The Hammer and The Nail: Why Democrats Lose So... Always
Image from Service That Sells
At your office, nursing facility or wherever you work, you may notice that you have three very noticeable types of colleagues. You have your ‘bare minimum worker’ who only does what is necessary to go unnoticed and undisturbed. You have your ‘noble leaders’ who are normally well-mannered and pleasant people who try to guide work production, workplace culture or just general interactions between colleagues in a positive direction. Finally, you have the ‘overlords.’ These individuals seek control and tend to use the shadiest means to remain, take more of and at times of loss, reclaim power.
Each worker will fit in one of these categories and often shift between the categories if they feel their position or comfort is threatened. ‘Bare minimum workers’ are angered when leadership enforces an increase of work production, because they are lazy by nature. ‘Noble leaders’ are often hesitant to demand greater production from staff out of fear of ruffling feathers of the long-standing slackers amongst them. Overlords are often angered by the ‘bare minimum slackers’ and threatened by the ‘noble leaders’ who may be an impediment in the race to the top.
This dynamic is prevalent in our politics. Bare minimum politicians like Nancy Pelosi want to maintain the political environmental conditions that put her in power. Her vision of the Democratic Party platform is already well-documented and helps to secure her place in the party. Pelosi doesn't want to be moved any further away from center than she has to for fear that a new Democratic Party may require a new face in leadership.
The ‘noble leaders’ in the party may best be represented by the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Both have admirable leadership qualities and popular ideas, however what makes them so ideologically appealing also handicaps them in the navigation of the cutthroat world of politics. Imagine if politics was martial arts and political discussions were bare-knuckle brawls. Republicans gain followership by claiming bare-knuckle brawling is what gets work done and is neccessary for completing their political objectives.
Democrats see these bare-knuckle tactics as barbaric and inhumane. They attempt to use reason with their constituents and explain why they aren't going to “go low” no matter how bush league the tactics used against them. Bernie Sanders has popular ideas to those who side with left progressive politics, but the Senator's problem isn't his ideas; it is that he lacks what it takes to defeat political opponents who fight with the gloves off. Likewise, we all know that capable colleage that displays characteristics of great leadership, yet always ends up working for the overlords of the workplace.
Overlords are concerned with power and do not play fair to obtain or maintain it. They frame mean-spirited decisions as tough-minded principled ones. They trim animus filled rants towards political opponents with shears that read "screw political correctness". Over time, overlords set a tone of acceptance for abrasive behavior. Which in the workforce, leads to a harsh work environment and in politics, a harsh political climate.
Democrats have not yet found the formula to deal with this tactic.
Republicans have made ruthlessness their calling card and Democrats are too often seen as defensive and weak. Republicans see elections as a fight in a barbed wire cage. Democrats see elections as informational seminars on why their martial art is better. Democrats have met ruthless aggression with nothing greater than reactionary emotional outrage, which only allows their principled passion to be reframed by Republicans as a thoughtless uproar grounded in timidness and oversensitivity. This is a formula for the Dems to lose big during the mid-term elections of 2018 and again in 2020. By that time perhaps the Republicans and Democrats will change their political symbols from the elephant and the donkey, to a hammer and a nail.
