It's not really soul-searching if there's no searching

It's always fascinating to watch the soul-searching of the other side.

The Hill has a report today on the venting of Senate Democrats over this year's election results.

Three things stand out.

1. Democrats rarely think their policies are the problem, only bad messaging explaining those policies. They think they're there in office to do good, and think people must not understand that or they would support them. 

“‘Republicans have been beating the h--- out of government since the Reagan years and saying [Democrats] are the defenders of bad government and that’s what the American people believe … We can’t get an invitation to the dance unless we overcome that and the way we overcome that is having some things that are wins’ for regular Americans.”

The American people are correct. Voting yourself money from someone else by way of the public treasury is not justice. Voting for what's right is more powerful than voting for self-interest. Justice is the most universal self-interest in the long-term.

2. The media do not question shortsighted self-interest voting. Note the journalist paraphrasing the end of that lawmaker quote with “for regular Americans.” Members of the media often question why anyone would vote “against their own self-interest?”

3. Progressives are engaged in major projection. “Progressives argued that Republicans have moved further and further to the right and that Democrats have followed them in the rightward drift of American political debate.”

Hardly. Government has been growing for more than a century and Republicans are finally pushing back. Perhaps this new sensation progressives are feeling is the reaction of a conservative Republican movement standing up to government expansion that finally threatens to transform government and America beyond recognition. When prominent politicians and officeholders of one party unashamedly and openly push “socialism,” it's not just a tag on a political opponent if those politicians actually mean it. It's an existential threat.

To borrow an interpretation from the Democrats, it's possible the American people mostly agreed with President Donald Trump's message, but have grown wearing of the messaging. Republican gains in the House confirm support for the message. Perhaps people voted for the message down-ballot, but not on the messaging from the top.