How do we win again? - A 5 point plan from Cane4dems to bring the Democratic Party back to the top
Only 100 days have passed since Mr. Orange lunatic man has taken office. There are 1362 days more left.
As a party we do not have time to sit around and assume that the country will realize what a buffoon the President is and decide to replace him. A significant portion of our country (regardless of what public polls say) will be willing to go back to the polls in 4 years and vote him back in.
The million dollar question is: What should we do to win future elections?
I'm only a young minority college student who hails from a middle class family- I am no expert in politics but here are some of my ideas:
(1) We need to unite as a part first and foremost. We have to reconcile that there WILL be differences among democrats. That's what makes our party special- we do not walk in lockstep agreeing on every issue. That's what makes our party beautiful- we all share common overall goals, but are smart enough to have different view points on certain issues. Just because a candidate differs from us on one issue does not mean that they are not a democrat. If we do not unite then say bye bye to any chance of winning next elections.
(2) We need fresh new faces. Our party needs to undergo severe overhaul. The Clintons had their chance. Bernie had his chance. It's time for some new blood to represent us on social media and TV. Otherwise we run the risk of republicans branding us as a party with "old ideas". That means that when young candidates run in elections we need to support them fully. We need to encourage young blood to take a chance and plunge into elections. And then we need those people to go and argue our points to the public.
(3) We need to pick our battles. This does not mean that we roll over on issues. But instead, this means that we need to pick 2-3 issues and make sure that we highlight our battle with those ideas. For example, healthcare is an issue that Democrats could win on if they chose to focus 24/7 attention on it. If we sent party activists to coal-mining cities and showed them the benefits of ACA and hosted town halls showing that republicans are against providing them health care how would they continue to vote for Republicans? We need to do a bus tour and visit hospitals and clinics and show patients that our ACA benefits are better than what republicans want to offer.
I think the 2-3 issues that democrats need to focus on are: Healthcare (including women reproductive health rights), Russian interference in election/ties to the administration, and Tax reform benefiting middle class. Otherwise if we spend time fighting every single issue our complaints get diluted- we get branded as party of "whiners". And no this does not mean that global warming is not important. School funding is important. Smart Gun Safety reform is important. But we have to drive the media narrative on 2-3 ideas so that we gain traction with voters. Republicans are masters of this. They focused on Benghazi and Emails for 24/7. And it worked. It's time that we followed them in their footsteps.
(4) Build party from ground up- start in local elections. Another thing we can learn from Republicans is how to rebuild party infrastructure. We have to win local elections first. We saw first hand during Pres. Obama presidency that even holding highest position in the country is not enough. A lot of change in people's lives is made via actions of local govts. If the local govt is republican held then even though if we hold the White house we cannot do much. In addition, winning local elections is essential to cultivate new talent. We need to funnel grassroot donations to candidates running local elections.
(5) Reclaim Patriotism. No, I am not saying that Democrats are not patriotic. But we have lost the entire narrative on patriotism- ask any average American which party is more patriotic and they will most likely say Republican. While our party does more to help the american citizen, for some reason republicans own the narrative on "caring more about their country." We need to have bus tours and rallies in which we show that we are the party that increases VA and veteran funding. We need to reframe the entire narrative on this topic and show people that caring about global warming, voter suppression, equal rights makes Democrats patriotic- by engaging in these issues we are improving our nation, which is the most patriotic thing a person can do. Yet while it may sound silly we have to show that we want to improve our country because we love our country- our love for this nation is what inspires us to want to make it even better.
Our slogan should be: Making America Even Better.
What do you guys think?
God bless everyone and have a great Sunday
= new reply since forum marked as read
Stop fighting the last primary and stop the postmortems ("Bernie would have won"
NOW. Notice how a year ago the GOP was full of Never-Trumpers and now they all line up to kiss his ass. They're mastered the art of putting their differences aside in a heartbeat for the good of their party and we must too.
We need fresh blood, new faces. There's plenty out there.
Totally agree we need to simplify our message. Health care, equal rights, security for the middle class. Government is a force for good.
I'd like to see our new slogan "Put the grownups back in charge"
