OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A Tennessee Democrat who has announced he’s retiring from Congress this year is warning his party what he believes is coming later this year during the midterm elections.
Rep. Jim Cooper says he believes that his party is “facing extinction” in the Volunteer State, a dire fate that many political analysts have suggested could spread throughout the country as President Joe Biden’s approval ratings reach new lows and “pocketbook” issues like rising energy prices and food inflation destroy household budgets.
Moreover, Cooper said that his party has no strategy to reach rural voters.
Rep Jim Cooper (D) Tennessee is one of the rare democrats to possess even a modicum of intelligence https://t.co/htGQV9nx3v
— Joe Biden is not our president (@1KAG007) February 9, 2022
“As usual, Democrats are not alert to future dangers,” Cooper lamented to the Nashville Scene. “The biggest danger we face in an off-year election after we won the White House is the 100-year trend toward the other party. Redistricting is small potatoes compared to that historical trend.”
Questioned whether he believed that Democrats could become competitive again over the long run, Cooper said he hoped so but added that “hope is not a strategy.”
He went to rail against the mismanagement of the Tennessee Democratic Party, telling the outlet that they need a new direction.
“Their strategy is blind hope,” Cooper told the Nashville Scene, as reported by Fox News. “Many of the folks you’re probably listening to have probably never visited these counties. They’re not kin to these folks. Their best friends don’t live out there. I had the advantage of being born in Nashville but raised in Shelbyville.”
Though he is retiring, Cooper insisted he would continue working on behalf of the party in his state, though he would primarily be focused on his own ventures.
“I always want to be available and helpful, but I plan on getting a job and being a productive citizen. It can’t be handed to you. You’ve got to study it and work at it and be good at it. And then we can put on some finishing touches. There are many people today who want this stuff handed to them, and life doesn’t work like that,” Cooper said.
“It’s important to make money. It’s important to be productive. It’s important to pay taxes. Work organizes life. I plan on working until the day I die because work is fun, work is interesting, work is important,” he continued.
“It’s important to be in communication with your constituents, not to be their boss. You’re their representative. We’ve got to get this formula right. The Democratic Party in Tennessee is basically facing extinction,” he added.
“We’ve been on a long downhill slide for a long time. Tennessee has fewer statewide elected offices than I think any other state, and now the only path upward will be through Memphis, which is not nearly as successful as Nashville. That fits the Republican strategy very well. Their intent is to ghettoize the state Democratic Party.”
