Will the Democrats learn from this election?

 A Republican official I know texted me that question after the Trump victory on Tuesday.  Then I saw an article with Bernie Sanders asking the same question.  Today I saw a clip of Marianne Williamson, who ran against President Biden in the Democrat primaries, making a similar point.  Each raising the same question perhaps but each suggesting the answer should be different.

To me there were two lessons to be learned from this Election and I question whether the Democrat party and their members will learn either.

The first lesson was that the American people don't want progressive ideas like open borders, economic policies that cause rampant inflation, Green New Deal rules that drive up energy costs and eliminate good paying blue collar jobs, paying tuition for kids who are now doctors or lawyers, or who take useless degrees like art history or English at expensive colleges.  The people don't want a weak foreign policy that results in multiple wars around the world, and American jobs and technology being stolen by China. 

Did the Democrats learn that lesson?  I think not.  Bernie Sanders and Marianne Williamson, in their post election comments both pointed out the Democrat party has forsaken the working class.  However, Ms. Williamson doubled down on calling for the Democrat party to commit to "progressive" ideas, like universal health care, free tuition for everyone to any school.*  One can reasonably expect Senator Sanders will advocate the same thing in the future.

I would argue the policies espoused by progressives like Senator Sanders and Ms. Williamson are the policies President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been governing to the last four years.  They are policies that have been adopted in a number of cities and States.  And they are policies that were rejected in previous years and again in Tuesday's elections at multiple levels.

Those are also the beliefs held by a core minority within the Democrat party.  A minority yes, but they hold tremendous influence during primary season, having an ability to skew primaries toward the more progressive candidates.  The 2020 Presidential primaries are a good example.  Democrat candidates generally were falling over themselves as they moved left, embracing Black Lives Matters, endorsing defunding police, condemning Trump's efforts to close the borders.  

In 2024, Kamala Harris was so worried about offending that core minority, she was unwilling to publicly state a position on most issues or explain whether or why she may have reversed a previously stated position.  Example: why did she reverse her position on Fracking?  On defunding police?  On confiscating weapons?  Why could supposedly moderate Democrats like Montana's Senator Jon Tester not refute a very extreme claim that he supports abortion up to the moment of birth?  Because to say he supports any restriction whatsoever on abortion, would lead the vocal minority to rise up against Tester.

The answer to the first question, in my opinion, is no - the Democrats, particularly the extreme progressives, will not learn the lesson from this election that their views are too extreme for the American people.  I believe they will follow the lead of Ms. Williamson, Senators Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and claim the Democrats lost because they did not embrace these extreme positions.

How did Joe Biden, a mainstream Democrat with a moderate record built over decades, emerge successfully from those primaries in 2020 and remain the standard bearer to begin 2024?  Well that leads to a discussion of the next "lesson" people are asking if the Democrats learned.

The other lesson was well stated by Bernie Sanders when he asked "Will the big-money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons...?"  Marianne Williamson said it a bit more bluntly, saying voters "...rejected this elite, smug, arrogant culture which acts like a suppressant on the voices of the [Democrat] party."

For a party that goes by the name "Democrat" and "Democratic" they are not.  In 2016, we know the Democrat National Committee (DNC) rigged the debates and other activities during the primaries to favor Hilary Clinton and deny Bernie Sanders the nomination.  In 2020, all candidates dropped out after Joe Biden won South Carolina, clearing the way for Biden to run one-on-one against Bernie Sanders, with strong support of Party officials.  In 2024, Party officials did their best to discourage and hamper opponents to President Biden in the Primaries, forcing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to run as an Independent and ultimately support President Trump.

Then in the ultimate insult to voters in the Democrat Party, when Joe Biden withdrew from the race this year, the Democrats held a vote of Party insiders and chose Kamala Harris to be the standard bearer.  The candidate for President from the Democrat Party had never received a single vote from the people registered as Democrats.  How democratic is that?

The "elite, smug, arrogant culture" Ms. Williamson referred to is not just within the DNC.  It was in the White House after Joe Biden won.  While inflation was steadily climbing to its peak of 9%, Biden officials were telling Americans its only transitory and taking no action.  When they did take action, the President introduced an "Inflation Reduction Act" and tried to tell us that increasing the deficit significantly would help reduce costs.  Then when the Wall Street Journal introduced the phrase "Bidenomics" as a shorthand to describe the country's economic problems, the Biden Administration embraced it Even former Obama financial leaders said the result would be more inflation.

It was obvious during the first three years of the Biden Presidency, that Joe Biden's physical and mental health were in decline.  Yet it was that "elite, smug, arrogant culture" Ms. Williamson described, led by "the big-money interests and well-paid consultants" mentioned by Senator Sanders that supported Biden's bid for re-election, feeling they could fool the American people by denying all the events of the past four years and running another "basement campaign" like in 2020.

So back to the question, will the Democrats learn this lesson?  Break it down into parts - will the Democrats turn away from the "big-money interests and well-paid consultants?"  Start with a quick history lesson about how those folks got such control of the Democrat party.  Turn back the clock to 1972, the active core minority at that time was very liberal and they succeeded (with help from some dirty tricks by President Richard Nixon's campaign) in nominating one of their own - a very liberal Senator George McGovern as the Democrat candidate for President.  McGovern was crushed in the general election.  

To prevent a core minority from ever again succeeding in nominating a far left candidate, the Democrat party created a huge number of "Super Delegates."  Basically party insiders who listen to the "big-money interests and well-paid consultants."  In 2016, Bernie Sanders never had a chance of beating Hilary Clinton because those Super Delegates made up a huge portion of the Delegates and over 75% were backing her.  In 2020, it was obvious the fix was in with those delegates for Joe Biden after he won the South Carolina primary and just about every candidate other than Bernie Sanders withdrew from the race (and most later got a job in the Biden Administration).

I don't see the Democrats changing that practice.  They continue to have an extreme minority wielding excessive influence in the primaries and Party leaders will try to control and pander to that minority rather than confront them.  Plus, that is easier than taking power away from the Super Delegates and putting it back in the hands of - gasp - the people.

Now to the second part of this lesson.  Assume you're one of a select group of Super Delegates, with heightened influence over who is selected to be the nominee for President, and you benefit from the attention of "big-money interests and well-paid consultants" not to mention celebrities like the ones we saw backing Kamala Harris.  Would you not feel elite and be smug and arrogant?  And do you think big-money interests or well-paid consultants who wield influence over the Democrat party are going to be less smug or arrogant?

The lessons are there to be learned.  But I suspect Democrats don't buy into the old saying that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

* Ms. Williamson referred to colleges and technical schools.  Of course Democrats do not support kids being able to go to the elementary, middle or high school of their choice.

Ms. Williamson's comments can be seen here: https://tinyurl.com/msbkpasw

Senator Sanders' comments can be seen here: https://tinyurl.com/epebbr5w