Alec Baldwin and the New Political Coalitions

Over the years, the Democratic Party has worked to assemble a loyal coalition, which consists of feminists, minority grievance groups, immigration activists, younger voters, Academia, Hollywood, and the media.  Fox News Contributor and Syndicated Columnist Charles Krauthammer, who recently penned a letter indicating that he will soon succumb to cancer, pointed this out on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” last year as he made the point that Democrats do not have overarching ideas; they instead have constituencies.  They hope that appealing to all of their individual constituencies will help them reach the magic number of 270 electoral votes in Presidential elections.  The new Democratic coalition looks a bit different from the New Deal Coalition that helped the Democrats win all but two of the Presidential Elections from 1932 to 1968.    

Dick Morris described the New Democratic Coalition a slightly different way when describing President Obama’s campaign strategy in 2012 as offering nothing more than “a grab-bag of special-interest pleadings for single women, unions, college kids, and minorities.”  Unfortunately, the campaign strategy paid off.  As he conducted a post-election autopsy in 2012, Rush Limbaugh pointed out that “It’s very difficult to beat Santa Claus.”  Obama and friends view themselves as Santa Claus giving away “toys” to their constituencies, who they treat as children who need the government to take care of them.     

In the past several Presidential election cycles, the roster of Democratic candidates has included several members of these constituencies. They ran Hillary Clinton, a rabid feminist, in 2016.  Their nominee in 2008 and 2012, President Barack Obama, had a long pedigree in community organizing and sat for twenty years in the pews of racial arsonist Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church.  Grievance politics experts Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson had made a total of three unsuccessful Presidential bids.  Larry Lessig, a Harvard Professor, had a short-lived Presidential campaign in 2016, promising to resign the office as soon as he implemented his agenda, which focused exclusively on passing the Citizen Equality Act.  Lessig had little interest in carrying out all of the other responsibilities that come with the duties of the highest office in the land.  He must have thought he would ride into office on a massive blue wave because as President Trump has learned the hard way, Presidents often have a hard time getting Congress to sign onto their legislative agendas; especially when they differ from the status quo in Washington, for better or worse. The Democrats would probably like to have younger voters such as David Hogg run for President but unfortunately for them, the Constitution sets the minimum age for running for President as 35. 

It looks like the Democrats may have stumbled onto a new frontier: Hollywood.  Alec Baldwin, who scornfully mocks President Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” told Howard Stern that he could “absolutely win” the Presidency if he decided to run.  A Hollywood actor, Ronald Reagan, had previously become President in 1980 but he ran as a Republican less than two decades after switching his party affiliation.  While many see him as a turncoat, keep in mind that the “old Hollywood” Ronald Reagan belonged to had far different political leanings than today’s Hollywood. 

Since the Democrats love using President Trump’s past against him, specifically the “Access Hollywood” tape, the Republicans would have plenty of material from the vault to work with in the event of a Baldwin Presidential run.  For instance, his phone call to his then-twelve-year-old daughter Ireland does not reflect well on his character; especially considering the fact that the left will try to paint the President as a misogynist who mistreats women.

In addition, many people have probably forgotten that Baldwin hosted a short-lived TV show on MSNBC that only aired five episodes.  His tenure as a cable news prognosticator came to an end after he called a reporter a “c***sucking fag.”  He forgot one of the commandments of the Church of Liberalism: You shall not shout profanities at members of your constituencies unless you are part of that constituency (see rappers and use of the N word).      

Keep in mind that the left will try to paint President Trump as hostile to the press as he gears up for re-election in 2020. The remark that cost Baldwin his MSNBC show came after a series of angry outbursts at the press.  Once again, this will not help the Democrats contrast themselves with President Trump, whom they bemoan as vulgar and hostile to the press.  Something tells me Alec Baldwin would not walk out of the White House before 9:00 in the morning and give an impromptu press conference to a group of reporters like President Trump did on Friday morning.  

Anyone who thought politics could not get any nastier after the 2016 Presidential Election would definitely have to think again in the event of a hypothetical matchup between Trump and Baldwin.  A hypothetical matchup between Al Franken and President Trump might have actually gone further into the gutter but Franken’s Presidential aspirations ended the day that LA Radio host Leeann Tweeden posted a photo of the Minnesota Senator grabbing her breasts in a frat-boy pose as she slept on a plane ride home from a USO tour the two had participated in.   

At first glance, Robert De Niro would seem like an ideal running mate for Baldwin.  After all, they both despise President Trump.  De Niro has used quite a bit of vulgarity to express his disdain for the President, most recently with an appearance at the Tony Awards, where he uttered the words “F*** Trump.”  He had previously said that he would like to punch then-candidate Trump in the face.  Following his appearance at the Tony Awards, he traveled to Canada to “apologize” for President Trump’s behavior.  Unfortunately, the Constitution prevents Baldwin and De Niro from running together on the same ticket; as they both live in the State of New York. 

It looks like retiring Congressman Luis Gutierrez, who checks off two boxes, might have his eye on a spot on the Democratic ticket in 2020.  He recently tried for a gold medal in the Race Baiting Olympics when he claimed that Jeff Sessions wanted blacks to sit at the back of the bus again. Ted Kennedy had previously achieved a lifetime achievement award in the Race Baiting Olympics when he claimed that President Reagan’s nominee to serve on the Supreme Court, Robert Bork, wanted blacks to sit at segregated lunch counters.   

The 2016 Presidential Election presented some “family feuds” and it looks like the 2020 Presidential Election would offer more of the same in the event of a Baldwin-Trump matchup.  President Obama’s half-brother, Malik Obama, actually endorsed President Trump, who invited Malik to one of the Presidential debates as a guest.  In 2020, Alec Baldwin’s brother Stephen, a rare Hollwyood Republican who appeared as a contestant on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” would probably endorse President Trump over his brother. 

As for his pronouncement that he could “absolutely win,” Baldwin might have more trouble than he would think taking on President Trump in 2020.  Even CNBC Analyst Jane Wells asserted that as long as the economy remains healthy, President Trump should have no trouble winning re-election in 2020: “I am the sort of person that says you may not like this president, he has broken the mold, but if by 2020 we have GDP growth near 4 percent, we’ve got a market like this, we’ve got record low unemployment, we got more jobs than applicants…and maybe we have peace in Korea. How do you not re-elect this guy, even if you think he’s a buffoon?”  In other words, Bill Clinton had it right when he said “It’s the economy, stupid.”  All of the other superficial crap that the mainstream media obsess over will have little bearing on voters’ decision when casting their ballots on November 3, 2020. 

Although personal anecdotes really don’t determine the outcome of elections, the left should not underestimate the popularity of President Trump, even in areas where the conventional wisdom says Republicans As my father and I headed into Connecticut over the weekend, a group of demonstrators stood in front of pro-Trump signs, equipped with phrases such as “Hillary for Prison” and “Women for Trump” signs as they hoped to get passers-by to honk their horn or acknowledge them.  This took place at the Connecticut-Rhode Island border, not a place known as the bedrock for conservatism.  President Trump has spent quite a bit of time in Southeastern Connecticut; he has given the Commencement Address at the Coast Guard Academy in New London for the past two years.

Whoever ends up as the Democratic Presidential Nominee in 2020 will have to go up against the Trump coalition; which will hopefully consist of social conservatives who have had enough of the “Good Without God” experiment, blue collar workers who have watched their jobs get outsourced, traditional liberals who have grown weary of the far left’s rejection of free speech and civil liberties, and maybe at least some of the Evan McMuffin voters who have realized that President Trump does not represent the threat to democracy they thought he did.  The Democrats hope that importing members of their coalition, namely low-skilled immigrants, into the country in addition to giving blanket amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants already living in the United States will help them permanently shut the Trump coalition out of power.  Their plan has already succeeded beyond the scope of their wildest dreams in California and it looks like they have achieved some degree of success in keeping Republicans from capturing the electoral votes in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Virginia.  But they did not count on the Trump coalition’s strength in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin; which no Republican Presidential candidate had carried since at least 1988.  The Democrats hope that further amnesty, which Republicans foolishly seem to want to pass, could permanently turn swing states such as Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, and even Texas blue, effectively nullifying President Trump’s success in the Rust Belt. 

The two coalitions will continue to drift apart as the 2020 Presidential Election gets closer.  Hopefully, the Trump coalition will emerge victorious and help to “keep America great.”