This is an adapted quote 12 November Episode “All In with Chris Hayes”.

President-elect Donald Trump He became the first Republican candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years. That was the last time President George W. Bush Bush’s victory was seen by experts as a decisive victory; He secured reelection with just under 3 million votes out of 111 million, with Bush receiving just over 2% of the popular vote.

But it’s a pretty close The margin is just over 50-50. That’s actually a big point from the newly elected senator from Illinois. Barack Obama, It was held on the election night before the race was announced.

“Whatever happens at the presidential level, I think what’s important as we move forward — and I give the same advice to John Kerry or President Bush — is that it’s really important at this stage to recognize whether it’s a 51-49 country or a 50-year-old country,” he said. 50 countries,” Obama said on Fox News.

“The person in power must show a certain humility and be aware that he convinces only half of the people. “For us to act together, we need a much higher percentage of people moving in the same direction,” he continued.

The 2004 presidential race wasn’t even announced until the morning after Election Day due to a glitch. Close vote in the swing state of Ohio. If the state had gone the other way, Bush might have lost the election despite receiving the popular vote. It was even crazier because Democrats mounted a massive voter turnout drive in Ohio and elsewhere, but Republicans also turned out voters, especially in rural areas.

So how did Bush win? So how were Republicans able to reach such large numbers in rural areas?

Remember, it was only three years after 9/11, when Americans were still rallying around the flag. Bush assumed the mantle of wartime president and declared: “the job is done” although it is already clear invasion of Iraq It was turning into a disaster.

Immediately after that loss, Democrats began soul-searching, finger-pointing, and wondering: How had they become so disconnected from Middle America? In their search for answers, many people turn to author Thomas Frank’s newly released “What’s Wrong with Kansas?” He reviewed his book.

In it, Frank detailed how Republicans used the culture wars and wild accusations of liberals as bait to win over working-class and rural voters and get them to vote against their economic interests.

as frank Announced on C-SPAN Just months after the election:

Against this backdrop, Republicans portrayed Democrats as out-of-touch, bleeding-heart liberals appeasing terrorism and anti-war protests in urban enclaves and on campuses. And they interpreted Bush’s re-election as a broad mandate for their wildest policy ideas.

The president himself said: “When you win, there’s a sense that people are speaking out and embracing your point of view, and that’s what I intend to tell Congress.” Bush announced this in his first press conference after the election.

“You ask, do I feel free? Let me explain it to you this way. “I made capital, political capital, from the campaign, and now I intend to spend it.”

This second term agenda meant expanding the fight against terrorism abroad and at home. This was a boon of privatization of government functions. But the most important part of this agenda, championed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is Planning the privatization of all or part of Social Security, Making the federally guaranteed benefit more like a workplace retirement account. This has been a long-held Republican dream.

Bush claims Social Security program is in crisis and would go bankrupt within more than a decade. But voters weren’t interested in hearing about it. In fact, the more pressure Bush and the Republicans put on, the less popular Social Security reform became in the polls.

And so, Democrats on Capitol Hill did something rare; They put their foot down and fought the Republicans tooth and nail. An aide to then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recalls that nervous colleagues asked her when the party’s alternative Social Security reform plan would be released, and Pelosi responded: “Never. Doesn’t it work for you at all?

Even with a Republican House and a Republican Senate, despite the “political capital” he gained from his re-election, Bush could not even bring his plan to privatize Social Security to a vote on Capitol Hill because it was too radioactive. This was an unpopular idea that no one wanted except the Heritage Foundation, of course. He even contributed Democrats took back the House and Senate in 2006.

The reason I mention all of this now is because I think something similar is developing with Trump. In a video released Monday, the president-elect outlined his plans: As the project is embodied in 2025 — about how he would fundamentally overhaul the education system.

This plan of course The Ministry of Education should be abolished. It’s a goal that, like privatizing Social Security, has been a Republican fever dream for decades. Congressional approval is also required. The Heritage Foundation currently has a plan to liquidate the department and transfer its functions to other departments, all of which are drawn out in the Project 2025 plan.

But there’s a problem for Republicans: He’s deeply unpopular. A. UMass Amherst poll from late last month “Six in 10 surveyed oppose eliminating the Department of Education, removing civil servants and replacing them with political appointees loyal to the president.”

All of this is said to happen despite the fact that the Department of Education oversees all of the $1.6 trillion in federal student loans Americans borrow. It also ensures civil rights enforcement in education and collects vital statistics on records, staffing and crime that schools across the country rely on.

It manages billions of dollars in federal grants to support America’s poorest schools, including those for students with special needs. If you have a student in your family who receives special education or has an IEP, Individualized education program, You have to thank the Ministry of Education for this. It is the source of funding for every IEP in the country. I wonder how many millions of voters are in families who rely on these IEPs.

Now, the reason Republicans dream of abolishing the Department of Education but never actually do it is because it would disrupt the lives of millions of voters in ways they’ll remember next Election Day.

That’s why I find the lesson of Bush and Social Security reform illuminating here. Then, just as we do now, we have a Republican president-elect who wins a majority of the vote. And then, as now, they want to act as if they have broad authority to restructure a federal agency that millions of Americans trust.

Given recent history, I’m sure this is a fight Democrats would love.