General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Van Jones on Democratic Partys Future: The Clinton Days Are Over You Cant Run and Hide [View all]Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)results- we have lost an unprecedented number of statehouses, etc.
We need to win some of those back, and fast, particularly in light of the 2020 census redistricting.
My larger point, or one of them, is that we need to be seen as standing for something, something beyond celebrity endorsements and David Brock poll-tested campaign slogans about "everyday Americans". Particularly by younger voters/Millennials who didn't grow up watching the GOP play footsie with the Moral Majority and go all "culture in crisis" trying to legislate personal morality.
We have lost the messaging, to my mind, that we are the party of things like free speech- we are the party of personal freedom- we are the party of choice. We've let too many people speak for us who are on some misguided crusade to tell others what they can say, to censor what people can watch on cable, to impose speech codes and thought bans and "you can't say that" and lets get the sports illustrated swimsuit issue off the magazine rack because a woman who wears a bikini is exactly as oppressed- if not more- than one who is forced to wear a burka.
This is not the Democratic Party I grew up with. When Debbie Wasserman Schultz goes full reefer madness to the NY Times, defending laws that put granny in prison for growing a pot plant to manage her chemo nausea, Houston, we have a problem.
The GOP will try to placate their dwindling Jesus base and their "Lawn Order" authoritarians, which will provide us an opening. Combining strong personal freedom/bill of rights messaging with pushing long-overdue economic remedies, like a livable minimum wage and a REAL single payer health care system (or that public option we were promised) would go a long way towards making inroads with the unaffiliated.