What Will the Democrats’ Autopsy Say?

The Republicans won the popular vote in a presidential election for the first time since 2004. The winning candidate was a twice impeached convicted felon. The Democrats are pulling their hair out, asking what happened.

The Democrats will go back to the drawing board. The Republicans did the same thing in 2012 in what became known as the “autopsy.” The report recommended easing up on immigration and moderating positions on social issues.

It used to be common to hear people say, “I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative.” People thought they were cool saying it. Four years later, Donald Trump did the opposite. He ran as fiscal liberal and social conservative … and won. He not only won, he ushered in a generational realignment. And most of those old posers voted for him three times.

I don’t know what the Democrats’ autopsy will say, but I imagine they need to stop with the woke stuff. Mute the “defund the police” crowd and talk tough on crime. Definitely back off the trans issues. Scale back the social justice.

Maybe they won’t change anything. But if they do the opposite of what’s intuitive, they would move right on economics and left on social issues. That sounds crazy to me, but it would have sounded crazy in 2012 that the Republican candidate would vow to overturn Roe vs. Wade and build a wall to keep out the very bad hombres … and he’d win.

What if, instead, the Democrats mimic what Trump did? They do whatever on social issues, but move hard left on economics. The working class is voting for Republicans. But the Republicans, even in their new form, will never move as far left on economics as the Democrats will. They are too tethered to the upper classes and tax cuts.

So the Dems offer permanent child tax credits. Medicare for All rebranded as a “public option.” Free community college. Eat the rich, etc. etc.

As a moderate with little appetite for revolution from either side, I was unnerved by Bernie Sanders. I thought he was the only one who would lose to Trump in 2016 and 2020. But my back-of-napkin analysis seems to point to a Bernie Sanders-like candidate in 2028. Not an Elizabeth Warren or AOC, but a fist-pumping white dude with a  labor background, so as not to come off like a harebrained woke warrior.

Is that what’s coming? I don’t know.