Where do we go from here? For the Democratic Party, there are plenty of directions to choose from.
Just like the old maxim, “If you’re about everything, then you’re about nothing,” if you are going in multiple directions, then you’re going nowhere. According to Charlotte Alter’s sweeping TIME report, “Inside the Democrats’ Reboot,” that appears to be the case with the Democratic Party.
Alter spoke to “dozens” of prominent Democrats, from lowly activists to U.S. senators, and found just as many opinions on what the party needs to do to claw its way back to relevance. The good news is we’re still 18 months out from the midterms, plenty of time for the Democrats to debate and, ultimately, unify around a winning formula. And then we’ll do it all over again in the run-up to the first Democratic presidential primary in decades to not feature an incumbent or an obvious heir apparent.
In the meantime, thanks to Alter’s fine reporting, here’s a sampling of what some prominent Dems are thinking.
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut:
“I spent a long time trying to make the issue of guns a litmus test for the Democratic Party. I think that all of the interest groups that ended up trying to apply a litmus test for their issue ended up making our coalition a lot smaller.”
Congressman Pat Ryan of New York’s Hudson Valley:
“If you’re talking about ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal,’ or ‘progressive’ or ‘moderate,’ you’re missing the whole f-cking point. It’s not progressive or moderate. It’s status quo or change. It’s for the people or for the elites.”
Congressman Jake Achincloss of Massachusetts:
“I hear a lot: ‘Get a leader, let’s rally behind somebody.’ And I strongly disagree with that. The forest of ambition is large. There’s no shortage of presidential timber. I’m worried about the ideas…. In 2028, we’d better be ready to have dynamic candidates on the stage offering whole new ideas or we’ll lose again.”
Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota:
“I’ve heard some folks say, ‘It’s not our policies, we just have to communicate better.’ It actually is our policies that swing-state voters aren’t with us on. For those colleagues who were calling to defund the police: our voters are not with you on that.”
Congressman Ritchie Torres of The Bronx:
“We swung the pendulum too far to the left. We have become more responsive to interest groups than to people on the ground.”
Evidence that many electeds still feel hampered by said interest groups, the following quotes from lawmakers were only offered under the condition of anonymity:
“There are some sports where trans girls shouldn’t be playing against biological girls.” The anonymous lawmaker added that his fellow Democrats agree but are “afraid of the blowback that comes from a very small community.”
“Refusing to say that even in the third trimester there’s no limits on [abortion], it’s not where the average American is. The really embarrassing truth is Donald Trump is closer to the median voter on abortion than Democrats were.”
Congressman Chris DeLuzio of western Pennsylvania:
“You’ve got to be principally seen worrying about jobs and people’s pay and health care — economic issues. And I think folks see too many Democrats as not caring principally about the economy.”
Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona:
“Democrats in general are always fearful of messing up. The Democratic mindset has been to run very tight, not open campaigns. I told my team during the campaign: This is a vibe election. If we can match the policy with creating this vibe, this culture, that’s gonna break through across all modes and mediums.”
Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington State:
“I think Democrats have made this mistake of saying, ‘I’m here to help the little guy.’ Nobody wants to be called the little guy. The fatal mistake in politics is condescension.”
Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow (now a candidate for U.S. Senate):
“I constantly get draft mailers in my office that say things like ‘Democrats are fighting so you could put food on the table.’ That is not aspirational. [The message should be:] Democrats fight for the American Dream.”
Congressman Greg Casar of Texas:
“The Democratic Party needs to make as our central message that our goal is to break the unholy alliance between corporate greed and corrupt government. If somebody is more conservative than me on this social issue, or we may disagree on this foreign policy issue, at the end of the day people say: the Democratic Party puts me first and the billionaires last. And that’s what wins.”
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut:
“[Democrats] have to wake up every morning thinking about how to unrig our government so that the corporations and the billionaires don’t always get what they want. I think it was a huge mistake for our party to view Bernie [Sanders] as some fringe threat to the party. Bernie’s message all along has been the crossover message, the message that appeals both to Democrats but also to a big element of Trump’s base.”
Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run for Something:
“I think the party is hyper-focused on message and forgetting about the messenger…. It’s not the magic words. It’s that many of these people can’t be credible messengers…. People who haven’t been politicians for 30 years can go into a nonpolitical space and be a real person.”