The midterm shellacking continues to roll on. Mostly it is delusional, but a few tidbits of reality leak through. Here’s one of them
Democrats Say Economic Message Was Lacking
For all the finger-pointing among Democrats over Tuesday’s election calamity, the White House, Congress and party establishment all share responsibility for weaknesses that the defeats laid bare, critics say, and should confront them as the 2016 contest takes shape.
The problems are fundamental, involving questions of where Democrats focus their party-building efforts, what voters they talk to, and most crucial, what they say to those voters. Missing this year, many Democrats say, was a broad economic message to enthuse supporters and convert some independents.
After that, the Times jumps into all sorts of other excuse making and blamestorming for many, many paragraphs
Even before Tuesday’s results were in, some Democrats were complaining that the party had failed to develop a national economic message and policy agenda that would appeal both to white men and to women and minorities, as well as counter the Republicans’ own lack of an affirmative policy platform. Many blamed Mr. Obama, yet the president was all but banned from the campaign trail given his unpopularity.
“Absent any clear or far-reaching national agenda and message to address people’s real economic concerns about jobs, wages and opportunity,†Mr. Teixeira and Mr. Halpin wrote late Thursday, “the Democrats essentially ceded control of the national campaign, opting to try their luck with a series of localized and targeted campaigns.â€
In other words, Democrats stressed abortion and the #WarOnWomen and other minor issues, while avoiding any sort of coherent message on the economy. The closest they came was pushing for a minimum wage raise to $10.10 an hour.
Another analysis released Friday, from Democracy Corps and the Voter Participation Center, which works to increase turnout among unmarried women — a quarter of the voting-age population — concluded that single women’s support fell short because they “did not hear issues important to them: an economic agenda for working women and men.â€
In comparison, Republicans talked about the dozens and dozens of economic bills sent from the House to the Senate, which were immediately tabled in committee without even a hearing. They talked about repealing and replacing Ocare, which has been a drag on the economy. Reducing the role of government within the economy (for the liberal impaired, it doesn’t meandoing away with the role, just reducing the size and scope). Balancing the budget. Stopping the flow of illegals, who tend to reduce overall pay. Stopping the threat against fossil fuels, which harms the economy. Reducing all the burdensome regulations that harm business. Having a proper tax policy. And many others. That’s what Thom Tillis did here in North Carolina, and what Republicans did in other states. Just because the message was lost in the liberal media outlets doesn’t mean that voters did not hear it.
What was the Democrat message? Let’s hit the DNC website, shall we? Um, let’s see, there is no agenda when you click on Issues>jobs and the economy. There are blog posts, the last of which was May 9, 2014. On green investment.
How about the DSCC? You’re taken right to a “Thank you” page, already asking to sign up so they can take back the Senate. With not skip button. Let’s try dscc.org again. And right back to the loser page. I think we can safely assume any issues were about #WarOnWomen, minimum wage, free money, and the other policies that avoid the overall economy.
BTW, have you noticed that, while the economy is still pretty crummy, the bleeding stopped when Republicans took over the House and stopped the Democrat agenda? Now that they control the House and Senate, we can finally see some progress, provided Mr. Obama cooperates with the will of the voters.
We’ve already conducted a sixty year experiment.
After WWII we had 3 decades of progressive-lite policy: progressive taxation, union support, declining debt, expanded middle class, universities, interstate highways, civil rights and built the greatest nation in the history of nations.
Starting in 1980 we’ve had 30 years of conservative-lite policy: regressive taxation, exploding debt, crumbling infrastructure, anti-union laws, stagnant incomes for the working classes and the worst wealth inequality in a century.
We are tearing down what we’ve built to satisfy the ideology that the wealthy need more wealth.
Poor J, you just won’t learn, will you? “Since 1980 regressive taxation..” Wrong. The tax code is as progressive as it’s ever been, with an ever shrinking group of people shouldering most of the burden. “Stagnant income and the worst income inequality in a century.” Both of which have gotten worse under Obama. But like most liberals you begin the income inequality issue with a false premise- that for some reason it would be advantageous to have it more equal. If intelligence, work ethic, or drive to succeed, (amongst may other attributes) aren’t equal, then why should income be more equal?
j,
You’re wrong. Your premise that the inequality is worsening because some of us have more
is fatally flawed, although you have left yourself an out with “other attributes”. Those other attributes are political power. Do you think that Mitt Romney bequeathing $100 million to his lads tax-free is because of anything other than political connectedness?
As I’ve pointed out many times, the damaging inequality stems from active policy decisions not “intelligence, work ethic or drive to succeed”. Policies on taxes, trade, Federal Reserve, immigration, unemployment, financial regulations, bailouts, unions, minimum wage etc have rewarded the donor class at the expense of the working classes.
If you don’t see that our most damaging economic problem is that the working classes don’t make enough to get by even though the economy produces enough for all… you are a Republican. Shouldn’t those that do all the work deserve some of the rewards?