We cats think that our party knows what it needs to do to maintain our position in the future. 1) Remain tolerant and inclusive. 2) Realign our notions about how to make the economy work, so that we can bring in people who have felt left behind. 3) Always, always ask everybody for their vote — even if they don't agree with us. (Asking for somebody's vote is a form of respect.)
The Republicans? Wow. We don't know what the heck they're going to do. They are so fractured that their former chairman has predicted a "great awakening" to cleanse themselves of stain of Trump. Until then, the GOP is beating itself up over the lost opportunities of 2016. Pudgy Frank Luntz, for example, has sobbed that this year's election "should have been a slam dunk" for the Republican Party.
That's a little simplistic. It hews to the tired adage that the nation is automatically ready to swing to the other side after two terms under one party. It ignores a whole bunch of other factors — mostly economic — that can determine whether or not the country truly ends up wanting to change horses in midstream. And it also ignores the Republicans' complete inability in the last several cycles to nominate somebody whom the voters can look at and say, yeah — I know that person will have my best interests at heart for the next four years.
The GOP's nominees have consistently failed to meet that test. Had they done so, by Luntz's reasoning, 1992 should have been a "slam dunk" — 2008, too. And 2012. And, of course, this year. Instead, Donald Drumpf embodied the hate and rage of only a slice of the Republican electorate — which as we know the establishment foolishly thought they could humor and coddle through another primary season without consequence. As Drumpf would say, wrong!
Perhaps we need to ask the GOP to redefine the expression "slam dunk." We cats HISS.
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