It took the loss of the White House, Congress, and state races across the country to let reality sink in, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has finally realized what they must do to turn the tide: Listen to real Americans. The DCCC is putting this notion into practice by conducting focus group sessions ahead of the race for Georgia's 6th District to fill HHS Secretary Tom Price's old seat.
"Understanding that people are more than numbers, we have made a strategic decision to invest in qualitative research that will not only help up us in Georgia's 6th District, but also inform our message to key groups of voters ahead of 2018," said DCCC spokesman Tyler Law. "In order to learn lessons from last cycle and maximize our gains on an expanded battlefield, we must listen to real people and see what drives them to vote, and these focus groups are an important early step towards achieving that goal."
This wakeup call comes a bit too late. With House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at the helm, the Democrats chose to focus their 2016 election efforts on major liberal cities, neglecting to bring their message to much of the Rust Belt. Instead of booting Pelosi from her leadership position and letting a more sensible Democrat take her place, the party reelected her.
As if sticking with the status quo in Congress didn't frustrate progressives enough, they had plenty of grievances to air with the Democratic National Committee. The DNC left Bernie Sanders virtually no chance to gain the presidential nomination last year. Hillary Clinton, perceived as the establishment candidate, is who the Democratic officials wanted and they made sure that's who they got.
The committee appears to be making little effort to address progressives' concerns, electing former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez over Keith Ellison as the new chairman at last month's leadership vote.
In other words, in just about every area of Democratic leadership, it appears the people's voice is being silenced.
Maybe the DCCC's experiment in Georgia will start a new trend.