Last November, the Republican Party managed to capture the White House, the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. Within months, President Donald Trump had issued a flood of executive orders designed to implement his campaign promises to the American people. He also convinced the Senate to confirm almost all of his Cabinet nominees.
In the meantime, Democrats were in disarray. Their flustering losses left the party without credible leadership and without a clear direction, other than opposing everything that Trump is proposing to do. Now, Democrats are perceived by many as not serious-minded when it comes to dealing with the major issues facing the United States and, instead, of being obsessed with identity policies and other unimportant issues.
For the sake of our country, the Democratic Party needs to regroup and develop a platform that broadens its coalition. They also must clarify what they really stand for, rather than just what they oppose. Also, they must avoid extreme ideologies.
The far left may be passionate, but some of its ideas are not popular or practical. Since the foundation of the United States, our democratic governance system has been based on two healthy and popular political parties that offered our citizens competing visions, ideas and policies. For more than two centuries, the two-party system worked well.
History has taught us, however, that when one party dominates, a lack of accountability, checks and balances can result in the spread of corruption, failures and stagnation. The inadequacy of a one-party system is easily demonstrated by the Soviet Union’s failed seven-decade experiment and the difficulties that are currently facing states and cities dominated by a single political party. For the good of our country, Democrats need to start a soul-searching process.
The results of last November’s election indicate that they lost their reputation as the party of the working class and that they have alienated moderate voters. During Joe Biden’s presidency, Democrats seemed to work hard to ignore or minimize issues such as the inflation that people were struggling with on a daily basis. They drifted too far left, away from the majority of the American voters, and adopted unpopular ideas on issues important to voters such as immigration and crime.
They took minorities for granted. They thought that the solution for any problem was to throw money at it. They thought that all they needed to do to win was to demonize the party in power and object to everything the Republicans strove to achieve.
In order for Democrats to win, they need to promote a moderate and inspiring platform that addresses people’s needs and aspirations and can improve the quality of people’s lives. They need to resist the temptation of demonizing and objecting to everything that President Trump is trying to do. George A. Elmaraghy, a former Ohio EPA official, during some recent decluttering, revisited three decades of new year's resolutions and has resolved on a new approach.
Democrats have faced similar situations in the past. They managed to overcome them by promoting inspiring and pragmatic leaders with vision and ideas that serve our country’s needs and complement the values of the majority of Americans. Democrats need to stop listening to the far-left faction of their party whose rhetoric alienates moderates.
They should abandon identity ideology, work with Republicans and President Trump on urgent issues such as reforming our immigration system, controlling government spending, reducing crime, improving our failing education system, strengthening our military, denouncing hate and finding ways to bring our country together. George A. Elmaraghy spent most of his career in state government, serving, among other roles, as chief of the surface water division of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. He currently holds a presidential appointment as commissioner for the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, and he is a member of the International Joint Commission Water Quality Board.
He writes from Columbus. Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.
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