The Dems can perhaps learn something from the time KKK grand wizard David Duke ran for Senate and Governor in Louisiana in the 90s.
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With the 2020 election rapidly approaching, Democrats can’t seem to get on board with a clear and concise strategy on how to defeat President Donald Trump. It’s not like he doesn’t give the other side of the aisle plenty of ammo — like, literally, on a daily basis — but instead the current roster of *counts fingers* 24 Dem candidates are too busy quibbling among themselves and splitting hairs over policy.
Enter writer and liberal activist Tim Wise. Wise was instrumental in thwarting the campaigns of white supremacist David Duke, who ran for the Louisiana Senate in 1990, and then for Governor in 1991. Most people don’t remember how close the United States came to having a literal Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard as an elected government official, however, Wise points out that this now serves as a cautionary tale.
Because, as Wise explained over the weekend in a 34-part tweet, the goal should not be about swaying ardent Trump supporters with policy — but alerting everyone else to the clear and present danger at hand.
“If the Dems blow this election it will not be because they were ‘too far left on policy’ or because they ‘weren’t left enough,'” Wise wrote on Sunday morning. “It will have little to do with policy at all. They are making a mistake caused by traditional consultant theory that does not apply here…”
He went on to advise Democrats to ditch the policy talking points, while relaying his experience in the fight against Duke in the ’90s.
Much like Trump, Duke had a history of remarkably anti-American behavior such as failing to pay his taxes or time and refusing to serve in the United States military. But Wise warns against Dems harping on facts such as those, because they ultimately don’t matter to his base.
And to ignore the racist elephant in the room is effectively normalizing it.
He also warned against the “both sides are bad” argument that helped to tank Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
Instead, as in the case of Duke’s 1991 gubernatorial bid, the key to defeating Trump in 2020 will be to incentivizing those voters who stayed home in 2016.
So whoever ends up being the 2020 candidate, the other side needs to present a united front and rally the heck around their guy (or lady).
“Not to say the House shouldn’t impeach over that stuff,” he concluded, bringing up Trump’s history of alleged corruption. “They should. But the 2020 candidates must craft a message that is not about that. Trumpism is the threat to America, more than Putin. And Putin didn’t birth Trumpism. Conservative White America did…”
Wise’s thread quickly went viral and promptly began being shared by prominent celebrities, activists, and journalists on Twitter.
As the saying goes, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
