Editorial: Phew, there wasn’t a red wave. But it’s too soon to exhale. At least it didn’t look like one on Sunday
The results of the 2016 presidential election are finally in, and the results are very troubling. The big surprise at the top of the ballot was how close the race was, especially compared to other elections. If nothing else, that’s a testament to the fact that Americans are more concerned with the issues of the day, which is why Donald Trump lost because voters are so worried about the direction of their country.
The Democrats took the White House because of a combination of cultural issues and a series of terrible decisions that they made.
The result was a party that was more interested in the issues of the day, and not so much in what their policies are supposed to be.
It has turned out to be an identity problem, and many Democrats didn’t quite understand how to cater to voters outside of their comfort zones. The party’s problem was that their messages and message discipline were lacking. In fact, the Democrats have had a ton of messaging challenges since John F. Kerry’s presidential campaign ended last year.
The 2016 election was marked by a series of “out of the box” candidates, the rise of Bernie Sanders, a huge amount of voter suppression, and a plethora of scandals, to name a few.
The party was divided on whether or not to get behind a candidate who was actually going to do anything, like John Edwards and the party’s inability to get excited about the prospects of either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
The Democrats weren’t the first party to face this problem. As the Republicans had to deal with the Tea Party, and when Ted Cruz was the Republican field.
The Democrats couldn’t come to terms with how the electorate has changed. They were too focused on the wrong things, like identity politics.
And while Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were trying to change that, the party was