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| The Democrats elect Chuck Schumer as their new minority leader in the Senate. He will lead the democrats in the Senate on their future agenda. |
On November 8, 2016, the Democrats suffered an unexpected but heavy defeat after losing the President elections, Senate elections, and the House of Representatives elections. Now, the Congressional Democrats are constructing an agenda to align with some of the policies of newly elected president Donald Trump. The Democrat's plan is to regain the trust of white working-class voters that Trump had stolen in the 2016 election. Unlike more conservative Republicans, Trump has actually advocated for some issues that the Democrat Party have long called for, such as more spending on infrastructures, punishing offshoring, and paid maternity leaves. However, Democrats will still oppose Trump's decision on tax cuts for the wealthy and plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
Source to original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/us/politics/democrats-house-senate.html?_r=0
Questions:
1) Was the Democrats defeat in the 2016 elections really "unexpected" despite the backlash against Obamacare, Obama doubling the national debt, and Clinton's email controversy?
2) If you were a member of Congress as a Democrat, would you try to win the majority by siding with Trump to bring back the white working-class voters or oppose Trump in an attempt to strength the support from minority and young voters? And why?
3) Do you believe the Democrats have a chance in the 2018 midterms elections or will the Republicans countinue their success?
I don't believe that the democrats will take control of the house or the senate in the 2018 midterm elections. Due to the republicans gerrymandering in the house, the democrats will face a challenging battle in flipping seats in the house. In the senate, there are not enough republicans up for election in the next two years that are not already in primarily republican states.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the Democrats defeat in the elections did not come as much as a surprise. Obama put the Democratic party in a difficult situation to overcome, and Hillary's scandals did not help bring support in. The media portrayed both candidates, Trump and Clinton negatively, and in the end, the candidate who wanted to bring change, Trump, won the election. From the beginning it was very likely that the Republicans would win the majority in Congress, and due to Clinton and the past eight years under Obama, Trump prevailed by advocating change.
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ReplyDeleteI do believe that the Democrats will have a chance in the 2018 midterm elections, as it can be assumed that many will be upset with Republican policies. Even before Trump has taken office, there has been strong opposition to his and his party's proposed policies toward reproductive rights, immigration, and climate change. I believe that this trend will continue for the next two years, and eventually the Republicans will enact some sort of policy (or even war, etc) that will spark outrage. Additionally, if Democratic minorities that didn't vote in the presidential elections wish to curb Trump's power, they will hopefully go out and make their voices heard in the midterm elections.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a Democrat in Congress, I don’t think I would endorse a platform of trying to appease Trump or suddenly kowtow to him just because he got elected. I think the Democrats should focus more on upholding their views. I support them publicizing the issues about which they agree with Trump, but I don’t think they should label it as trying to ‘align’ with him. Rather than gaining support from moderate Republicans, I think this will only create a loss of support from their own party, most of whom avidly oppose Mr. Trump. If I were a Democrat in Congress, I would advocate for the party to do as much as they could to oppose Trump and expose his flaws, and then just let him run his course. My opinion is that he will mess up somehow, and when that happens it would provide an opportunity for a change in Congress majorities during the mid-term elections, which would aid the Democrats. I think it would be smart to work with Mr. Trump as much as possible, but I don’t think that Democrats should try to align with him or appease him to gain more voters. If anything, the Democrats should hold true to their positions and policies, and let voters see how dangerous he really is, then, once they break out of the Trump fog, they should have a different party to turn to that is strong in its opposing beliefs against him.
ReplyDeleteSchumer is following in the foot steps of Bernie Sanders who said he will help trump as much as he can when he agrees with Trump and fight him when he disagrees. We need more politicians to act like this. Washington is full of partisan hacks who focus to much on team politics and do not give a crap about ideals. If more representatives could act like this, we could see progress instead of gridlock.
ReplyDeleteI was not surprised by the outcome of the election because their has been a lot of backlash against the democrats and their political agenda. I would to try to work with the republicans because we need to work on bringing this country together and to stop tearing it apart. Until we do that we will get nothing worthwhile done.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the outcome of the election, independent of the amount of backlash against the democrats, was a surprise. At the time, people were very focused on the attention Trump was drawing to himself. Much of America either believed Trump was needed and would be certainly elected, or that Trump was a fool, and would never stand a chance. By creating such polarized opinions, I would say that it is not surprising that people were surprised, however the outcome itself, to a more democratic area such as Burlingame, was certainly a surprise.
ReplyDeleteI was not surprised that the Republicans took both houses of Congress in the 2016 elections. Public opinion of the government declined during Obama's second term, and I feel that much of the reason people grew dissatisfied was because of the inefficiency of the legislative branch. That, combined with skepticism of Obama, drove the American public to desire change in government. This shows through in the current Republican control of Congress and the presidency.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that the Democratic party was not able to take the senate, however I was not surprised about the house. The Democrats have a definite chance in 2018 and it remains as one of the few ways to control the Trump Administration. I would work with him on the stances that we share but I would oppose him equally on our differences.
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