Beyond opposing Trump, do Democrats have a message?

Beyond opposing Trump, Democrats keep searching for a message

by Dan Balz

The loss in last week’s special congressional election in Georgia produced predictable hand-wringing and finger-pointing inside the Democratic Party. It also raised anew a question that has troubled the party through a period in which they have lost ground political. Simply put: Do Democrats have a message?

Right now, the one discernible message is opposition to President Trump. That might be enough to get through next year’s midterm elections, though some savvy Democratic elected officials doubt it. What’s needed is a message that attracts voters beyond the blue-state base of the party.

The defeat in Georgia came in a district that was always extremely challenging. Nonetheless, the loss touched off a hunt for scapegoats. Some Democrats, predictably, blamed the candidate, Jon Ossoff, for failing to capitalize on a flood of money and energy among party activists motivated to send a message of opposition to the president. He may have had flaws, but he and the Democrats turned out lots of voters. There just weren’t enough of them.

Other critics went up the chain of command and leveled their criticism at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She has held her party together in the House through many difficult fights — ask veterans of the Obama administration — but she also has become a prime target for GOP ad makers as a symbol of the Democrats’ liberal and bicoastal leanings. Pelosi, a fighter, has brushed aside the criticism...


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/beyond-opposing-trump-democrats-keep-searching-for-a-message/2017/06/24/6bb05b54-5857-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html?utm_term=.7d965864d

I think he is right on the money. We need to talk about Trump less, and we are going to do more.

On Edit: People don't seem to understand what I mean by messaging. For information on that, see the video of George Lakoff with Tavis Smiley or read some of Lakoff's work online. It's not enough to have a policy paper or a bunch of positions you talk about, it's about what you say most often and what aspects of a person's brain are being activitation. Conservatives activate the authoritarian brain. Liberals need to activate the nurturing brain, and we haven't down a very good job of it.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/professor-cognitive-science-george-lakoff/