The Rebirth of the Blue Dog Democrat

The Rebirth of the Blue Dog Democrat
The View from the Middle

As we look backwards at the results of special elections and look forward to the 2018 midterms, there is a storyline being pushed by Democrats and the mainstream media, but I will suggest to you that their narrative is off target. The bloodhound media has peppered its own trail to the real story and is just hoping that “we the people” won’t notice when the real story surfaces in November. The good news is that the real story, a shift to the center by both parties, will be good for the American people.
Let’s take a look at the first domino to fall – the election of Doug Jones in Alabama. The media would let you believe that Jones was an Elizabeth Warren supporting, Nancy Pelosi loving liberal Democrat. The real story was, first, Roy Moore was a poor, damaged, questionable candidate. Second, Doug Jones was a self-described gun owning, 2nds amendment supporter. He ran on lower taxes and a strong military and against undisciplined spending that leads to deficits. He sounded more like Trump than Hillary. After his victory, he proclaimed that he was NOT going to be a rubber stamp for the ultra-liberal platform in Washington. He’s not an idiot. He knew that he was going to have to run again in November and would probably not get another Roy Moore type candidate in this very conservative district.
Next, let’s look at Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania’s 18th District. He was a major in the Marine Corp and a formal federal prosecutor which would lead you to believe he is a real law and order guy. He also admitted that he would not pass the litmus test for the far left Democrats in DC. He ran as a pro-life, low tax candidate that supported Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum. Again, he’s not stupid. He was running for Congress in steel rich Pennsylvania. Just to make sure that the people of Pennsylvania got the message, he insured them that he would not support Nancy Pelosi for the Speaker of the House if Democrats took over that House in the 2018 midterms.
Finally, let’s talk about Claire McCaskill who’s Senate seat in Missouri is up for grabs this fall. She recently denounced the statements Hillary Clinton made while on her recent trip to India. Hillary suggested the people in America, outside of California and New York, were backward, pessimistic and even feeble. PS to Hillary – You just insulted over 100 million people, including all of the people of Missouri. Later in this same speech Hillary also insulted half the women in the United States by suggesting that they have no minds of their own and just voted as their husbands directed. Claire not only condemned those statements, but admitted that she even understood why many people in her state voted for Trump. That’s not a bad thing to say in a state that Trump won by almost 20 percentage points.
THIS is the story that no one is reporting – the revival of the blue dog Democrat. But what is even more important is the move of the Trump administration to the center. Hopefully, he can drag the entire Republican to the middle with him.
From the beginning, Trump has supported the idea of a huge infrastructure package that most likely has more support from the left than from the right. Why this wasn’t the first legislative effort by his administration is still a mystery to me, but it should reminder all of us of Trump’s past connection to the Democrat party and his moderate potential.
Since he has been in office he has modified his position on both immigration and gun control. Who would have thought that just a year after taking office that Donald Trump would propose a path to citizenship for almost two million dreamers as part of his immigration plan. Not only does this plan triple the number of people covered by DACA, but it jumped right over legalization, a logical compromise position for the right, and offers an actual path to citizenship. My guess is that Democrats will not be able to ignore this offer much longer.
Finally, while Trump says he supports the 2nd Amendment, he has proposed a very moderate if not liberal plan on gun control. You could argue that his plan centers around hardening up soft targets like our schools, but it also proposes to increase in the age to buy a gun, expanded background checks, elimination of bump stocks and confiscation of guns prior to due process. I guess when the NRA and Democrat party are both criticizing a plan, it must be pretty close to perfect.
To me, all of these moves are positive. By November we will find out if my hypothesis is correct. If it is, we may see more compromise and progress in 2019 than ever thought possible. We can only hope that I am seeing something that everyone else is ignoring.