I agree that making the rich richer is the Republicans raison d’etre, and asking them to give it up would be like asking Democrats to oppose civil rights, but in the spirit of the OP thinking purely about winning and not on policy, I think there is a danger that the 99% are beginning to wake up even among the white working class. If the Dems manage to turn the anger of the angry white man away from the race war and into the class war The Republicans could be in trouble.
This wouldn’t work for the Democrats because of the asymmetry in who their bases are. Republican voters are happy to vote for someone who campaigns on a policy of not negotiating with the Democrats. Democratic politicians who run on a policy of never negotiating with the Republicans will be perceived as being stubborn and placing pride over the benefit of the people by many of the voters they need.
It’s like the Karate Kid movies (the original ones). When Daniel tried to fight the bully (Johnny and Mike Barnes) his romantic interest would be disappointed in him for trying to stop the bully on their terms and wouldn’t get back together until he agreed to play by the rules and fight in the tournament and not the street. The Democratic voters will still punish Democratic candidates (Daniel) for stooping to that level if they do, where the Republican voters won’t punish their candidates for the same actions.
On the other hand, even if we limit this to campaign tactics rather than policy positions, having someone from the opposition party might help. ISTM that the Clinton campaign had no idea that they were in danger of losing Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Had they had a Republican strategist they might have done things differently in those states. This would’t have necessarily involved changes in her platform. She could have held campaign rallies in those states instead of the effort they spent trying to flip states like Arizona, Georgia, or North Carolina.
I tend to think relations between democrats and republicans are becoming similiar to relations between places like (not to sound hyperbolic) Israel and Palestine, or south and north Korea.
On one side you have people trying to play by the rules, trying to respect western values. On the other side you have amoral fanatics who only care about winning and will lie, cheat, steal and break the law to win.
Democrats are probably going to have to learn some tricks from political parties and nations that have had to stand up to fanatics and zealots who don’t play by the rules.
Lots of democrats are still oblivious and think the GOP are playing in good faith. Nope.
At root the real issue is that virtually all white people who score high in authoritarianism are republicans now. So now you have an entire political party that is primed for neo-fascism.
The question is how do you do that?
The white working class seem very enamored of identity politics. White over non-white. American born over immigrant. Men over women. Christians over other faiths.
How can they be appealed to on an economic rather than cultural level?
Also due to years of bashing, lots of people consider hte democrats a party of limp wristed pansies. That doesn’t go over well in cultures that subscribe to traditional masculinity. Granted, this perception doesn’t hurt the democrats among black voters, but among white voters it seems to be a barrier.
The progressives like LBJ, FDR, the original unionists, civil rights activists, etc who bravely fought against oppression seem to have been replaced by wimpy centrists and apologists always looking for compromise and focus group tested sound bites. At least that is how democrats come across to a lot of people.
There’s two opposite things at play when someone from the other party gives you advice:
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They don’t want you to win
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They actually do know your weaknesses better than you do.
As someone who is rooting for Biden in this cycle, whenever he makes what I see as a mistake I get pretty cranky, because I’m just seeing the attack ads. I know THAT script better than most.
I see the Dems as whiny hippies and the Republicans as either ebanezer scrooge or every rich boss I ever had taking advantage of me.
I see both as people who wrongfully believe they have some sort of right to impose their views on me, and their main goal is to overstep their bounds on my personal freedom. Like the illegal governments that many HOAs believe themselves to be.
With the Dems I’m supposed to be shamed into doing what they want because I’m not allowed to just be pragamatic or stoic. With Republicans I’m supposed to dance for my supper and force my will on women.
It’s all bad.
Plenty of Dems told Hillary’s campaign that they were in danger of losing Michigan. Notably, Debbie Dingle and Michael Moore.
Based on what we say from Mitch today the Republicans seem to have a good grasp on it. They need to keep people from voting, because if people vote the Democrats will win. The Republicans are the party of voter suppression.
Not only that, but Hillary herself (and Bill) questioned the campaign strategists about ignoring Michigan and Wisconsin. But the strategists kept telling her those states were safe, and to campaign in areas where she could hold more profitable fundraisers.
Hillary, who had lousy political instincts, turned out to have better ones than the professionals she hired to run her campaign.