{"id":7985,"date":"2014-11-06T07:55:13","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T15:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7985"},"modified":"2014-11-06T08:00:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T16:00:22","slug":"the-democrats-waterloo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-democrats-waterloo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Democrats\u2019 Waterloo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Their refusal to acknowledge the administration\u2019s failures did not make them go away.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n
by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online<\/a><\/p>\n
\n
\"(Pool
(Pool Image\/Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he Duke of Wellington said of his close-run victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo that the French \u201ccame on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same old way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something like that happened to the Democrats in Tuesday\u2019s midterm elections, as they lost the Senate, a few more seats in the House, and additional governorships. They came on with the same old strategy, but this time they went down with it.<\/p>\n

Obama and the Democrats chose not to defend the administration\u2019s record of the last six years. On foreign policy, no Democratic chorus seconded Obama\u2019s 2013 claim that this chaotic period in world affairs has been the most stable time in recent memory.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No Democratic senator insisted that Obama\u2019s Russian reset had calmed Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

Democrats did not argue that Obama had rightly distanced the U.S. from Israel.<\/p>\n

Could Democratic candidates have pointed to the Middle East \u2014 the Iranian bomb-making efforts, the civil war in Syria, the collapse of post-surge Iraq, the rise of the Islamic State \u2014 to confirm Obama\u2019s diagnosis that these were mostly manageable problems?<\/p>\n

On the home front, why didn\u2019t Democratic candidates run on their own prior overwhelming support for the Affordable Care Act, which passed without a single Republican vote? Could they have told voters that, at some future date, Obamacare, as promised, really would lower premiums and deductibles, reduce the deficit, expand coverage, and ensure that people could keep existing plans and doctors?<\/p>\n

Could a few Democrats have at least made the reelection argument that stimulatory policies of adding $7 trillion in new debt, maintaining continual near-zero interest rates, and approving a $1 trillion stimulus had led to a robust recovery after the end of the recession in mid\u00a02009?<\/p>\n

Obama certainly believed in government \u2014 the bigger, the better. In both of his successful presidential elections, he had run on the promise of both expanding the federal government and competently running it. So why were there not Democrats claiming positive changes in most federal agencies \u2014 at least those other than the IRS, NSA, ICE, GSA, VA, NASA, the Justice Department, and the Secret Service?<\/p>\n

If Democrats didn\u2019t wish to run on their party\u2019s past record, why didn\u2019t they promise to fulfill Obama\u2019s incomplete agenda that was short-circuited by the loss of the House in 2010?<\/p>\n

In 2009, the Democratic House had voted to pass a cap-and-trade bill under Obama\u2019s direction, but it was never passed by the Senate. Why didn\u2019t Democratic candidates vow that they would see it through in 2015? Or promise to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline for good? Or vow to keep with the Obama agenda of curbing new federal leases for gas and oil exploration?<\/p>\n

Under Obama, an effectively open border, coupled with de facto amnesties, has led to massive new influxes of foreign citizens at the southern border. Why didn\u2019t Democrats promise to continue Obama\u2019s laissez\u00a0faire immigration policy?<\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t the Democrats have pointed to Obama\u2019s handling of the Ebola crisis, lauding his choice of Washington, D.C., fixer Ron Klain as a medically savvy, hands-on Ebola czar? Or to the president\u2019s dynamic air war against the Islamic State?<\/p>\n

Democrats understandably chose to ignore both what they had voted for in the past and what they were likely to support in the future.<\/p>\n

Instead, they ran on the same old progressive idea of community organizing to get out the base. Obama was the past master of this strategy: energize American voters by contending that we have been separated by race, class, and gender; claim that conservatives have been waging pitiless war against blacks, Latinos, gays, women, and the poor; and then cobble back together the aroused and aggrieved interests to form a majority.<\/p>\n

So why, after prior successes, did Obama\u2019s race\/class\/gender attack finally sputter out like the French at Waterloo?<\/p>\n

Unhappy voters thought the anemic economy, Obamacare, the collapse of U.S. foreign policy, the scandals in government, and the incompetent handling of everything from the Islamic State to Ebola were the only real issues. Democrats\u2019 refusal to acknowledge them did not make these failures go away.<\/p>\n

Nor did Americans believe that Republicans had been waging war on minorities, women, or gays \u2014 especially given that Republicans have held the House only since 2011 and have been out of power in the Senate and presidency since 2009.<\/p>\n

After three elections, voters finally caught on that Obama\u2019s faults were not in the stars, but in himself. They apparently tired of the usual distractions from a dismal presidential record.<\/p>\n

Republicans assumed that Obama was always the issue, ran against his policies, and rarely offered much of a comprehensive alternative agenda. It worked, but it left a question unanswered.<\/p>\n

At Waterloo, it was never quite clear whether Wellington\u2019s redcoats had won the battle or Napoleon\u2019s veterans had blown it.<\/p>\n

In the same manner, did the Republican agenda win on Tuesday, or did the predictable Democrats simply lose?<\/p>\n

\u00a92014 Tribune Content Agency LLC.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Their refusal to acknowledge the administration\u2019s failures did not make them go away. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The Duke of Wellington said of his close-run victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo that the French \u201ccame on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[247,145,11,23,187,46],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-24N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8121,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-party-of-snobbish-elites\/","url_meta":{"origin":7985,"position":0},"title":"The Party of Snobbish Elites","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A gentrified cocoon of progressive privilege has cost Democrats the middle class. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Democrats for over a century were associated with the American middle class. Working-class voters once believed that Democratic-inspired intervention into the economy \u2014 minimum-wage laws, overtime pay, Social Security, Medicare,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/pic_giant2_010815_SM_Obama-Hillary-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4976,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-lessons-of-wellington\/","url_meta":{"origin":7985,"position":1},"title":"The Lessons of Wellington","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 2, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson New Criterion Perhaps with the exception of Churchill, England has produced no more a remarkable man of action than the Duke of Wellington, who put an end to the Napoleonic Wars at Waterloo--nearly six million dead and twenty-three years after France's mad genius first declared war\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2002"","block_context":{"text":"December 2002","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2002\/december-2002\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13771,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democrats-no-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":7985,"position":2},"title":"Democrats No More","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"J. 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The\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democrats-no-more\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/VWBusSixties.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/VWBusSixties.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/VWBusSixties.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/VWBusSixties.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/VWBusSixties.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12090,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dream-team-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":7985,"position":3},"title":"\u2018Dream-Team\u2019 Redux?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review There was a lot of pre-hearing hype about the Democrats\u2019 supposedly stellar academic experts, sort of analogous to the giddiness about the \u201cdream team,\u201d \u201call-stars,\u201d and \u201chunter-killer\u201d legal eagles that Robert Mueller supposedly had assembled to pick apart the Trump carrion \u2014 and they\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10128,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/will-2020-be-another-1972-for-democrats\/","url_meta":{"origin":7985,"position":4},"title":"Will 2020 Be Another 1972 for Democrats?","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/National Review Going hard to the left was the wrong lesson to learn from their narrow loss in 1968, and they could repeat the mistake. Forty-nine years ago, Vice President Hubert Humphrey was the Democratic candidate for president. The year 1968 was a tumultuous one that saw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Democrats"","block_context":{"text":"Democrats","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/democrats\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3222,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-same-old-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":7985,"position":5},"title":"The Same Old Change","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We will likely see a lot of political \"readjustments\" come January, once President-elect Barack Obama and many new Democratic congressmen assume office, and the Republican administration leaves. Take the filibuster. For much of the Bush administration, out-of-power Democratic senators defended it as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2008"","block_context":{"text":"November 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/november-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7987,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7985\/revisions\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}