To the Editor:
Re “Buck Up, Democrats, and Fight Like Republicans” (Op-Ed, Dec. 14):
Dahlia Lithwick and David S. Cohen exhort Democrats to apply tendentious tactics they claim only Republicans use. Instead, Democrats should accept that they lost this election because they nominated a weak candidate who smugly dismissed many Americans as “deplorables.”
It’s hypocritical for Democrats to argue now that the popular vote should be decisive. Before the election, Democrats giddily proclaimed that Hillary Clinton’s victory was assured—by her Electoral College strategy.
Nor is the argument necessarily accurate. If the election had been decided on the popular vote, the candidates would have campaigned accordingly. Donald Trump, who proved to be a better politician than the professionals he beat in the primaries, would have probably won.
Democrats should try “fighting tooth and nail” to connect with workers, not policy wonks, and to protect human beings, not just businesses. That would be an unhypocritical winning strategy.
BRIAN J. FOLEY
Philadelphia
Note from KBJ: Just when I think the New York Times is a lost cause, a letter such as this one is published. Bravo!
