The Dems Don’t Get It
Politics is about conflict. Assuming otherwise only empowers our political enemies.
New York senator Chuck Schumer meets with Judge Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, in March 2016. Senate Democrats / Flickr
Six months since Donald Trump took office, the Democrats still didn’t have a compelling oppositional message.
At first, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee floated the slogan, “I mean, have you seen the other guys?” The title of the party’s new agenda, “A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages,” is barely an improvement. A Washington Post-ABC poll found that only 37 percent of people think the Democratic Party “stands for something.”
Even when they’re opposing the most heinous of Republican plans, Democratic elites can’t seem to muster a combative tone. When John McCain rushed to the Senate to help advance a bill that would strip millions of people of their health insurance, Democrats greeted him with a standing ovation, mistaking Beltway comity for genuine compassion.
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