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Stigall: Democrats Lost All Over Again

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- They have spent nearly a decade demanding the country embrace their noise. Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby boycotts. "Pussy hats." Black Lives Matter. Occupy Wall Street. Women in matching white suits. "Not My President" day. Pipeline protests. Abortion protests. Town hall protests.

But the country stopped listening. Elections over the last ten years suggest the country never really began listening. Democrats have suffered losses at the federal, state and local level not seen since the 1920s.

President Donald Trump's Tuesday night address finally forced them to acknowledge it. They're on the wrong side of the electorate. Their gob-smacked facial expressions and deafening silence said it all.

I kept a checklist of items and statements Trump delivered during the address that elicited applause and standing ovations from half the chamber while Democrats sat on their hands:

A ban on lobbying, women's business development, border protection, defeating radical Islamic terrorism, proper vetting of immigrants, making it easier for American business to thrive, enforcing legal immigration, Republicans and Democrats working together, school choice, health insurance choice, lower cost insurance, no government mandates to purchase insurance, working with, not against, law enforcement, Trump saying his job is to represent the country, not the world, and finally… we're all made from the same God.

Again, all of these issues or statements were things for which most of the Democrats in the chamber refused to cheer or stand. Prior to the speech, I predicted jeers, boos, perhaps even walkouts from Democrats who loathe Trump and his voters.

What they did, instead, made them look worse.

Sitting silent and refusing to acknowledge the issues Trump rattled off was a visible reminder to the electorate the Democrats' tent has dramatically shrunk, if not outright collapsed. Unless you're willing to burn an American flag, throw a brick through a bank window, or force children to use bathrooms with adults of the opposite gender – you're not welcome.

Nevertheless, 7 in 10 CNN viewers polled after the address said Trump's speech was not only positive, but also properly prioritized. Frankly, it was full of domestic spending items normal, sane, old school Democrats once cheered.

But, their hatred is too great. The phony mobs agitating in the streets demand their Democrat representatives and senators also agitate rather than legislate. Republicans and Trump must now work without them. The GOP has the numbers to do so. If they do, 2018 will be here soon enough and 25 Democrats in the Senate will have to go back to voters asking for another term.

Their odds don't look great.

Some in the Democrat Party recognize what's gone wrong. Not many, but some. And those few still control the party – for now. Though the Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren wing is coming on strong. But for now, the old guard had a hand in the response to Trump's first address.

You see their influence in the Democrats' choice of speaker – former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. A white-haired, southern, Caucasian male sitting in a diner full of stone-still, mostly older Caucasians. Ironically, Beshear is the guy who oversaw devastating Democrat losses in his own state and since has been begging the party to listen to him as to why they're getting killed.

I didn't listen too closely to what he said. I was watching the optics because that's what Democrats do. It's their specialty - demographics, segments, sectors, camps, groups, genders, sexualities, baskets - of people to whom they craft each message.

So why choose the old, southern, white guy in the diner? It was an admission, albeit subtle. Democrats have turned their backs on most of the white, working class of the nation. And it's killing them. Identity politics has failed and white, working-class folks were taken for granted.

They also happen to be the majority of the votes and the same people who voted for the new president. The new president who was talking about real issues they actually care about Tuesday night. While the Democrats sat on their hands and continued to remind many of those former Democrat voters why their party isn't for them anymore.

Democrats lost all over again Tuesday night. They just don't know it yet.

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