A Problem to Be Solved

Veteran journalist and Washington Post opinion writer Karen Tumulty recently recounted an interview she had with Adam Schiff, the Democratic candidate for the 3rd C.D. of Colorado. Schiff almost beat his notorious MAGA Republican opponent, Lauren Boebert, in 2022, but this year he lost by five percentage points to a Republican newcomer, Jeff Hurd. The margin of loss was in line with the shift to the right all across the country.

Schiff told Tumulty a familiar story. A lot of lower-income people feel left out, ignored, and hurt by inflation and barred from realizing “The American Dream.” They feel that Democrats haven’t delivered on their claim to be the Party of the downtrodden and deprived. They are dubious that they will fare any better under a Trump administration, but they are angry, frustrated, and resentful, and registered that by voting for Trump or not voting at all instead of voting for Harris. Apparently, it wasn’t just a matter of economics for these people, it was to a large degree a matter of “dignity and pride.”

Dignity and pride propelled astonishing numbers to vote for a manifestly narcissistic sociopath or support him by choosing not to vote at all. Tumulty concludes that “the best way to get a better country is making sure the Democratic Party gets revamped in some way.” 

Let the revamping begin, if it can.