By The Numbers

(By The Numbers)

A couple of years ago, the military crime drama, NCIS, had an episode titled "The Arizona" where guest star Christopher Lloyd played an elderly vet who claims he was a crewman from the doomed ship, lost 7 December, 1941. One of the questions asked by Lloyd was "how many men died on the "Arizona ?" Of course, no one on the NCIS cast could answer.


One thousand, one-hundred and seventy-seven sailors and Marines died when the Battleship exploded when her forward magazines were set off. There is the Arizona Memorial that straddles the Wreck and, at the end of the episode, Lloyd's character had passed and, when it was confirmed that he had indeed been a Member of the Arizona crew, Mark Harmon "escorted" Lloyd's ashes back to Pearl Harbor and had them interred, which is the right of all Arizona survivors, within the Battleship's hull.


At 1177, the Arizona casualty list is roughly half of the total toll of the Pearl Harbor attack at 2,403. As today is December 7th, it would be very easy to compare the carnage from O'ahu to that suffered by the Democrat Party this last cycle. After the spectacular success the original Japanese attack might have been, in the long run it doomed Japan.


Such Democrat elder statemen like former President's Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, ones who built majority coalitions for two elections apiece, are seeing the collapse of those voters or are seeing the wholesale transfer to Donald Trump. How Democrats recover those voters will depend on the mis-steps of Republicans. And that could very well happen.


The losing Party can generally take solace that a recovery is possible during Mid-Term cycles. If the Trump agenda cannot be implemented because of GOP infighting, the Elections for 2026 could see a Democrat resurgence. But the question to be asked is "resurgence to what ?" The same Party that was decimated last time should not be the same one that stands in two years. The boys in girls' sports and bathrooms ? Like that argument could still work.


Pearl Harbor had happened because of a lack of imagination. Donald Trump is heading back to the White House for the same reason. Assumptions that policy makers made in 1941 could not predict December 7th just Democrats could not predict November 5th. Of course, the aftermath of Pearl Harbor was a line to Tokyo Bay. In a similar calamity, how will Democrats chart a course to their own "Tokyo Bay ?" 

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