It looks like America is seeing red everywhere, from the presidency, to congress, to the Supreme Court. The Democrats certainly aren’t safe from Republican expansion either, as the Republicans’ ‘Red Sea’ has seemingly seeped into the ‘Blue Wall.’ Trump’s sweep of all 7 swing states marks a deeper concern for the Democrats, as 3 of those were key Blue Wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Trump having claimed the trio for a second time on top of coming frightfully near in 2020 might as well be the nail in the coffin for the Democratic Party’s de facto ownership of them. That’s 44 electoral votes that have been stripped from the cushion of every election and left up for grabs, making an ever more intense and difficult battle on the Democrats’ end. Although It begs the question of what the future may hold for the party and what will be necessary to win, the Democrats should reflect and use this as an opportunity to heal the nation’s politics.
Although Illinois has long solidified itself as one of the most concrete states of the Blue Wall, its proximity to the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan has instilled a sense of responsibility in the region to support the party in keeping the states blue. One organization taking up this responsibility is the Democratic Party of Evanston. President Kathy Hayes details the party’s efforts in campaigning in the nearby swing states.
“Our neighbors — whether it’s Wisconsin or Michigan — need support, and they may not have it,” says Hayes. “We are very congested and dense here; they’re very spread out.”
With the current state of media and campaigning for the elections, voters can often be left with skewed impressions of candidates that might misrepresent aspects of a candidate’s identity and character to discredit their plans for the office, which especially affects swing voters.
“What they may hear about a particular candidate may not necessarily be the full story, and [our work] gives an opportunity for our neighbors to get more information about a candidate and so forth.”
The work of the Democratic Party of Evanston and the objective that it works toward represents the correct direction in which the Democratic Party and the United States as a whole has to move towards. Since this dynamic between the Blue wall and the Red Sea has been set, American politics has become increasingly intellectually relaxed. When a party is under the pretense that votes are guaranteed from certain states, their campaigns become scrambles for the few undecided votes. When both sides try harder and harder and employ risky and flashy tactics to desperately win over the swing states, it can get as ugly as it’s been for the past decade. Debates went from thoughtful discussions and opportunities to fully explain intricate policies for the population to screaming matches where one side tries to catch the other slipping for a campaigning meme.
As Hayes puts it, “I think a lot of people were disheartened that it was more of a character assassination than a constructive conversation, and I don’t think a lot of people got a lot of the information that they wanted in order to make decisions.” Instead, “they made decisions that were comfortable for them.”
And so it goes: the Blue Wall and the Red Sea, the Yin and Yang that make up this culture of stagnant voting. We must ask ourselves how we can resist this status quo and dissuade such a large portion of the voting population from subscribing unconditionally to a party rather than casting educated votes; how to stop people from making comfortable choices. The first and most important step to resistance is to ask each other.
“Resistance is the bright light in everyone who’s able to sit down and have a decent conversation; not an argument, but a conversation about issues that affect their lives,” remarks Hayes. “It brings about tones of accountability, not shame. It brings about ideas and facts, not just questions. And hopefully it will provide people with the strength to be able to see where their level of comfort is.”
So while some constituents of the Democratic Party might be looking to place the blame elsewhere, Evanston once again takes the initiative on bringing change to the system. From reparations to promoting open discussion and genuine inquiry into candidates for what they bring into the office, not what they bring for entertainment. Democrats should not look at the loss of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania as land concessions to the Republican Party, but as an opportunity to move away from the Blue Wall and the Red Sea altogether; to give the whole picture on every candidate and cultivate a more educated voter base; to actually strive for unity among the nation and see every other American as someone in pursuit of what’s best for the nation, not a Democrat or a Republican; to maybe even take the first step in moving away from a two-party system and towards more of a nation that the founding fathers intended.
“I urge them to not look at people as the enemy, but look at someone that you need to have a conversation with,” concurs Hayes. “Maybe it’s more than unity. Maybe it’s more like a harmony that we can all coexist within [as] a community for prosperity, for our own idea of liberty and quality of life.”
