Continued from Part 2.
As far as the party itself goes, leaders across the party are, rightfully, looking inwards to figure out where Democrats went so wrong in terms of platform and message. Bernie Sanders put out a pretty scathing critique of the party the morning after the election, a statement that served as the de facto starting point for the populism vs. centrism debate that will play out these next few years.
What follows is going to be a lot of “on the one hand,” “but on the other hand,” “but back to that first hand” so bear me with me here:
It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is the Latino and Black workers as well.…Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.
One ally Bernie probably doesn’t need right now: Biden’s team.
Something Democrats have to figure out is where does policy stop and messaging start:
But also, he over-performed Harris! So there’s that.
By most measures, the economy is strong. But, clearly, for millions of American voters, it didn’t feel strong. And while it’ll be maddening to see lots of MAGA folks suddenly feel great about the economy come January 2025, Democrats have got to probe into why their genuine economic victories did not translate to meaningful quality of life improvements for so many.
Continued in Part 4.
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