Democrats remain divided on the seriousness of their political problem following their election defeat

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly a month after a devastating electoral defeat which have exposed cracks in the very foundations of their party, Democrats remain deeply divided over the scope of their political problem – and even in the event that they have one.

Many Democratic leaders downplay the strength of the Democratic Party Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris as the inevitable result of the inflation-fueled backlash against incumbents that has shaped elections around the world. Others, nevertheless, imagine that the Democratic Party is facing an acute crisis that requires an urgent overhaul of its brand, message and economic policies.

Trump covered every state of the battlefield November 5, becoming first Republican candidate to win the national popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004. However, almost half the country voted against him. With final votes still being counted in some places, Trump won the popular vote by just 1.6 percentage points. He carried the top seven swing states with a complete of about 760,000 votes out of greater than 151 million forged nationwide.

“The glass is half full. It was close. If we gain one other 2-3% of American voters, that may thoroughly result in victories from the presidency down,” says Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who leads a gaggle called Governors Safeguarding Democracy.

But for Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Workers’ and Farmers’ Party and a candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committee next yr, the election was a “damning indictment” of the Democratic Party.

“People don’t believe that the Democratic Party is fighting for them or their families and that they care about their lives,” Martin told The Associated Press. “We lost ground with almost every group except wealthy households and college-educated voters.”

The internal debate about the party’s health comes at a critical time.

Trump will return to the White House on January 20, asking for a mandate to enact Article dramatic program “Make America Great Again.” led by the mass deportation of thousands and thousands of immigrants in the country illegally; an overhaul of the federal departments of health, education and justice, and major import tariffs that threaten to burden each the U.S. economy and international alliances.

Democrats, even weakened and divided, constitute the only organized resistance to Trump and his emboldened MAGA allies. But no less than for now, the Democratic Party has no leader or agreement on the policy problems that should be solved or find out how to solve them.

Many Democratic groups and leaders are working on post-election analyzes to higher understand what went flawed on November 5, but few are working together. And already some fear that the various post-mortem studies will create competing recommendations that may likely be lost in the rush to place the pain of 2024 behind us.

Priority USA, one of the Democratic Party’s leading super PACs, is scheduled to present its post-election findings this week. The group will recommend, amongst other things, that Democrats do a greater job of listening to voters, not pollsters, while offering a more forward-thinking, positive alternative to Trump’s MAGA movement.

Unless they make significant changes, as this briefing announcement indicates, Priorities believes there is no such thing as a guarantee that key elements of the Democratic base – especially young people and voters of color – will return to the party in future elections.

Some of the loudest voices calling for radical change represent the party’s far-left wing, which is usually ignored by establishment Democrats who control the party’s message, strategy and political platform. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders irritated some party leaders the day after the election with scathing criticism: “It shouldn’t be a big surprise that the Democratic Party, which has abandoned working-class people, has discovered that the working class has abandoned them.”

“While Democratic leaders defend the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” Sanders continued. “And they’re right.”

Since then, California Republican Ro Khanna, a Sanders ally and potential future presidential candidate, has urged his party to vary its economic message. In particular, he advocates a “New Economic Deal” focused on creating well-paying middle-class jobs.

Khanna’s chief of staff, Marie Baldassarre, said some Democrats may accept Khanna’s message and his willingness to share it on podcasts and right-wing outlets like Fox News.

“I don’t know how you look at this election and don’t care. It’s time for change,” Baldassarre said. Why shouldn’t we work now? We didn’t resonate.”

Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid, a former spokesman for Justice Democrats and the group “Uncommitted” that has been critical of Joe Biden’s primary nominee, said Harris’ loss revealed that the party “has a serious problem with a bleeding working class, poorly informed, disengaged – college voters.

He notes that some Democratic leaders responded with a collective shrug.

“Many people at the highest levels of the party feel quite lost,” Shahid said. “I am skeptical that they will be able to put together the kind of coalition they need to transform in our lifetimes.”

National Committee upcoming elections to decide on a brand new leader serves as a litmus test of the party’s direction of development.

The DNC is predicted to decide on a brand new chair in February, following a series of 4 candidate forums in January, in accordance with an internal memo released last week. It is unclear whether delegates will select an influential outsider or an insider who’s more aware of the complex workings of the party’s political apparatus.

Few are calling for wholesale change.

Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler, who announced his candidacy for DNC chairman on Sunday, said Democrats must adopt a brand new communications technique to connect with voters who don’t pay much attention to politics. He praised Trump for controlling the media landscape and suggested his party pay more attention to apolitical and right-wing podcasts and news networks.

Wikler, nevertheless, was skeptical that the 2024 election results signaled a political crisis for his party.

“We saw a slight shift to the right, driven mainly by those most affected by inflation who paid the least attention to the news,” he said. “This doesn’t represent an enduring shift towards Trump. “I think Democrats have a very real chance of regaining ground.”

He added: “I also believe that Trump will most likely not just repeat history and create disaster.”