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Dems need to understand reasons for Trump success

It appears that the national Democratic Party and their leaders still do not understand what caused them to lose the 2016 presidential election. They are quite likely to repeat their dismal performance in the upcoming 2018 midterm election also.

In the 2016 election, Mr. Trump’s trump card was that he was not a politician and therefore could be frank and talk directly to people in blunt, rude, crass and politically incorrect language. He accurately realized that the people are fed up with the establishment politicians’ incessant double talk, transparent pandering and shameful corrupt bidding to lobbyists. He realized and exploited the fact that these so-called leaders do not have the courage to be honest and forthright with the people. The lifelong politicians failed to comprehend the reach and impact of his nonsense rhetoric.

Our media outlets were equally complicit in amplifying and promoting his persona, like they generally do to a catastrophic event. The sole purpose of a large segment of our supposedly free press seems to be to get maximum eyeballs to watch their content so that they can maximize their advertisement dollars. Damn the public service, which should be their basic First Amendment purpose.

So to do well in this midterm and future elections, the Democrats need to first acknowledge and demonstrate that they understand the basic reasons that led to Trump’s success. They then need to assess their own role in the fiasco of 2016 and master the forces that are influencing and framing the voters’ decisions.

Hari Ajmani

Kula

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