Tarrant Democrats should set example, work with the GOP

Recent recognition of Tarrant County’s national standing as a Republican stronghold offers an interesting opportunity for Democrats.

Since local voters have demonstrated their determination to advance strong conservative principles of governance, there’s little risk for the party on the left in cooperating with the Republican leaders those voters have chosen again and again.

Including our new president.

In doing so they may help provide a road map to avoiding even greater losses across the country in the 2018 elections where more of their party’s liberals in both houses of Congress are likely to be replaced by conservatives.

Why, you may ask, would I be offering advice to Democrats on how to hang on to their seats?

The answer is because I’m entirely certain they will ignore me, so there is no risk. But it’s a compelling opportunity for them anyway.

Rep. Marc Veasey, the county’s lone Democrat in Congress, confirmed my confidence with his reaction quoted in the recent Star-Telegram story discussing the reddest of the country’s urban counties.

“I’m not saying we’re going to win Tarrant County yet,” he said. “But I do think that we are going to be in the best position we’ve been in in a long, long time.”

The “long, long time” may be much further away than he would imagine. Republican state Sen. Konni Burton of Colleyville believes the national shift to the right means Tarrant’s redness will only deepen.

In any event, the Dems may want to consider why they have suffered so many losses all across the country during the Obama years and take seriously what lies ahead as 25 of their Senate seats are up for reelection in 2018.

Even Democrat media such as The Huffington Post identify at least 11 of those seats as “tossups” that could give the Republicans a filibuster-proof majority in the upper chamber.

Such would ensure even stronger support for the new president’s agenda that has caused such hysteria among liberals, sending a couple million of them literally marching, demonstrating, uttering, muttering and displaying embarrassing vulgarities in the streets.

The best way for the party out of power to regain some influence in decisions crucial to them is to do something they seem to abhor.

That would be to reach across the aisle and cooperate with their colleagues who have seized control of the government. Republicans have taken control by promising voters to be faithful to their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution that has created the most successful nation in human history.

Instead, Democrat leaders such as House minority spokeswoman Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Senate minority boss Sen. Chuck Schumer, and presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren believe their job is to be obstructionists to conservative initiatives — most of which are going to prevail no matter their opposition.

Aren’t these people paying attention? Recent polls in Warren’s Massachusetts, for example, have found the “liberal lion” less popular than the state’s Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.

Breitbart News Network quotes the president of The MassINC Polling Group as attributing Warren’s falling popularity to her lack of bipartisanship when it comes to dealing with issues important to her own constituents, much less to the national trend to the right.

Only 44 percent believe she deserves reelection. Yet, she imagines herself to be a voice of the majority.

Maybe a call from a Tarrant County Democrat leader could help her understand the realities that have arrived at the nation’s Capitol. They are the same as those reflected so strongly right here.

Is that going to happen? You know it’s not.

So, get ready for conservatism to prevail as the country will look even more like Texas less than two years from now.

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Tarrant Democrats should set example, work with the GOP."