Inside the Democratic Party’s Plan to Find Its Way Back

Time: “Democrats know they have a branding problem that transcends policy, messaging, or leadership questions. They largely agree they need to re­center economic issues in their messaging and develop what some are calling a ‘patriotic populism’ to counter Trump. They need to build a bigger tent. Many moderate Democrats want to sideline the ­activist groups that pressured elected officials to take unpopular positions. Even many progressives are retreating from the purity politics that reigned in the Trump era. They know they need fresh ideas and new leaders, even though they can’t always agree on how to find them…” 

“Democrats are coming around to a new mantra: winning the argument is less important than winning elections. If the path to victory means embracing economic populism, they’ll do it. If they have to make room for new faces, then sayonara, old friends. If they need to tack to the center on some social issues, so be it. If winning requires doing more podcasts, or embracing Instagram influencers, or campaigning on permitting reform, they’ll give it a try. Because now that Democrats have seen what a second Trump presidency looks like, they’re relearning the lesson they should have known all along: only winning is winning.”