There’s a narrative that runs through conservative social media that claims Democrats don’t understand how to win elections anymore. While it might be overstated, it has serious merit. Democrats understand policy but don’t understand much of the electorate. They latch onto policy prescriptions when they should be listening better to the people who vote.
The latest example is the number of Senators lining up to endorse single-payer health care. It might be a winner in Democratic primaries but it’s not in general elections in the Congressional districts Democrats need to win. People want better health care that’s less expensive. They don’t necessarily want another major overhaul of our health care system. Obamacare is more popular than it’s ever been but still needs a fix. Single-payer might be the ultimate outcome, but first Democrats should talking about fixing it, not scrapping it.
Democrats hear the complaints and dissatisfaction of voters and want to offer concrete solutions that sound great to them and their liberal base, but sound overly disruptive to much of the population in general. When people demand better wages and benefits, Democrats offer a mandatory $15 an hour minimum wage. When voters complain that their kids are leaving college with too much debt, Democrats propose free tuition.
Instead of offering one-size-fits-all solutions, Democrats should be addressing Americans’ anxiety. People want to know they’re heard but they don’t necessarily want heavy handed policies to address their concerns. Recent polls show many of Democrats’ policy prescriptions have little support outside of the base.
Instead of leaping to single-payer health care, Democrats should be arguing to first make fixes to Obamacare. Democrats need to understand that $15 an hour in California or New York is not the same as $15 an hour in Clayton or Raeford. When students and parents complain about the rising cost of college, they’re not necessarily saying they want it to be free. They want it more affordable. States need to have a hand in the solutions as much as the federal government.
Democrats should be more measured in their prescriptions and more aggressive in letting Americans know that they hear them. Their economic message should be focused on helping small businesses start and grow, updating infrastructure to connect people to jobs and goods to markets, increasing competition instead of limiting it, embracing new technology and clean energy and expanding educational opportunities to prepare our children for 21st century jobs.
Prescriptions should include fixing Obamacare instead of scrapping it, a modest increase in the minimum wage, federal investments in colleges and universities to reduce their costs and making government work again. After a brutal recession and years of a dysfunctional Congress, people want less hyper-partisanship and more progress. Democrats have the luxury of laying the blame at the feet of the Republicans who control all branches of government. They shouldn’t blow it by offering solutions that alienate as many people as they attract. They might be right on the issues but it doesn’t matter if Republicans continue to control Congress.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I ask myself: How can Thom, an intelligent and experienced guy, get it so wrong?
I think the nub of the problem that people too close to the sausage making of political consulting
often fail to see and understand the underlying dynamics of the time.
Thom is espousing thoroughly discredited DLC/ Bill Clinton philosophy – which kind of worked until the great enlightenment in which people saw the curtain pulled back and saw the thorough corruption of congress and state legislatures.
People don’t trust Congress and sure don’t trust (or know) those “laboratories for corruption” – state governments. They have no faith in legislative fine print.
They have much more trust in Bernie or in Trump and their statements of clear broad goals – for which they can be held accountable (and Trump will be).
The lesson of Bernie’s rise and Trump’s win is clearly that almost no one trust packs of politicians to do anything more than sell them out to the highest bidders. They want a clear goal out of the mess and firm goals and promises that are hard to back out of. They want transformational politics, not more back room transactionalism – and Hillary reeked of trying to dazzle the bumpkins with 10 point programs and fine print which meant “you wouldn’t understand – leave it to us professionals – you have no place in this process.”
Bernie and allies have staked their flag with a clear, long-overdue, single-payer plan. The time is right. The framing is right. It will take years – which they know and say.
That progressive populist approach is the only way forward that can both win and deliver.
So the important thing is to say “I feel your pain”, while not actually promising to do anything about that pain?
You think we’ll be able to pull that one AGAIN?
“Single payer health insurance” scares almost everyone. But “Medicare for all” , well, almost everyone loves Medicare and knows seniors on it.
Words matter.
Yes they do. Conservatives have spent years and $$$$ perfecting their playbook (Powell memorandum) and it’s paying off for them big time. Time for liberals and progressives to wake up and frame their values and agenda in terms of values.
I READ THIS ARTICLE TWICE AND THEN I READ THE WRITERS BIOGRAPH BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT HE MAKES ALOT OF FALSE STATEMENTS AND JUMPS TO UNFOUNDED CONCLUSIONS IN THE ARTICLE..
[1.] Democrats don’t understand how to win elections anymore. While it might be overstated, it has serious merit. THIS SHOULD READ ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRATS DO NOT KNOW HOW TO WIN ELECTIONS ANYMORE.
[2.] The latest example is the number of Senators lining up to endorse single-payer health care. It might be a winner in Democratic primaries but it’s not in general elections in the Congressional districts Democrats need to win. People want better health care that’s less expensive. FACT: Currently, 60% say the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, while 39% say this is not the government’s responsibility.
FACT: most Republicans (57%) say the government “should continue programs like Medicare and Medicaid for seniors and the very poor.” Just 9% of Republicans say the government should not be involved in providing health insurance at all.
FACT: A 2009 article by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a widely recognized authority on health care, said polls as far back as the 1930s show Americans have generally supported “the goals of guaranteed access to health care and health insurance for all, as well as a government role in health financing.”
FACT: Polls had consistently shown that a majority of Americans wanted some form of universal health care coverage — they want uninsured people to have insurance
[3.] AS WE ALL KNOW EACH AND EVERY POLL THAT SOMEONE PAYS FOR WILL COME UP WITH THE RESULTS THAT THEY WANT TO PROVIDE TO THE READERS. THIS IS SIMPLE DONE BY THE POLLSTER ASKING A PREDETERMINED GROUP OF PEOPLE A SPECIFICALLY WORDED UESTION TO GET THE RESULTS THEY WANT.
[4.] When students and parents complain about the rising cost of college, they’re not necessarily saying they want it to be free.
FACT: NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE, BUT WE WANT THE COSTS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE U.S.A. TO BE SHARED BY ALL CITIZENS EQUALLY RATHER THAN MAKING EDUCATION EXIST ONLY FOR THE RICH AND POWERFUL.
[5.] Democrats need to understand that $15 an hour in California or New York is not the same as $15 an hour in Clayton or Raeford.
REPUBLICANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE NOT ELECTED TO ONLY PROTECT AND SERVE THE RICH AND POWERFUL 1.0%. “WE THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE” WANT EVERYONE TO BE ABLE TO PROVIDE A BASIC LIVING WAGE TO THEIRSELVES AND THEIR FAMILY.
FACT: “WE THE PEOPLE” WILL NOT ALLOW THE REPUBLICANS TO MAKE SLAVES OUT OF ALL OF THE POOR AND LOWER MIDDLE-CLASS FOR THE FEW “RICH AND POWERFUL.”
FACT: IF THE MINIMUM WAGE HAD KEPT ABREAST OF THE REAL AVERAGE COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENTS IT WOULD NOW BE $20.31 PER HOUR.
FACT: EVERYONE IS NOT COVERED BY THE MINIMUM WAGE LAWS. THEREFORE THE FIRST THING TO DO IS REMOVE ANY AND ALL EXCEPTIONS AND EXEMPTIONS.
[6.] Democrats have the luxury of laying the blame at the feet of the Republicans who control all branches of government. THIS IS TRUE. I
FACT AS EVERYONE WHO FOLLOWS ME AND WHAT I WRITE KNOWS I HAVE SAID THAT EACH AND EVERY DAY THE REAL DEMOCRATS SHOULD MAKE SURE THAT EVERY STUPID ACT OR WORD A REPUBLICAN DOES OR SAYS MUST BE ADDED TO THE CHAIN WE PLACE AROUND THEIR NECK TO END THEIR POLITICAL CAREERS.
FACT: WE MUST POINT OUR HOW EACH AND EVERY VOTE A REPUBLICAN MAKES EFFECTS THE LIVES OF THE U. S. CITIZENS.
While I completely agree with your assertions that “overly” bold proposals are at least partially “pie-in-the-skyish”, what you’re prescribing sounds a lot like policy specificity. Unfortunately, the majority of the electorate do not respond to detailed policy and governance platforms. If they did, Hillary would have won by a landslide (electoral AND popular). No, most respond to negativity – don’t, can’t won’t, not here, not them, cut this, it’s not my fault, etc… They prefer disruption to the body politic rather than contemplative debate of the issues. Oh, they may say they want particulars, but when Trump says “I’m bringing back your jobs”, tongue fully implanted in his bloviated cheeks, they buy it hook, line, and sinker. Democrats need to learn how to blow dog whistles without alienating the handful of us who know what the real work of democracy entails. How? That’s the 4 trillion dollar question.
Well, if Democrats don’t know how to win elections, they do know how to get the most votes. They have won the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections; they outpolled Republicans for the US Senate in 2016 by 11,000,000 votes; in 2012 they outpolled Republicans for the US Senate by 11,000,000 votes; they almost tie Republicans in competitive US House election results. The problem is not with winning elections – if you believe that in a democracy that is accomplished by your candidates getting the votes of the most people – but with how to win both the votes and the geography and how to win in an electoral college which gives Idaho the same number of votes per US Senator it gives to California . Do we really believe that as wonderful as people in West Virginia are, they are 10 times more valuable than people in California? For the Democrats the strength is people; for the Republicans it is acreage. I think, in the long run, history values people more than acreage. Democrats need to stop acting like they are in the minority. While it may be close, they are not. We have a minority government in Washington led by a president who received 10,000,000 fewer votes than his opponents. Our system allows, perhaps even encourages minority presidencies, but that does not mean that majority need wallow in lamentations.