If you’ve ever seen the movie Fight Club, Ed Norton’s character viciously beats Jared Leto to a pulp. That’s what’s happened to the Democratic Party. It may not have occurred through one bout, but they’re 0-4 in special elections. They’ve lost the White House, Congress, and their position in rural America. That’s why Republicans control 69/99 state legislatures. As the Left licks their wounds after Democrat Jon Ossoff lacked the competitive zeal to win in Georgia’s sixth congressional district, the party is left wondering what they’re going to do. There will be another internal debate about whether to shift more to the left or move to the center, though some Democrats are wondering if their party brand just sucks. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) admitted that his party’s brand is worse than Trump’s. Uh, one difference congressman, President Trump’s brand actually won an election (via NYT) [Emphasis mine]:
Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the defeat was “frustrating” and urged a shake-up at the top of the party.
“Our leadership owes us an explanation,” said Mr. Moulton, who voted against Ms. Pelosi in the last leadership election. “Personally, I think it’s time for new leadership in the party.”
[…]
Representative Eric Swalwell of California, a third-term lawmaker close to party leaders, said Democrats would “crystallize our message on jobs, on health care” in the coming months. The results in Georgia and other special elections, he said, should encourage Democrats to campaign across a huge map of districts. “We need to compete everywhere,”
Mr. Swalwell said on Wednesday morning. “We want to be the party that’s for your job, for your health care and for your kids’ future.”Others in the party were far more caustic, calling Mr. Ossoff’s defeat a warning to Democrats who see red-tinged suburban districts as the keys to winning power, and saying that Ms. Pelosi would undermine the party’s candidates for as long as she holds her post.
Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who tried to unseat Ms. Pelosi as House minority leader late last fall, said she remained a political millstone for Democrats. But Mr. Ryan said the Democratic brand had also become “toxic” in much of the country because voters saw Democrats as “not being able to connect with the issues they care about.”
“Our brand is worse than Trump,” he said.
Right now, there’s a growing chorus of Democrats pointing the finger at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). South Carolina House candidate Joe Cunningham, who is hoping to unseat Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), said he would not vote for Pelosi for leader should he win in 2018. He said speaker, but at this point—that’s a stretch to project a Democratic takeover when they just had the rug ripped from under them in Georgia. Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX) also ripped Pelosi saying, ““I think you’d have to be an idiot to think we could win the House with Pelosi at the top.” Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) seemed to agree.
“There comes a time when every leader has to say, ‘For the good of the order and for the betterment of the party, it’s time for me to step aside’ and I wish that that would happen right now. This is not a personal thing. I want to get back in the majority,” she said.
As Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s Morning, noted yesterday, the defeat of Jon Ossoff shows that the road to revival for the Democratic Party is a long one. President Trump may have his flaws, but it works. The yelling, screaming, and cursing of the Democratic Party; the endless protests; the calls for resistance; and the obsession about Russian collusion are not winning messages. It shows that momentum is not with their side. It shows that what we’ve seen are progressives who live in bubbles, who travel to other bubbles (i.e. NYC to Washington D.C.) to protest Trump. When there’s a sizeable Women’s March in Youngstown, Ohio, then we can revisit this, but the progressive tantrums are in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. etc.; the places you’d expect liberals to froth at the mouth over Hillary Clinton losing one of the most winnable elections in recent memory.
And it doesn’t look like the future is too bright either (via Politico):
DEM OPERATIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We no longer have a party caucus capable of riding this wave. We have 80-year-old leaders and 90-year-old ranking members. This isn’t a party. It’s a giant assisted living center. Complete with field trips, gym, dining room and attendants.”