It’s all lipstick on pig unless workers (real workers) are the majority on the DNC board!
Get the monopolies, the Wall Street banks, the military establishment, and the Clinton/Obama corporatist the hell out!
Then maybe the populous will return to the Democratic Party and believe they are different than the fascist Republicans!
Get rid of Debbie Wasserman Schultz now! Kick out the Dems who are really Republicans!
Snark, right?
Democratic leaders believe they lost to President Donald Trump partly because voters don’t know what the party stands for. So they’re trying to rebrand themselves with a new slogan and a populist new agenda as they look ahead to the 2018 midterms.
No, voters, as well as non-voters, know exactly what the national Democratic Party stands for: Austerity, cutting Social Security through Chained CPI and raising the retirement age, bailing out Wall Street while bailing on Main Street, out-of-control military spending and an abandonment of their 2006 antiwar stance in favor of illegal warmongering in Libya, Syria, Honduras and the Ukraine, ignoring flyover country, taking for granted the voters of the formerly industrial Midwest, creating the formerly in “formerly industrial Midwest” in the first place through their militant support for “free” trade agreements, and not only allowing but encouraging outsourcing at the behest of their plutocrat masters. Yes, Virginia, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supported all of the above, if not in words than at least in actions, and voters, whom many in the Democratic Party believe to be stupid or willing to vote against their own self-interest, certainly took notice. (And, yes, of course, Donald Trump and the Republican’t s are NOT their saviors, but Democrats didn’t offer them any better…)
“A Better Deal"?
What is the rush with creating a slogan? This one sucks!
Why not take some more time and wait until you have a better one before you blurt this out?
I like Papa Johns…but really! At least get something original
Who is the knucklehead who came up with this slogan?
Um, no. Terrible. Makes me want to bang my head against the wall in despair. No one is going to wear a T-shirt with “A Better Deal” written on it. #ABetterDeal will instantly fail as a Twitter hashtag. It’s a relativistic, value-free statement that doesn’t even try to appeal to the emotions. It’s not a slogan at all.
Is this so f***ing hard? A slogan explains your values–honesty, fairness, love of country and planet–and then you roll out the policy details for the tiny minority who are interested. 80% of people, and I would think 90% of swing/occasional voters, will not pay any attention to the policy details. They just want to know what you fucking stand for.
How about: People First.
Democrats believe that everyone should have quality, low-cost health care because we put PEOPLE FIRST.
Democrats believe that everyone should have clean air and clean water because we put PEOPLE FIRST.
Democrats believe in building up the middle class not tax cuts for the rich because we put PEOPLE FIRST.
You get the idea.
Yes. Very good.
@JoshMarshall please convey this brilliant suggestion to the powers that be. It’s a huge deal, as you like to say.
DWS hasn’t been leading the DNC for a year now. Are you suggesting she should be thrown out of the party? Out of the country? Shot into space on a rocket? What are you looking for here?
The candidate that the Democratic Party put up in 2016 was a DINO. That wing of the party continues in its attempt to control the party.
Send that to them.
There’s an element that still wants her shot into space on a rocket as proof of good faith. There’s always going to be some incorrigible noise like that. The rest of us have to just show good faith the way you actually should show it, by pushing for better policies and a clearer message and perhaps also pointing out how good the Clinton platform in 2016 actually was, seeing as nobody, not even Hillary Clinton herself, has bothered to point this out before.
YES! Much much better. Thank you!
Now, with a scintilla of real spine!
It’s not going to work as long as the Left remains committed to its circular firing squad. I’m a marketing professional and I’ve been watching the Democrats – with big help from the “Independent Left” that has endlessly gone after progressives in the Democratic party rather than the ultra conservatives on the Right – destroy their brand in election season after election season. They do it by being willing to use Republican talking points and attacks against their own side. By refusing to stand by their candidates when they are under attack. By, worse, failing to stand UP for their most important, most progressive CONSTITUENTS when they seek real power and representation in the party.
If this is just one more gambit to gain the angry, conservative white men they lost 50 years ago – by throwing the working women (63% of the working class) and minorities overboard – it won’t work. The white men they lost were lost because they are doing just fine economically – better than anyone else – and want to keep it that way by keeping others in what they believe is their proper place. For those men that doesn’t apply to, kicking the women whose work and opportunity benefits them too, and/or the minorities they work with every day, in the teeth isn’t going to gain them anything other than further proof that working people can’t depend on them.
If they are listening to Sanders idea of who the working class is they are in trouble; Sanders doesn’t know anything about the modern economy, has an idea of the working class that is half a century old, and, like most in the Independent Left is not only NOT working class but has always saw himself as BETTER than the working class. His patronizing pose as the savior the working class needs only appeals to other elitist and their college age children.
Sounds like a good start, need to get plans in place for what the Dems will run on for the Mid-Terms. I like the lowering of Prescription Meds and the raising of wages, as well as going against Monopolies.
i don’t know if i would have lead with these 3, I might have changed out Monopolies for another topic but, still i like that they’re going out there with a message and going after a GOP seat in the process.
I saw a Schumer appearance yesterday. The new slogan is right out of the 1930s but the populist message is attractive. They are beginning to get their shit together. Now they actually have to repeat their message over and over again. I think they need new and younger spokes people. Nancy and Chuck are too old to carry this message outside the gray haired set.
I’ve long been crabbing about the Democrats not speaking up about anything, so I’m hopeful here.
Their talking points seem good, having to do with things that could benefit both poor blacks and angry southern whites. Go with your strengths.
I tend to agree that Pelosi and Schumer are lousy frontmen/women/people, though. That’s a problem.
Of course, this is Day 1. Let’s see if this builds any momentum. As an independent, I’m on board, conditionally.
These are all good policies. But they don’t define or rebrand the party, if that is what the point of this exercise is. Rebranding the party would involve statements about what or who the party is for, and what it opposes. A raft of fiddly policy proposals, ideal once you’re in government but way too technical for most voters, is perfectly useless at this point–unless, say, you were making a truly eye-opening suggestion. Why Dems don’t simply offer Medicare for everyone above the age of 55 is a total mystery to me. It would (1) do immense good; (2) cause havoc in the Republican base, which is 55 and over; (3) fix Obamacare, since premiums for younger, healthier people would necessarily go down if they weren’t subsidizing high-risk older people. Even Bernie now accepts this.
Bingo. This shit is trite fluff. I’d love to be happy about them finally realizing that their #1 problem is messaging, but it’s like them announcing that they know they need to get into the next room, but then watching them run headfirst into the door over and over again and never think to try the fucking knob. They have such a talent for generating bland, effete, group-think and group-speak it makes me want to scream.
We know exactly how this went down, if we imagine it as a roundtable circle-jerk: every suggestion even hinting at creating controversy, agitation, conflict, backlash or being called “divisive” etc…and oh boy did they strain to find imaginary conflict to worry about…got thrown into the fucking trashcan with the tissues, because they have this deep misunderstanding of populism as meaning everyone is getting along, everything is inclusive. They don’t seem to understand that taking a position and standing for something means drawing a line of demarcation and then convincing people to come to your side…that you stand for nothing when you attempt to draw a giant circle around everyone where they’re already standing.
You can’t get resonance without striking something. They needed to ring the fucking bell, not rub it. They need something with some bite, something that takes these concepts they’re trying to convey…because they’re just fine as concepts to stand for…and reduces and encapsulates them in a strong way that contrasts them with the GOP/Teatrolls and the absolute nonsense they’ve tormented us with for the past decade. Instead, all we got was another “all aboard” for the Bland Train.
Frankly, what I worry about most is that this abject refusal to grow spines and embrace the conflict that necessarily accompanies espousing a strong position and then fighting for it tooth and nail is that the only conflict it will really encourage is internal…entirely within the liberal/progressive movement. Too many people are sick of their refusal to say things like “enough is enough” or “no mercy…no quarter”…or at least act as if they believe in and stand by their positions that strongly…for a bland un-slogan to generate a unified front. It’s time we had some warriors on the field, not just negotiators.
And to be clear: I’m all for tactics like playing the adult in the room or being the guys who are wiling to compromise when it comes to wrangling within the legislative process and what not. A certain amount of the political should be put aside once the politicking is over and it’s time to actually govern BUT this messaging and outreach is solely in the fucking political realm. This is where and when the kid gloves are SUPPOSED to come off.