Democrats Need a Message, Not a Program

[m.knox]

I disagree. They need a new program.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-20/democrats-need-a-message-not-a-program

Democrats are in terrible shape. Republicans control all three branches of government in Washington, 34 of 50 governorships, and 68 of the 99 state legislatures.

As they plot a comeback, Democrats have one obvious asset: the reckless presidency of Donald Trump. That's not enough to close such a huge gap. And the battles that have started to rage inside the party over policies to promote and strategies to pursue are mostly missing the point.

The challenges are daunting:

• Picking up at least 24 seats in the House of Representatives in 2018 to recapture the majority they haven't held there since 2011.
• Holding their own in a Senate landscape that favors Republicans.
• Taking back five or six gubernatorial offices in key states like Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin (after winning New Jersey and Virginia this year).
• Capturing hundreds of Republican-held state legislative seats to set up redistrictingadvantages after the 2020 census.
• Making sure their process for selecting a 2020 presidential candidate is conducive to picking a winner.

They won't do these things with ideologically driven policies or a supposedly bold new agenda, but rather by genuinely connecting with voters; by making a credible case of understanding the frustrations and struggles of many Americans. That sounds simple, but Democrats have recently been failing that test in congressional and state elections, as they did in the 2016 presidential race.

 

[gjbankos]

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[83wuzme]

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