New Jersey Is a Post-Election Test for Democrats
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Quote of the Day
“We’re not even a national party. We’re a coastal party.”
— Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), quoted by the Washington Examiner.
Obama Wants Another Choice for DNC Chairman
“Struggling to respond to Donald Trump’s victory, a group of shellshocked Democrats moved swiftly to endorse Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, hoping that he would be a fresh face for a party with a depleted bench,” the New York Times reports.
“But after steadily adding endorsements from leading Democrats in his bid to take over the party, Mr. Ellison is encountering resistance from a formidable corner: the White House.”
“In a sign of the discord gripping the party, President Obama’s loyalists, uneasy with the progressive Mr. Ellison, have begun casting about for an alternative.”
Biden Nixes Idea of Being DNC Chair
“So much for the latest draft Joe Biden effort — the vice president won’t be a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee,” Politico reports.
“The prospect of Biden leading the official party apparatus had been drawing interest in Washington and beyond over the past week. Other candidates have begun to step forward, but several party leaders — most recently, former DNC chair and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell — had begun motioning for the vice president to do the job.”
Warren Moves to Fill Democratic Void
“In the days since Hillary Clinton’s stunning electoral defeat to Donald Trump, the vacuum she left atop the Democratic Party hasn’t gone unfilled,” Politico reports.
“Elizabeth Warren has moved aggressively to occupy the space, a timely reminder to the party and its most ambitious members that all roads to 2020 — not to mention 2018 — go through her.”
How Do Democrats Bounce Back?
Los Angeles Times: “The most immediate battle is for leadership of the Democratic National Committee. The contest will pit Washington insiders against Beltway outsiders, liberal backers of Bernie Sanders against more centrist Hillary Clinton holdovers, and advocates of a full-time chairman versus those who feel it is fine to hold another job as well — serving in Congress, for instance.”
“The broader fight grows out of Clinton’s stunning defeat. (Few will very loudly criticize Obama for having failed to strengthen the party, or lay down a firmer foundation, during eight years as Democrat in chief.)”
“Instead of expanding the political map against Trump into the Republican-leaning reaches of Arizona and Georgia, Democrats are reckoning with the loss of Michigan and Pennsylvania, states they won in the last six elections, and Wisconsin, which had not voted for a Republican for president since 1984.”
Have Democrats Learned the Wrong Lesson from Defeat?
The Economist: “Aghast at the defection of millions who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 but for Donald Trump in 2016—notably working-class whites in the Midwest—the left wants the Democratic Party to snatch up the banner of economic populism and declare war on Wall Street, big business and other global elites. At post-election gatherings like the Democracy Alliance conference in Washington, DC, it is an article of faith that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the snowy-haired, finger-jabbing scold who lost the Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton, would have trounced Mr Trump in the general election.”
“Such Democrats are making a mistake. It is as if America’s political classes are bent on copying every part of Britain’s current flirtation with who-needs-experts populism. Not content with holding an election that saw voters sharply divided by education, age, geography and attitudes to social change—as happened with the Brexit referendum—American leftists seem ready to follow Britain’s Labour Party down the path of self-righteous irrelevance.”
Robert Reich: The Democratic party lost its soul
Democrats Hit New Low In State Legislatures
“The Democratic Party will hit a new nadir in state legislative seats after suffering more losses in November’s elections, highlighting the devastation up and down the party across the nation,” The Hill reports.
“Republicans will control 4,170 state legislative seats after last week’s elections, while Democrats will control 3,129 seats in the nation’s 98 partisan legislative chambers. Republicans picked up a net gain of 46 seats in Tuesday’s elections, while Democrats lost 46 seats.”
For members: Democrats may lose ability to block constitutional amendments
Joe Biden for DNC Chair?
NBC News: “There’s no word on whether the vice president is interested in running for the job — his office declined to comment — and those behind the effort know that it’s a long shot. But they’re making a concerted effort to line up support in the hope that it will convince the vice president to take the helm of a party in crisis.”
Will the Democrats Clean House?
First Read: “After their shocking defeat a week ago, Democrats will have a new roster of leaders in the coming months, especially with President Obama gone from office. A new DNC chair. A new Senate leader (Chuck Schumer). The one remaining question, however, is whether Nancy Pelosi will continue to hold her job as House leader.”
“As NBC’s Kasie Hunt reported, House Democrats have circulated a letter asking to postpone Thursday’s leadership elections — to better reflect on the election’s results.”
Politico: “House Democrats returned to Washington Monday searching for answers after their Election Day drubbing — and their longtime leader, Nancy Pelosi, confronted the first real stirring of discontent within the ranks since the last Democratic wipeout six years ago. While Pelosi has years or even decades of accumulated loyalty to fall back on, anger within the Democratic Caucus over what happened last week is palpable. The California Democrat faces a possible long-shot challenge from Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who hails from the kind of working-class Rust Belt district in which Democrats got trounced.”
Back to the Economy, Stupid
“The Democrats’ stunning defeat in the presidential race and continued struggles in lower-level contests have jolted party leaders into concluding that their emphasis on cultural issues has all but crippled them by diverting voters’ attention from the core Democratic message of economic fairness,” the New York Times reports.
“But even as Democrats agree about the need to promote their agenda more aggressively for the middle class and voters of modest means, especially in parts of the country where the party has suffered grievous losses, they are divided over how aggressively to position themselves on the economic left, with battle lines already forming over the lightning-rod issue of foreign trade.”
Bernie’s Revolution Strikes Back
“Supporters of Bernie Sanders’ failed presidential bid are seizing on Democratic disarray at the national level to launch a wave of challenges to Democratic Party leaders in the states,” Politico reports.
“The goal is to replace party officials in states where Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton during the acrimonious Democratic primary with more progressive leadership. But the challenges also represent a reckoning for state party leaders who, in many cases, tacitly supported Clinton’s bid.”
“The movement outside Washington to install new leadership — especially new leaders whose progressive credentials include support for Sanders’ presidential bid — mirrors the battle in the nation’s capital for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship in the wake of the devastating Clinton defeat and congressional elections where Democrats failed to win back either the House or the Senate. Sanders has endorsed Rep. Keith Ellison, leading House progressive and a prominent backer of his presidential campaign, to be the next permanent DNC chairman.”
Wall Street Journal: “The emerging leadership fight is being fueled by soul searching and recriminations about what went wrong in the 2016 elections and how the party should fix it.”
The Democrats Have Collapsed Under Obama
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Schumer Backs Ellison for DNC Chairman
Playbook: “Soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is backing Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison to be the next head of the Democratic National Committee, a big boost for the Minnesota Democrat as the party searches for a new leader. Schumer spoke with Ellison Thursday afternoon and ‘supports him for chair,’ according to a source close to Schumer, who added: ‘Without a Democratic White House, Schumer’s view is the DNC is where grassroots organizing in sync with leg battles should be organized.’
“Schumer’s nod comes as others like former DNC Chair Howard Dean have launched their own campaigns to run the embattled organization. Ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, hasn’t officially thrown his hat in the ring, though he has said he’ll make an announcement on Monday.”
Howard Dean Will Run for DNC Chair
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) announced he will be run for Democratic National Committee chairman, Bloomberg reports.
Said Dean: “I don’t believe in going back, but the party’s in big trouble and I have the best record of any DNC holder I think in history.”
He said that the party “needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.”
Time for a New Party
David Brooks: “Personally I’ve always disdained talk of a third party, mostly because the structural barriers against such parties are so high, no matter how scintillatingly attractive they seem in theory. But it’s becoming clear that the need for a third party outweighs even the very real barriers.”
“The Republican Party will probably remain the white working-class party, favoring closed trade, closed borders and American withdrawal abroad. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, is increasingly dominated by its left/Sanders wing, which offers its own populism of the left.”
“There has to be a party for those who are now homeless. There has to be a party as confidently opposed to populism as populists are in favor of it.”
Why Democrats Need a Stronger Republican Party
Catherine Rampell: “The end of a principled, intellectually coherent, organizationally robust center-right party is bad for democracy. It’s also bad for Democrats, given some of the dumb ideas flourishing on the left that desperately need a thoughtful counterweight.”
“But even on priorities on which liberals are likely to make progress, the lack of an honest, articulate, respected adversary is troubling. That’s because liberals need a worthy intellectual rival to sharpen their thinking and keep their own bad ideas in check. Right now a number of bad ideas booming on the left need a credible, coherent, megaphoned rebuttal. These are ideas that may sound nice and perhaps appear helpful. But pursuing many of them would be, at best, irrelevant and ineffective, a waste of time and resources; at worst, they would be actively harmful to the marginalized groups that bleeding-heart liberals claim to champion.”
Noam Bramson: Work to beat the Republican party on November 8 and to save it starting November 9.
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