Republicans, a course correction is in order. Democrats, you have what looks like two parties, and only one is on a roll: Our view


What does the Republican Party even stand for anymore?

For Republicans, Tuesday’s off-year elections should be a moment for reflection.

They lost majorities in both chambers of the Virginia legislature despite having drawn the district lines to prevent that from happening. And they have apparently lost the governorship in Kentucky, a state that President Donald Trump won by nearly 30 percentage points in 2016.

If there is a lesson here for the GOP, it is that an immediate course correction is in order.

Under Trump's leadership, the party now stands for very little but amassing and retaining power and doing the bidding of constituencies such as the gun lobby and the rich. It builds majorities through gerrymandering and governs through partisanship.

It delights in stripping people of health coverage for the sole reason that the coverage was provided to them by Democrats. And its congressional wing has blithely abandoned what were once bedrock issues — the rule of law, free trade, fiscal responsibility, limited government, standing up to dictators and the sanctity of marriage, to name just a few.

These things are not going unnoticed by voters.

In Virginia, suburbanites who once routinely voted Republican turned to Democratic candidates as if in mass exodus.

In Kentucky, incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has been working overtime to end the increased health coverage brought about by the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. In 2017, he barred individuals from buying coverage on the state’s previously excellent exchange, known as kynect. More recently, he has been fighting to undo the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid. And he wonders why he probably lost, even as down-ballot Republican candidates fared better.

If the GOP keeps behaving like it has been in recent years, it could confine itself to the status of a regional, largely rural, party. Tuesday's election is only the latest indication of that trend. 

And will the real Democratic Party please stand up?

Tuesday's results also convey a message to Democrats.

They have, at this point, what looks like two parties. They can follow the one that is on a roll, or the other that puts their future successes in jeopardy.

The first Democratic Party is the one that won big Tuesday and picked up 40 U.S. House seats last year

It is represented by people like Andy Beshear, the Kentucky attorney general who appears to have won his state’s governorship, and Ghazala Hashmi, who will be Virginia’s first female Muslim state legislator. Both won by focusing on practical issues such as health care, education and (in Hashmi’s case) gun control.

This party's candidates are diverse, engaging, often young. They are winning in industrial towns and cul-de-sac suburbs because they focus on issues that matter, have the support of the parts of the electorate that are growing, and have claimed the mainstream the GOP has abandoned.

Then there's the other Democratic Party, the one of progressive true believers who scoff at the argument that their leftward push might reelect Trump. Few of this wing's presidential candidates would appear to have much appeal to independents and crossover voters. 

In debates, as they rehash details of mandatory "Medicare for All" plans and dangle free stuff for various constituencies, their candidates look like contestants on a bizarre game show devoted to determining how many angels can fit on the head of a of a pin. 

Certainly, a party that is racking up so many wins can find a presidential candidate who represents a combination of optimism and pragmatism. Can't it?

By Dan Carney for the Editorial Board



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