The Triple Crown of Democratic Politics

Millions of Americans were disappointed Saturday evening when Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome finished out of the money in the Belmont Stakes and came up short in his quest to win the Triple Crown of horse racing. But Democrats have managed to craft a 2014 campaign strategy based on the Triple Crown of Democratic politics: race, climate, and class.

Consider the current American landscape: The labor participation rate is at its lowest point since the Carter administration, and the number of Americans on food stamps is at a record high. Politicians are abusing the power of their offices to intimidate private citizens who dare to disagree with the Obama administration, and Obamacare is turning out to be an even bigger disaster than people thought. Meanwhile, the federal deficit exceeds $17 trillion and threatens to engulf the economic freedom of our children and our children’s children.

With all this mayhem swirling about the nation, Democrats are heading into the 2014 midterms on a platform comprised mainly of re-hashing American history on race relations, global warming, and the minimum wage. Never mind that racial issues, the environment, and the wage gap are in a three-way tie for dead last among the most important issues facing America today, according to the most recent Gallup survey. The Democrats’ slavish devotion to these issues comes across as utterly tone deaf and disconnected from reality.

In truth, Democrats are acutely aware of reality. They are painfully aware that they’re seeking reelection with the albatross of Obamacare hanging around their necks and that they are tethered to a President whose policies have led to an approval rating hovering at unprecedented lows. Democrats see the coming electoral tsunami, but they cannot run on their record, nor can they run on their vision. The only thing to which they can cling is a raft of wedge issues designed to distract the nation from the failed policies of their party. 

Wedge issues are about as old as politics itself. They are designed to split groups of people and inflame a political base. Campaigns based on wedge issues are often short on substance and rarely bring solutions to genuine problems but they can motivate donors and turnout on election day. This is what Democrat strategists are banking on this year, but they may have miscalculated.

Rather than promoting policies for job growth, Democrats are pushing unfounded environmental policies that are guaranteed to destroy jobs. Instead of creating an economic climate of opportunity for African Americans and other minorities, Democrats are intent on flooding the labor market with illegal immigrants. While Americans are demanding that elected officials end an increasingly pervasive culture of abuse in government, Democrats are trying to rewrite the First Amendment to the Constitution. The truth of the matter is plain: many Democrats have hitched their wagons to a collection of wedge issues that most people don’t really care much about.

We’re bound to see more of this as summer turns to fall. The wedge issues of today will give way to the non-existent “war on women,” contraception, and any number of gay issues. Yet these, too, will fail because they don’t address the economic, employment, and corruption issues Americans care about. On these key issues, Democratic policy has failed miserably.

Given the Republican Party’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Democrats could still survive the midterm elections. But their reliance on wedge issues and their stubborn refusal to address matters that Americans care about suggest their odds are long–and getting longer.

Jenny Beth Martin is co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.