Rebranding The Democratic Party In The Donald Trump Era

[think]

REBRANDING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN THE DONALD TRUMP ERA

BY EMILY CADEI ON 12/19/16 AT 7:00 AM

Packed into a cramped Senate hearing room, the crowd erupted into prolonged whistles and cheers. Bernie Sanders had just joined a “Hands Off Medicare” rally-cum-press conference on December 7, and the activists in attendance, mostly union members in matching T-shirts, were enthralled. When the headliners of the event, Democratic Party leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, took the podium, however, there was nothing more than polite applause.

This didn’t seem to faze Schumer, who had the unenviable task of following one of his colleague’s stem-winders on inequality and the greed of the “billionaire class.” After embracing Sanders on his way to the podium, Schumer opened his remarks by thanking “my friend and colleague and fellow James Madison High School of Brooklyn, New York, graduate.” Schumer is nine years younger, so the two didn’t overlap in school, but he likes to play up their shared Brooklyn roots. “Bernie was on the track team, and they won the city championship,” Schumer reminisced, his own Brooklyn accent more tempered than Sanders, despite the fact that the latter relocated to Vermont decades ago. “I was on the basketball team; we weren’t that good. Our motto was ‘We may be small, but we’re slow.’”

Schumer likes to trot out that high school sports anecdote whenever he and Sanders appear together in public. He does it so often that some on his staff know it by heart. And the rest of us may as well, given how regularly they now tag-team press conferences in Washington. As Democrats come to grips with their demoralizing 2016 election losses, one thing is already becoming clear: This loudmouth, Brooklyn-born duo are two of the leading forces shaping the party’s identity in the era of Donald Trump.

Progressive firebrands such as Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are the closest things Democrats have to a public face right now. They command huge followings on social media, can rake in cash from small-dollar donors and relish slamming the president-elect the way the party’s base craves. Sanders also has a new political organization, Our Revolution, run by former aides, to maintain his following among progressives. But make no mistake: Neither he nor Warren is in charge. It is Schumer whom fellow Democrats expect to steer the party through the Trumpian wilderness...

Read more:
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/12/30/rebranding-democratic-party-bernie-sanders-chuck-schumer-533281.html

[BainsBane]

1. The problem isn't branding or message

And it most certainly isn't policy. It's the economy: global economic change, accompanied by the DECLINE of AMERICAN EMPIRE and the growing disparity in economic growth between rural and urban areas. Politicians can say whatever, but voters will blame the party in power. They blamed the GOP in 2008 and they blamed Democrats in 2016. The problem is government's capacity to affect those conditions is at best limited.

[virtualobserver]

3. Based on what you just said, our 2018 slogan should be "There is nothing we can do, vote for us"

[BainsBane]

6. What do you think can be done?

And frankly, I don't give a shit about slogans. I care about policy. Voters have to be prepared to listen to actual ideas about making the economy better, which Clinton actually had (the only candidate who did) but the media didn't cover. Yet those policies could not remake the global economy and restore America to the 1950s. That is not possible. The problem is we have an electorate that demands to be lied to, which is why they get politicians who do just that.

You can focusing on branding until time immemorial. Spinning lies and empty promises does nothing to improve people's lives, and as long as people prefer demand that they be lied to, they are choosing to promote the decline of America.

[virtualobserver]

11. The most important thing is to shift away from the model of ever increasing CEO salaries......

while reducing labor costs. This is the so-called "free trade .

Secondly, we need to reverse the "drown the government in the bathtub" cost cutting.

The "global economy" is the economy of the super rich. We need to raise taxes (by removing tax loopholes that create incentives for behavior that harms average citizens) and we need to rebuild the national infrastructure. We need to stop subsidizing corporations like EXXON and GE.

[think]

4. The DNC chair & 3 other top leaders were forced to resigned. And there's no problem with the brand?

[BainsBane]

5. Are you seriously claiming that people voted for Trump

because of that? Your solution is just to get the right Madison Avenue spin?

[think]

7. Are we talking about the Democratic brand or Trump now?

[BainsBane]

8. I thought the problem was the Democratic party lost the election

and that rebranding was designed to address that. Now you claim it's totally unrelated?

[think]

9. There were plenty of reasons. The DNC's actions were part of those reasons. But apparently you

don't believe that.

[moda253]

2. I'm sorry rally-what???? emo

[Truth321]

10. When?

Will we ever see another Democrat win? I'm discouraged. I feel we have a permanent Republican run government.

[DesertRat]

14. Welcome to DU

[alarimer]

12. Schumer is good with the anecdotes, but he is not going to help with the rebranding.

In any case, it's more than "rebranding" the party needs.

[JudyM]

13. I truly hope Schumer rises to the occasion and strengthens the party message and image among

swing voters and inspires a significant upswing of both voter turnout and grassroots activism/candidacy within our party. I believe he has the clarity of vision now, it's just going to be a matter of great execution. It's smart, IMO, that he gave Sanders that role, despite some saying it was throwing him a sub-level post; Schumer needs plenty of time to focus on straight-ahead congressional action.

This is really the only hope I feel we have for 2018.