People who are thoughtful are (or should be) facing the inauguration of Cheeto Jesus (CJ) with fear and trepidation.  So far, he has seemed impervious to any rules of decorum or morals, and has publicly announced that rules don’t apply to him. He tweets like a hormonal 14 year old embarrassing the nation with every insulting screed. This administration is already promising to be one that lurches from crisis to crisis, likely 100% self inflicted by the only person that I can imagine would be a worse president since Bush II who’s record I thought couldn’t be surpassed for cheesiness and corruption.

As I’ve been thinking about this and listening to all the pundits pontificate on how the Dems could have possibly lost against this clown, it has driven home to me the fact that the candidate REALLY does matter.  You’ve already endured my rantings about how the Democratic Party forced Hillary Clinton upon us, essentially handing the presidency to an even worse candidate than her.  I won’t re-litigate that idiotic decision and the corruption in the DNC that led to that disastrous campaign; we all now know all too well the result of that destructive strategy.  However, it’s instructive to understand how her opponent was so effective in reaching voters while appearing like a bumbling fool to the political class.

Mike Konczal, a Roosevelt Institute fellow, recently wrote a brilliant retrospective blog post outlining CJ’s success in winning over voters.  In short, unlike Hillary, his messaging was simple and aimed directly at the white working class.  His constant theme was jobs, jobs, jobs, though he never really outlined how he would create them.  He railed against corporations that moved jobs overseas, and how the Washington elite allowed it.  He also realized that workers don’t hate the rich since they want to be like them; they hate their bosses, the professional class.  They admire the elite class, resent those who order them around every day.

The stark difference, however, was language.  Hillary talked policy, policy, policy and gave long lists of what she would do, but she couldn’t condense it.  By design, her message was vague.  And failed to connect.  Conversely, CJ kept it simple – “build the wall”; “lock her up”; “rip up the TPP”; “deport illegals”; “drain the swamp”.  His followers got the message which was long on rage, and short on actual policy.  But it worked, and brought voters to the polls.  Uninspired, much of Hillary’s base stayed home to watch Dancing with the Stars.

The message here is that the Dems need to relearn how to do politics.  That includes messages that attract voters; more important, it’s picking a candidate who can connect.  The candidate does matter, because without that, the rest is just noise.  So far, the Dems have shown little understanding of the problem and will end up once again with the same leadership doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.

And we all know that that means.