Democrats still misunderstand working-class voters - to their peril

[Bluetus]

40. We have lost the media and the courts largely BECAUSE

we have gone for generations without clearly articulating what Dems stand for. There never was any question when FDR was President, and really up through Carter. But for 40 years, we have had a tendency to "triangulate" and talk over the heads of the public rather than to just be very clear about what we believe in.

There has been a belief that the "open tent" was a huge advantage, and maybe it was for a time. But we are at the point now that we are losing the young generation, losing many Latinx voters, losing too many black men. IMHO this is mostly because we refuse to address the issues that most anger the public, and those are mostly economic fairness issues. People see Dems as lacking conviction and always running away from a fight. We tell ourselves that is because "somebody has to be the adult in the room", but the public sees that as feckless and weak. And when I say "the public", I'm talking about the 25% of the voting population that used to identify as Dem and now identify as Independent.

We have to win them back. They already agree with us on issues. That's not the problem. The problem is they don't believe we will FIGHT FOR those issues. So I welcome what Booker did. It showed the kind of passion and intensity we need to se from EVERY Dem.