Being Libertarian Perspectives serves as a weekly, multi-perspective opinion and analysis piece by members of Being Libertarian’s writing team. Every week the panel, comprised of randomly selected writers, answers a question based on current events or libertarian philosophy. Managing Editor Dillon Eliassen moderates and facilitates the discussion.
Dillon Eliassen: Has the Clinton campaign irreparably damaged the Democratic Party? Between colluding with the DNC to ratfuck the Sanders campaign, losing to Trump, being the minority party in both chambers of Congress and controlling only a handful of state governments, and the most likely repeal of Obamacare, the Democratic Party seems to be in shambles. In the next year or so, will we learn that the Democratic Party is no longer a viable force in politics?
Alon Ganon: Definitely they are in shambles. They will never be able to fix this so long as they keep their elitist crony capitalist mentality. The public suspected and joked about how corrupt they are, but now even the jokes about them being satanists and pagans are true. This is a complete mess for the DNC, period.
Jeaux Morse: It’s interesting, just a few weeks ago we were hearing about a Trump campaign doing the same to the Republican Party. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will happen to either. There were millions of people who defended probably the most corrupt candidate in the history of the country simply because she was the Democratic nominee. The pandering of some of the celebrity endorsements was so illogical it was laughable. We had the worst candidates ever this election, and yet the country is the most partisan it’s ever been. Perhaps there’s a correlation there: the worse the candidates, the more defensive the country gets about them.
Arthur Cleroux: I think that their core group will redefine the party and it will be back.
Gary St. Fleur: They did this to themselves. They’re arrogance and condescension reached a deafening pitch that forced a reaction.
Nima Mahdjour: I think it’s inevitable for the Sanders branch to gain momentum and repair the damage done. It’ll probably take years.
Arthur: I don’t see it becoming a less viable force in politics, they have a strong and very cult like core group.
Gary: I do not think their core matters. This proves that they have largely fallen into irrevalance. It is like the boy who cried wolf but this time around it is “racism.” No one cares any longer. No one cares about their hypocritical crusades.
John Engle: It’s going to require a rethink of their core electoral strategy to include vulnerable working class whites, and not rely on an extremely brittle and fickle Obama coalition. It depends whether they lurch to the Bernie/Warren Left, or realize that a centrist, data-driven policy type who is not as compromised as Clinton is a winning recipe.
Arthur: If you look at the statistics, they still had overwhelming support from minority communities and women. Both Republicans and we Libertarians need to start finding ways to reach out to those voters. I believe they vote Democrat because they’ve only heard one side of the story.
Gary: Arthur is right. I have long since wondered why libertarians aren’t more focused on outreach. But that”ll soon change once I run for office.
Brandon Kirby: The same thing happened with the Liberal Party of Canada. They lost landslide elections because they had weak leaders, but retained their core support. When they had a more charismatic and media-genic leader, they won a majority. I suspect the same will happen with the Democrats. They advertised chicken dinner, but then served chicken shit, to a group of vegetarians. A corrupt war criminal on the payroll of big banks didn’t appeal to anti-war socialists so she didn’t generate sufficient support in the Democratic base for enough electoral votes.
John: I agree with outreach. We are notoriously white and male. That is definitely the perception anyway. In the tectonic shakeup happening right now we may find opportunities for that sort of new game plan.
Dillon: This might be little more than wishful/hopeful thinking on my part, but since there has been so many victories in the social liberation movements (gay marriage marijuana legalization, to name a few), if Trump and the GOP Congress are able to repeal Obamacare, get tax reform done and deregulate so that small businesses can form and flourish, there would be little reason for constituents to vote Democrats into power. If the economy is booming due to freeing markets and decent employment opportunities are formed for peoples who have been mired in generational poverty, for what purpose would anyone vote for Democrats?
Nima: It’s true. If Trump can quickly cut taxes big time, jobs will come back, and the working class will feel loyal to him.
Nathaniel Owen: I don’t think they will realize the economy is booming. Repealing Obamacare is such a small step towards fixing the healthcare system that I doubt it would be immediately noticeable. Let’s not forget that the reason that bill passed in the first place is because some people thought it would fix something that actually was broken. Repealing it gets rid of the mandate but otherwise the price is not going to sink below pre-Obamacare levels, unless there arhttps://beinglibertarian.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpe more things repealed.
Gary: The cities they live in are highly regulated. And, states attempt to push progress destroying initiatives like Florida with solar energy. Just cut taxes and lower regulation. The market will sort itself out.
Nima: Nixing climate change regulations, can you imagine?!??!
John: I’ve heard protectionism is great for the economy! All kidding aside, the notion the market will solve everything is a rather unsettling position to take when markets rely on a degree of certainty for trade and commerce and general living to happen. Just gutting everything in one go may feel satisfying, but the human cost will be immense. Incremental change is essential.
Nima: Trump does have a great health plan (that nobody read, it seems to me). The question is, Can he get it through?
Gary: Given the slow turning of government, everything will always be incremental. Lower taxes. Start there.
Dillon: Surely the Democrats must be so disillusioned that it will affect them in a more profound way than any other kind of election defeat. Just look at all the delicious liberal tears that have been shed in the past 4 days. How shitty must they feel knowing that their most popular Democrat politician, aside from the current President and VP was defeated by an entirely undisciplined, unprincipled, egomaniacal sexual deviant/assaulter?
Gary: Indeed, the psychic toll must be devastating. Obviously, many Americans do not care for Democratic policies. The Left had everything on their side, and they still lost.
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