Rebuilding the Democratic Party how would you do it?

Hello everyone!

I thought that I would put together a little thought experiment. I'd like to encourage critical thinking, so if you please, avoid trollish comments about HRC and leftists in general. I also want to qualify that I do not believe allDemocrats/Liberals think alike and as such many already reflect what I'm articulating below.

Okay, here's the bit:

Imagine that you have been hired by the Democratic Party to revamp the Party's image and strategy to ensure a Presidential win in 2020. What steps would you take?

For the record, here's mine:

1. Stop shaming people who do not agree with you, shaming does not work. Getting someone to feel bad about themselves because of something they can't control (being white, being male, being cis-gendered, being christian, etc) is less likely to make that person want to join your cause.

2. Appeal to working class Americans of all types, white males included. Reconnect with unionized labor and once again become champions of people like truck drivers, coal miners, foundry workers, as the Democratic Party did for so long.

3. Encourage supporters to convey their ideas in a non-confrontational way as opposed to overt things like marches and protests. This goes hand in hand with number 1, you cannot engage someone in real discussion if you think their beliefs are morally wrong and should not be espoused in the first place.

4. Inject new blood into the Party, new faces, new names. Specifically, let the old guard retire with dignity and bring in younger leaders who can articulate their vision for the future and be firebrands that make undecideds excited and what to vote for them (Tim Ryan being an example).

These are some ideas, okay go!

a reply to: Tman2135

I would sweep up the pieces and throw them in the trash where they belong.

Too early to talk about rebuilding it.
The old Democrat Party is still actively involved in the process of demolishing itself.

All we have to do is wait. I hope the democrat party will do that. It is all in the hands of republicans now.

a reply to: Tman2135
Let them be, there would be more strength in starting a new Party, the 2 Party system is at best polarizing and nothing more, we need more choices.

a reply to: Tman2135

Maybe the dems could get Gary Johnson to their side,since his beliefs are those of a flaming liberal.

Also,it is more interesting to watch him snag flies out of the air with that frog tongue of his and he is less of an assault on the senses than every single aspect Hilary Clinton's existence.

But I'm sure that the DNC is going to not learn anything from the election and run with Hillary again-thus giving Trump 4 more years.

Making they could try calling everyone that disagrees with them racist and faking multiple hate crimes...oh,wait...

First things first.

Change the name and hire some new PR companies.

Between Hillary Clinton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Brazile and, Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat Party is falling hard and hitting every branch on the way down.

a reply to: ugmold

Maybe the left could run a candidate that isn't surrounded by pedophiles.

That might be a good start.

originally posted by: ugmold
a reply to: Tman2135
Let them be, there would be more strength in starting a new Party, the 2 Party system is at best polarizing and nothing more, we need more choices.

Indeed, the two party system is failing us big time. There are other parties, Green, Libertarian, etc.....they have just never taken off. If they had a really good candidate for a third party, would it even make a difference? The 2 party system is so entrenched that people, especially older people, for the most part would just discount other parties as being fringe.

a reply to: Tman2135

The Democratic Party has been without principles for a while, relying instead on political triangulation, which when used by Bill Clinton, was no more than populism and demagoguery aligned with corruption. Obama at least had principles, but they were influenced heavily by identity politics, which is to say, tribalism.

The Democratic Party needs to regain its principles, or to form new ones, and to quit relying on the opinion polls for the sake of power grubbing; it needs to become a viable alternative to the Republican Party instead of stealing from its platform.

a reply to: Tman2135
I would suggest looking at what the Labour Party in Britain has been doing towards rebuilding itself, and aiming to do the exact opposite.
E.g. they should observe what happens when a party says "The old leaders failed because they weren't extreme enough, we need someone more extreme".

a reply to: Tman2135

Rebuilding the Democratic Party how would you do it?

Start from scratch

They could start by remembering that it's the American presidency they are trying for, not the u.n. ambassador program. If you can't help your own country, why would globalization help?

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

It's just too easy to tell early in the elections that 3rd party candidates will be no threat to the Dems and Repubs.

All trolling aside,I would have loved to see someone like Ron Paul become president,but the numbers just aren't there.

It may be somewhat morally corrupt to end up choosing a lesser evil,but in the case of Trump,he scares the hell out of ALL of the liberals and ALL of the neo-cons (which I hate more than any liberal).

In essence,Trump nay as well be 3rd party-just not the "liberal" type.

1) Identity politics. The entire Democrat platform is based on identity politics of groups. LBGTs, Minorities, Immigrants, etc. Hardly anyone is just American.

2) Realize America is more than NYC and CA. While the coasts may be the epicenter of wealth, the vast majority of people do not live in those areas.

3) Put the old guard out to pasture. It is ironic that Democrats constantly accuse Republicans of being old white guys, when if you look at the Democrats, they really don't have a decent bench of anyone under 60 years old. The party needs to desperate get rid of Pelosi, Clintons, Wasserman, Brazile, and the rest of the old guard.

I honestly think the biggest issue is the identify politics. It is getting to the point that it is rubbing people the wrong way. You can't have a simple policy disagreement without being accused of being racist, bigot, etc. It is also disingenious.

a reply to: Tman2135

Since your OP specifically mentioned the Presidency, there's not much Democrats need to do there. Their candidate won the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes and was less than 70,000 votes off in the 3 battleground States that would've given her the presidency. So all they'd have to really do is poach the Green Party votes in those States while nullifying the voter suppression methods in other battleground States to win comfortably.

If you're talking about at the Congressional & State level, that's quite a bit different. They need to reinstitute an improved version of the "50 State Strategy", for one. For those who don't know, "50 State Strategy" is the policy Howard Dean pushed when he was DNC chair. It focused on trying to win all 50 States, even when that meant running against incredibly popular (or incredibly powerful) Republicans. Unfortunately, they'd also run very conservative Democrats (like the Blue Dog Democrats) in "conservative" States, which led to debacles like when Southern Dems blocked the more progressive healthcare plans (like single payer).

After Dean left, Democrats started a new policy that focused strictly on winning battleground States to win the presidency. This was smart financially because it stopped them from spending money on elections they most likely wouldn't win. Unfortunately, this also meant they would concede entire States to Republicans & give up on elections once they were projected to lose badly. It also infuriated moderates and left wingers in those States because they literally abandoned us and our small time candidates! This is one major reason why many progressives started boycotting the DNC and sending money directly to the candidates' campaigns (which peaked with Bernie's campaign).

For what it's worth, Representative Keith Ellison is advocating a return to the "50 State Strategy". In fact, his plan is an advanced version which focuses on winning or at least fighting for every single county ("The 3,143 County Strategy")! I feel both good and bad about that: Bad because it's something I was advocating that the Green Party should implement; but good because if you read my election day thread, you'll see that I've lost all hope for the Green Party in my State. So the pragmatic part of me wants to find a way to help his program succeed (assuming he gets the DNC Chairmanship, of course).

They need to create a real platform. Everything they have been running on since 2008 has been based on emotional arguments i.e.: abortion,gay rights, healthcare and taxes. They stir the pot with social policies but don't have solutions to real life problems such as: the national debt, American jobs, trade deals, infrastructure, and energy production.

a reply to: avgguy

1. Healthcare is an emotional issue? It's one of the biggest economic issues in our country. Not to mention, taxes are literally economic policies.

2. Since when have the Republicans cared about the national debt when they get in power? Reagan, Bush I, and Bush 2 all ran massive federal deficits. Bush even took the budget surplus left over from Clinton's presidency and replaced it with a budget deficit. Trump will also run a budget deficit and no one will blink an eye about it.

3. Since when have the Republicans cared about American jobs? I don't mean talk & rhetoric, I mean actions. Or are we supposed to ignore that more congressional Republicans voted for NAFTA than Democrats did? And Republicans have consistently backed free trade deals, & shipped millions of jobs to China during the Bush years.

4. Republicans ALWAYS play on emotional arguments, too. Most politicians do. "Transgenders in the bathrooms!", "Obama's Death Panels!", "Letting gays get married will bring the End Times!", "Kick out the scary Muslims!", etc.

5. Isn't it the fiscal conservatives who are stopping the major infrastructure spending? They didn't even want Obama's "stimulus package" which included shovel-ready infrastructure jobs. They also didn't want Obama's smart energy grid policy, which would've help upgrade our national power grid.

Adding renewable energy sources to the power grid is also an infrastructure building initiative that the left is pushing. You can't fault us on infrastructure and energy production when we're literally trying to increase both of those.

a reply to: Tman2135

Ban anyone from the top fifteen percent of earners from the party, ban anyone from the top fifteen percent of earners from ever becoming a member or running for office on a Democrat ticket.

That would solve a whole heap of problems. It would get rid of all the clueless idiots who have either never lived a real life, or forgotten what it was like to do so, from a party which should represent those who have no voice, the poor, the young, the elderly, the sick, and the working people of the country, those who have no access to their rights, despite those rights being a matter of law. Get the serious left wingers in, the ones who want to see people hung for involvement in the NSA mass surveillance initiatives, who want to see literal heads roll over the sale of arms to Americas enemies, get them all in, get them motivated to make a damned horrible noise about the REAL issues.

Banning all interaction between representatives of companies and the party leadership, and any unsupervised and unrecorded contact between industry figures and any member of the DNC or its support staff. This ban would be backed by a monthly clearing system, where every month the members of the DNC have to post up or upload all their interactions, correspondence, or contacts otherwise with anyone in or outside the office they work in. Those should be available to view online, by anyone, for any reason, without warning or request.

Be the most transparent, honest, and most importantly, regular folks on the Hill.

I am not American ......but I picture the democrats HQ being full of retards, the mentaly ill and dellusional, those of the gay community thst takes things too far, milliant blacks and a few clowns...