Democrats on the issues, but they don't like Democratic tactics.

It was not so long ago that Democrats were seen as the party of the working class, but that is not the case anymore. Democrats are now seen as the party of the elites by a lot of Americans who used to vote strictly for Democrats. Those voters have felt left out of the conversation for a long time. They have also felt that the Democratic party was condescending and arrogant toward them and their genuine concerns about the direction of the country. They no longer feel that the Democratic Party shares their values. Much of the problem for Democrats is a problem of messaging and communications. In other words, the Democratic Party has done a bad job of articulating what they stand for and who they are standing with. Ordinary working class Americans don't believe the Democratic Party has their backs, and that is a real problem for the Democratic Party.

Americans consistently vote more for Democrats than Republicans. The Democrat in the recent presidential election won the popular vote by almost three million votes; and yet, she lost in the electoral college. The current president has an approval rating of 57%; and yet, the party lost. Democrats find themselves in the political wilderness for now, but that does not have to be the end of the story. The party will only become relevant again when it finds a way to respond to real people in real and substantive ways that embrace not only those who reside in the coastal states, but also those who reside in the heartland. And that’s my take. smithpren@aol.com