Democrats must own their values, Tea Party-style, not shift even more toward the mushy middle
There’s a tradition in Beltway circles that whenever the Democrats suffer a harrowing electoral defeat, it’s because their party didn’t do enough to win moderate voters. The dominance of Fox News and talk radio among older GOP voters has clearly escalated a backlash at the state and local level against the ascendancy of President Barack Obama, thus weaponizing the political tradition of counterbalancing the party of the president with the opposition party. While the one-term thing didn’t quite work out, the Tea Party launched primary challenges against moderate Republicans at all levels — mainly incumbent congressional moderates — and ended up sweeping the midterm elections in 2010. And contrary to the outcome of the election, 56 percent surveyed approve of President Obama’s job performance, while, yes, more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump.
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