Does the Democratic Party need to "re-brand" itself?

[kentuck]

With a totally new message?

With totally new leaders?

With totally new candidates?

How much does the Party need to change? Should it change its name to the Democratic Socialist Party?

I have no doubt but that people will be looking for a different place to go after 4 years of Donald Trump. But, they may be hesitant to go to the Democratic Party because it has been so negatively branded that many voters think more highly of Vladimir Putin than they do the present Democratic Party.

[doc03]

1. It needs new fresh leadership with a backbone nt

[elleng]

2. The message is ok, imo,

tho needs re-tuning. Bill Clinton and SENATOR Obama had much better 'voices' than have been around 'recently,' so we all suffer.

The leaders and candidates need more work.

[uponit7771]

3. YES ... YES we should... be called the "Burn This Mutha Fucka Down Until McPootin Is In Jail" Party

... for starters

[rbrnmw]

12. I like that

[democrank]

4. Thought-provoking

In addition to what is already in place, our party could benefit from some new leaders, new ideas, new outreach, and, above all, some new backbone.

There are many Democrats who are openly hostile toward anyone who doesn't toe the traditional party line, but unless some attitudes change, I believe a new party is going to emerge that will gain a tremendous amount of national support.

[pangaia]

13. I would add, many Democrats are openly hostile toward anyone not owned by corporations.

[emulatorloo]

19. Proof? Links to polling data?

[Horse with no Name]

5. to be honest

if this trump presidency carries through with all the promised fruition....we will have a brand new landscape on the other side of it that doesn't include a 2-party system.

[otohara]

6. Boomers Just Need to Curl Up

and you know...and take the last of the so-called greatest generation with you.

Only then will the #DemEnter will be complete

The revolution of the takeover of the Democratic Party is underway headed by Michael Moore, Roserio Dawson, Susan Sarrandon, Paul Song, and of course the savior of all things free and fabulous Bernard Sanders.

Yesterday's Tweet from Michael Moore.

My friends, let this be the day we resolve to takeover the Democratic Party. The Old Guard has to go. Youth. The New Americana. The #NewDems

[Horse with no Name]

7. I take a little bit of offense

as I am a Boomer....a late boomer but nonetheless.
I am here to help.

[otohara]

10. Me Too

I took offense to Michael Moore's Tweet - out with old is the message they are sending.
Go check out #DemEnter

Like he's some spring chicken.
Sorry I'm sick of them - they don't want help they want a coup!

[frazzled]

14. Michael Moore is 62 years old

which makes him a boomer, and definitely "Old Guard." He's been around a long time; probably too long. Though he acts like a 17-year-old a lot of the time. If the Old Guard goes, Mikey, you should go with them.

In the America I live in, EVERYBODY counts equally, whether young or old. (And yer old.)

[emulatorloo]

20. Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore are boomers. Boomers are not yr enemy.

[otohara]

21. Ugh

The thought of Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore being spokespersons for the shiny new Democratic party sends chills down my spine.

Both of them did an incredible amount of damage to Hillary...unforgivable.

[emulatorloo]

22. Oh ok now I get it.

I share yr reservations.

[FreakinDJ]

26. You say that as some one who didn't live through the 60s and 70s

Or just like the punk I heard saying "Ronald Reagan was the Greatest President who ever served"

[otohara]

31. Cried Both Times

Reagan was elected.

The only time I did not vote was in 84 - standing in line at local hotel/bar antsy because I'm getting picked up to go to Boulder to see Joe Jackson. It was dark so had to be after 5pm when Dan Rather reports Reagan won...

[Initech]

8. This article explains why Trump fans hate us so much:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/how-nostalgia-for-white-christian-america-drove-so-many-americans-to-vote-for-trump/2017/01/04/4ef6d686-b033-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html

Particularly:

Even so, as the man he voted for is about to take office, Rowe is a bit wary. For one thing, he said, he does not want to have to defend Trump for the next four years.

“If I’ve learned anything while being a mayor,” he said, “you have to think before you speak. I’m not sure Donald Trump has learned that.”

If Trump does manage to “make America great again,” Rowe said it will involve preventing the government from encroaching on religion.

No, we don't want a government run by clergy. We don't want what these people want.

[gulliver]

9. It needs to get more courage, loyalty, and discipline from everyone.

The Democratic Party has reasonably good leaders. Our voters let them down by scurrying after shiny objects, throwing tantrums, and lazily being derelict in their duty to vote.

We don't need new leaders in the party. We need to grow up at the individual level. Then leaders like Clinton, Sanders, Moore, Obama, Warren, etc., won't be forced to constantly (and nauseatingly) pander to us. And we won't be constantly screwing up and making it hard for our leaders to lead us to win.

[alarimer]

18. It doesn't need loyalty from US; it needs loyalty from the elected officials to the principles

The party allegedly espouses. No more of this Third Way, middle of the road nonsense in an effort to attract disaffected Rs.

And stop cozying up to Wall Street and Silicon Valley for starters.

[gulliver]

24. Sapping power from the Dems is what creates the problems folks like Sanders and Moore decry

The Democratic Party wants to do right by the people and the planet, unlike the Republican Party. But this strain of thinking that says "give me mine first" ruins everything. The people have to give the Dems power first. That's what created FDR-style action. Weaken the Dems and, of course, you weaken liberalism and progressivism. And, of course, the Dems in their weakened state don't do everything we wish they would do.

The farmer's trying to plow the field with a horse. When the horse can't plow through a section of rocks, the farmer decides to cuss at the horse, beat it with a whip, threaten to get another horse, and feed the horse less. That's just dumb, and that's a farmer who's going to starve in the winter.

[kentuck]

25. Good analogy !

But some folks may say that loyalty is not a given....it must be earned. One season without a crop may be blamed on Providence or just bad luck, but several seasons might suggest someone else needs to be doing the plowing? Just to play the devil's advocate.

However, you make a very good point.

[crazycatlady]

11. They need more than a 50 state strategy

They need a ~3000 county strategy* (too lazy to look up the exact number of counties in this country). Every county should have an active local Democratic Party that is open to everyone. And not just party business meetings--- have social events as well. Let people know they live among like-minded people.

*If rural counties want to have a join forces with a neighboring 'sister' county, I'm not opposed.

But the party needs to contest every election. School board, council, dog catcher, mayor, etc. If the party is not rebuilt at the local level, they're doomed for the future.

[Phoenix61]

28. Completely agree

There's a reason the Koch brothers focused on local elections. If you don't know much about either party, you look to your local politicians for guidance. So Ms Sally (R) is on the school board and Mr Bob (R) and Ms Jane (R) are county commissioners. You know them all though your kids sports teams or church or work and they tell you how great Republicans are and you think, well, I like them and they do a good enough job. I don't know any Democrats so I guess I'll vote like Ms Sally and Mr Bob and Ms Jane tell me I should. I know that sounds simplistic but most people really aren't very knowledgeable about political issues and aren't that interested in changing that situation.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

15. To me, messaging and branding is just

marketing BS. All I care about is what the party is DOING right now. Tell me what you are ACCOMPLISHING. I don't care if you feel my pain (or not) or if the Republicans are evil.

[LWolf]

16. The party already rebranded itself

as the party of neoliberals, complete with corporate logo, sometime back.

It either needs to UNbrand itself, or yes, rebrand again as the party of the people, not the party of neoliberals, identity politics, and corporations.

[DonCoquixote]

17. I say it needs repair, but

there is a difference between repairing an old house, and wanting to go ahead and demolish it so that some new wonderful plan can be built,, which turns out to be a Starbucks.

My point is, yes for all the wicked things that were done that can and should be called treason, for all the things people like Trump, Comey, and Mitch McConnell did that deserve a life sentence in a super max prison, there were some flaws that we kept overlooking because we thought the American people were not stupid enough to vote for Trump.

Now, on the one hand the people calling for us to abandon what they label as "identity politics" are wrong. For every clichéd antidote of some excess of political correctness that Bill Maher puts up in neon, there are institutions, be they colleges, businesses and others that still keep alive prejudice that should've been gone 20 years ago. Yes we want to allow dissent, we want people who do not feel that they have gotten a voice to be heard, but if you cannot speak without demanding that all core not white have to defer to you, it will poison even the most nutritious parts of what you have to offer. If we cannot consistently say that any citizen has certain "inalienable rights" that we are not only a failure as Democrats, but a failure as Americans.

On the other hand, we do have to admit that we had lost connection with a lot of people that we never should've lost connection with. Simply put, while a lot of things that Sanders wanted to do might not of been practical, is aggressive hard push to make the economy work for everyone was correct. Sorry to say whenever there was talk of moving more to the left, not bending over backwards so we would meet the publicans in the middle, there was a lot of protest, and it was not hard for trumps team to make that sound arrogant and "deplorable." It is one thing to say the truth that a lot of the ideas were indeed deplorable, it is another to assume that people were simply deplorable, when many of these folks did vote for Obama twice.. No one is saying that we have to go ahead and try to become Denmark, nor that Hillary Clinton did not have some good reasons to say "we need to be practical as well as idealistic.." But what I am saying is that we as a party may need to look at our infrastructure and wonder if we have allowed some of it the rot, and if so how do we repair that. It is also very practical to say that we have been losing steadily, leaving governors, Congress people, mayors, Senators,, and other types who do build our party infrastructure. Sorry it does not matter how well you fund raise, if an eight years after we had the house the Senate and the Oval Office we are now in a state like this, it is very reasonable to go to the people whose well-paid job was to build up a party and say, either give us a clear honest answer on why we are in this predicament, or do not expect to be hired." No, wondering what the hell those in charge of getting Clinton elected managed to do with an early head start and a whole lot of money is not being anti-democratic.

And please do not mistake any of my call for soul-searching, infrastructure repair, outreach, but to hold fast to our principles be they FDR's new deal, or the UN declaration of human rights for anything else but that, if anybody wants to go ahead and look for ammo to play the endless game of our side should have won, and frankly they can take it outside. The only people who are gaining strength from Democratic voters fighting Democratic voters after the election are the Republicans, and don't think that they are trying to pluck your heartstrings so that you play the pretty music that they love to hear every November.

[emulatorloo]

23. Well said.

Just to highlight one of your points, those who point to "identity politics" as the reason we lost always fail to see that Trump partly won by focusing and appealing to Whiteness. That too is identity politics.

[Docreed2003]

30. Excellent, well reasoned post. Thank you!

[NanceGreggs]

27. Yes, we need to rebrand.

We need to stop being the party that fights for a raise in the minimum wage, and get on-board with the idea that if the top 1% get more tax breaks, it will "trickle down" to the down-and-out.

We need to stop being the party that wants to strengthen social safety nets and become the party that says "fuck you" to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the sick and dying.

We need to stop being the party that cares about everyone, and start being the party that only cares about those who vote for us.

We need to be the party of Putin, not the party of the American people.

We need to rethink everything we stand for - because standing up for principles is a losing proposition.

I'll go down with the Democratic ship, as flawed as it may be, before I go down as a traitor who took a place in a lifeboat full of "me first - everyone else be damned".

[Thinkingabout]

32. Good points, America's party to bring issues like SS to the front line and continue to fight

for SS over the years. Yes, I will remain a Democrat as long as they fight for these nasty issues.

[madinmaryland]

29. Re-brand and become even more Repubican? FUCK NO

Fuck that shit.