by James C. Sherlock
It is tough to be a Democratic politician in Richmond or Washington. Now that they govern, they find it one big game of coalition whack-a-mole.
I have written today of the conflicts between the interests of teachers unions and those of parents playing out in the Virginia General Assembly. That vital Democratic suburban women demo is in play.
That is the tip of the iceberg for Democrats. They have assembled a coalition whose interests are fundamentally opposed. Those fissures are only fully exposed when they have unfettered governance, which they have now both in Richmond and Washington.
The only things they seem to agree on are big government, free money and government regulation and control of nearly everything except their own interests.
After that, it gets dicey.
The problem is that the Democratic coalition contains many member groups with fundamentally conflicting interests that each holds dear. And when they win full control, all of the members of that coalition want interest fulfillment simultaneously. Good luck with that.
A few examples:
- Trial lawyers can’t be crossed, so Democrats can’t immunize employers. And then they discover that some of the employers are government organizations and their government employee base. They then buy off government employees by enabling those employees to sue their own bosses. Problem solved? No, it turns out the schools have a hard time paying the tort lawyers and settlements. Solution – more federal funding for schools.
- Dominion Energy can’t be crossed because, well, you know. But the greens hate Dominion.
- Minorities can’t be crossed, even though their interests conflict with like, say, the interests of Asian-Americans and some other minorities. The solution Democrats have chosen is to designate Asian-Americans as white but try to keep them as voters by reminding them at election time of their social liberalism. The interests of the professional race industry often conflict with those of minority citizens. Consider the homicidal effects of “defund the police” on minority urban communities. Or the fact that the abortion industry kills more black babies that white. By a huge margin. The media members of the coalition will provide the details. Or not. Nothing to see here.
- Unions can’t be crossed, even when the public sector union interests conflict with the interests of private sector unions. Which they often do. Or the greens’ interests conflict with those of private sector unions. See the Keystone XL pipeline or the various Virginia pipelines. So the Democrats work to hold the loyalties leaders of the blue-collar unions, the ones with the dues checkbooks, not their rank and file.
- Very wealthy liberals can’t be crossed without giving them an offset that makes up for their losses. Like, say, repealing the limit on state and local tax deductions from federal income taxes to offset raising state and local taxes. Or a moral offset, which makes them feel almost equal to the parents or spouses from whom many of them inherited their money.
- Suburban women can’t be crossed, except perhaps when the public sector teachers unions want to teach from home. And then laws need to be written and passed on a moment’s notice that seem to split that baby. See the Democrats in the General Assembly trying a last-minute hail Mary bill in an attempt to cover their remote learning tracks. And excuse the baby reference. See Dr. Northam about what to do with the baby while “it” is kept comfortable.
- The MSM can’t be crossed. But then again, they are all in, so nothing can cross them. Though they are not all that sold on blue-collar union members.
- Academia can’t be crossed. But they are largely either public sector employees or supported by the insane federal student loan program or both. And see MSM above for discussions of all in and opinions of blue-collar workers in, well, Appalachia.
I honestly don’t know how the politicians keep all of that straight. Actually they don’t. Democrats in Richmond clearly didn’t see the parents’ open-the-schools revolt coming.
The internecine carnage at some level could be fun to watch if the public interest was ever in the conversation.
It is not.