The Importance of Political Coat Tails: A Thought Exercise

[Vogon_Glory]

This exercise is for committed Democrats. After all, we’re not only the reality-based party, we’re not the stupid party, and now that Club Pachyderm has succumbed to mass psychosis, we’re the adults in the room.

So, let’s think like adults.

Here on this site there has been a surge of posts touting a particular candidate, one who ran in 2016, one who seems very popular at the moment, but one who seems to lack coat tails to help pull down-ticket Democrats across the finish line to victory. When asked about said candidate’s coat-tails, or lack of of same, these boosters either look blank or quickly change the subject. In my opinion, this is a serious error of judgment: they should give this matter some very serious consideration.

Coat-tails are important. Having control of not only the Executive Branch but also both houses of Congress is important. So is having control of as many state houses as the Democratic Party can retain or wrest away from the GOP.

To see what happens when a party of hope loses control of the legislative branch, we need look no further than the aftermath of the 2010 elections, when our party lost control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans and the Senate in 2015. At the same time, numerous state houses flipped red, giving control of state governments to the Republican Party.

To be blunt about it, Congress was controlled by Republicans from 2011 t0 2019. The Senate has been controlled by Republicans from 2015 onwards. During that time, President Obama, then the remaining Democrats in the House and Senate, have only been able to perform a holding action against the Reactionary Right.

What if things had been different? What if, as a hypothetical example, a great ray of light showed first across Alaska and Hawaii, then across the Continental US, Angelic choirs started singing, and voters decided their votes after consulting their higher selves as well as for both their own interests and for the greater good of their homeland and their children. Republicans are sacked en mass by the voters and the federal government is in control of the Democratic Party, as are many state legislatures and governorships.

The question I want to ask thinking voters as well as Democrats is this: would we have had something far, far better than what we have now, or would we have had another six-year long holding action, a holding action that was broken when our candidate lost in 2016.

I would like to submit that things would have been a lot better if Democrats had been able to control both houses of Congress and people like Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, and Lyndsey Graham would have been effectively sidelined.

We are currently in a primary season where the front-runner not only is short on coat-tails but has as many negatives as Hillary Clinton. He doesn't seem to have coat-tails. Even if he wins the White House, it’s all too likely that the Republicans would retain control of the Senate and, God forbid, the House of Representatives.

I make no secret of my favoritism. I don’t do it simply because I want to see my guy in the White House. I don't do this out of malice, I do it because I have imagination. I do it because I’m ambitious: I WANT THE DEMOCRATS TO CONTROL THE WHITE HOUSE AND BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS. And I do not believe the current front-runner can give us that.

[Moderateguy]

1. Thank You for a well thought out post

However, I expect the devotees of the current front-runner to respond with polls showing him beating Trump- because you know the polls were so right in 2016. They refuse to believe that their chosen one has no coattails and actually does not even appeal to a majority of democrats

[Vogon_Glory]

6. This Year's Democratic Race Is About More Than One Man

Thank you for the compliment. I wrote my piece because I realized that this year’s general election is utterly atypical, and so unlike those of years past. Unlike previous years where bland candidate A is running against bland candidate B or the more recent ones where Democrats faced off against reactionaries with cold hearts but some respect for the rule of law, this year whatever Democrat wins our party’s nomination will be facing an amoral, lying, corrupt individual with no integrity or decency and no respect for the rule of law or the Constitution of the US. If the Good Guys are to prevail, we must not only think to who we want in the White House, but how we gain control of both houses of Congress. For once, we have to act like a party, a party like many of the parties of times past and present in Europe and in the Americas. A tunnel-vision fixation on one man and the Presidency is not going to work if we wish to keep our Republic.

I like the US as a free, representative republic. I like our constitution. I'd like to keep them.

[2naSalit]

2. K&R

[spicysista]

3. This is very important to many key groups of democratic voters.

It was the deciding factor that made me settle on Joe after my candidates of choice left the race. Excellent post!

[PatSeg]

4. Well said

Democrats need to put more energy and focus on congressional races, as well as state and local ones. One great president cannot do much alone.

[Prue]

5. I don't want to deal in Hypotheticals,

I enjoyed your post but I don't want to deal in hypotheticals. Others may find it motivating but I find it depressing.

Your post outlines exactly what we need to do. We need to take back Congress and we need to take back State governments. I find the presidency less urgent then the Congress and the States.

[Vogon_Glory]

7. Of course hypotheticals are depressing. I might well write a few anyway.

Hypotheticals can be depressing. I can't dwell very long on what could have been if the electorate had made wiser choices these last ten years.

I might still write a few hypothetical dystopic posts because, God help us, people ought to start thinking and worrying about them while we still have the power to stop them.

[judeling]

8. One candidate has shown the ability do help down ballot

consistently and every time.

Amy Klobuchar has flipped the State House back to Blue every time she led the Ticket. The times when both the senate and the house were up she also increased the democrats in the chamber that was controlled.

There is no other candidate that can say that.