Democrats are struggling to answer a simple question — "What's a Democrat?" — and must do a better job of explaining its core values to voters, according to a task force formed after the party's dismal showing in the 2014 election.
The Democratic National Committee on Saturday released the interim findings of a review intended to examine problems in the midterm election. The report said Democrats lack a "cohesive narrative" and recommended that the party find ways to help it explain bedrock values such as fairness, equality and opportunity.
"So many people can rattle off easily and succinctly what it means to be a Republican. ... The perception of what it means to be a Democrat has really evolved to be a laundry list of policy statements and disparate ideas," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who leads the DNC.
The work of a 10-person task force comes after Democrats were clobbered in November, surrendering control of the Senate to Republicans and allowing the GOP to pad its majority in the House. Republicans captured governor's offices in Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois — all safe Democratic states in presidential elections — and strengthened its grip on state legislatures.
The losses have led to soul-searching among Democrats as they try to translate success in presidential elections under Barack Obama into midterm elections dominated by congressional campaigns. Many party leaders contend that Democrats should have run more aggressively on Obama's record last year and drawn sharp distinctions with Republicans.
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good luck on that one. That is almost as bad as republicans trying to explain what it means to be a republican
ReplyDeleteIts simple Democrat is the same as a Communist
ReplyDelete11:06 - they believe it's OK to kill unborn babies and let rapists and murderers live. If they don't like something, they ban or tax it to death!
ReplyDeleteDebbie, the reason the Dems did so devastatingly poorly in the last election is that we all found out the definition of a Dem, and didn't want anyone to think we were like that! So, we voted for anyone but Dems!
ReplyDeleteAgree with 11:08. Not much difference now between the Democratic Party platform and the Communist Manifesto.
ReplyDeleteLet's not get too cocky here. Republicans took over congress in one of the lowest turnout mid term elections in recent memory. This will not be the case in 2016.
ReplyDeleteHere's the basic Democrat platform---
ReplyDeleteWe will take everything we can from those who work and want a better life and give it to those who never want to work for anything, but are very confident they deserve everything given to them.
I can explain what a Democrat is in few words. Its a Republican with their brains knocked out.
ReplyDeleteBob Aswell ---Independant
When 46% of your party believes that the WH is above the law and should be allowed to rule lawlessly at will then I'd have to call Democrats criminals.
ReplyDelete