Months into Trump’s presidency, Democrats still have no idea how they’re going to mount a comeback. I’ll admit I’m not all that worried about that, but we should always keep in mind that there will be a powerful and competent opposition to Donald Trump on the left, although it may not happen before the midterms — and that could have something to do with the whole line. First, Associated Press article which shows that Democrats are still chickens running around with their heads cut off. To complicate matters, there seem to be differing views on how to counter this White House. We are focusing on the healthcare path, healthcare is significant, but let’s not forget the Russia section and impeachment/appointment of the 25t Correction because Trump is a crazy accomplice:
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley hesitated when asked about his party’s main message to voters.
“This is a work in progress,” the New York congressman said in an interview last week. “We’re doing everything we can to simplify it, but we’re also getting the gist of it. So now everything is falling into place.”
The admission by a fourth-ranking House Democrat that his party lacks a clear, coherent message, even in the face of Republican disarray, highlights the dilemma facing Democrats eight months after President Donald Trump and the GOP swept last fall’s election in part because Democrats lacked a coherent message.
The considerations come as Democrats look to capture at least 24 GOP-held seats needed to gain a majority in the House and narrow Republicans’ advantage in statehouses in the 2018 midterm elections. But with a Russia scandal in the White House, a historically unpopular health care plan rocking Capitol Hill and a lack of major GOP legislative achievements, Democrats still have trouble telling voters what their party stands for.
[…]
Several liberal groups that have focused exclusively on health care have stepped up calls for impeachment in recent weeks, including MoveOn.org, Indivisible and Ultraviolet.
“We need to keep talking about impeachment,” said Scott Dworkin, co-founder of the recently formed Democratic Coalition Against Trump. He warned on Twitter: “If you’re an elected Democrat and you’re not talking about impeachment or the 25th Amendment, find a new party.”
But one of the left’s favorites, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, focuses almost exclusively on health care.
[…]
Democrats would be wrong to think that beating up Trump and not having an legitimate message of your own is a winning strategy,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. “The Democratic message has to be about the issues that matter to people at the kitchen table.”
In South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Democrats don’t need to back down from their opposition to Trump, including the Russia talks, but they need to tie it all together with a coherent theme that transcends the daily news cycle.
The AP quoted Democrat Jason Crow as saying he regularly gets questions about Russia. Crow is challenging Republican Mike Coffman in Colorado’s 6th congressional district, one of 24 districts where Democrats I’ll try to reverse it next year, although the notion that Russia resonates outside the Beltway should be treated with some skepticism. In June, Ed O’Keefe in The Washington Post
he wrote that Democrats running in next year’s election say the party needs to move from Russia, which he repeated on CBS Face The Nation:
I spent most of the week outside of Washington talking to these Democrats who are starting to run, and they made it clear, stop talking about Russia, they told the party leaders. Nobody here cares. Talk to us about the economy, how you defend or preserve Obamacare. Let’s see if the party leaders actually pay attention to this.
We return to Russia in the context of Donald Trump Jr.’s recent and unfortunate meeting with a Russian lawyer, under the pretext of having inside information on Hillary Clinton, which was part of the Russian government’s efforts to aid his father win the election.
The House will be demanding to win back. While Democrats are eyeing the 23 or 24 House districts that went for Clinton but voted for a Republican congressman, Trump won 12 Democratic House districts. The question remains whether Democrats will find solid candidates after their recruiting machine collapses. Moreover, based on some reports, if Democrats were able to mobilize every Clinton voter in 2016 who supported a GOP congressman and force him to switch, it would not be enough to win the House. The path to a majority for Democrats lies in winning the red districts that were gutted when Democrat Jon Ossoff lost to Republican Karen Handel in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. Even with the highest Democratic turnout in a decade in GA-06, it wasn’t enough, meaning the 2018 electorate could mirror the electorate from the 2016 election, which favored Republicans.
It doesn’t get any better for the Senate, where Democrats have fewer steals. James Carville, Bill Clinton’s chief campaign strategist in 1992, poured some frosty water on the issue while talking to John Catsimatidis on our AM970 WNYM station (via Living room):
“I think right now most Democrats are trying to focus on the 2018 election and trying to recruit people and keep incumbents, and you know, I would say we have a pretty good chance of taking back the House. The Senate is very, very difficult.”… “The problem in the Senate is we have a large number of seats that we have to hold in states that Donald Trump won. Indiana, Missouri, you know, those are the places where we have to hold seats,” Carville added. “The only places we have a chance of winning are, you know, Nevada is pretty good. Then Arizona is worse, then Texas and Alabama, and for the Democrats to take back the Senate, they have to pick up three seats.”
Carville seemed resigned to the idea that Democrats would not do well next year, saying the party should focus on recruiting candidates and keeping incumbents in power. He also acknowledged that the Democratic Party does not have a leader.
Also read Guy’s take on the subject. Right now, a majority of Americans believe Democrats are anti-Trump and not for anything else, by a 52/37 margin. As John Kerry and Mitt Romney learned the demanding way, you have to be more than just the “anti” candidate. You have to offer something different, and while the Democrats have many doors to develop a fresh narrative, along with many ways to attack the GOP, they have nothing. Is it because they know deep down that they need to reach white working-class voters (i.e. Trump)?
.@jonkarl:ABC News/WaPo poll shows majority of country believes ‘Democrats stand for nothing more than opposing’ Trump. More at #This week
photo:twitter.com/BkxUJlLX0O— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 16, 2017
