The lost constituency

“It’s like déjà vu all over again,” famed New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra exclaimed as he witnessed his teammates Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit back-to-back home runs. Of course, that isn’t what most of us mean by the expression “déjà vu.” Nevertheless, that eerie experience of a novel event or location feeling familiar is quite common.

déjà vu all over again is exactly how the 2020 race for U.S. President is emerging. Unless Democratic candidates dramatically change their approach for getting votes we’re about to experience donald trump being elected as President “all over again”.

From the time of Franklin Roosevelt Democratic candidates for President had a reliable constituency they understood and with whom they had an ongoing dialogue. That constituency consisted mostly of “working-class” wage-earners.

The relationship between Democratic candidates and their traditional constituency started to change in the late 1970’s when Ronald Reagan began to appeal to traditional Democratic voters. For the next 20 years Democratic strategists struggled to understand the phenomenon of the “Reagan Democrats.” Reagan also delivered a strategic electoral blow to the Democrats when he took away the South. The Democrats have never gotten it back.

Hillary Clinton’s approach to dealing with Regan Democrats was to appeal to their head…