Galindez writes: "When the Democratic Party realizes the winning formula was presented to them in the 2016 primaries by Senator Bernie Sanders and they start running on a message that puts people above corporate interests, they will start winning elections again."
Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill earlier this month. (photo: Stephen Crowley/NYT)
26 June 17
he Democratic Party likes to find scapegoats. The latest run of special election losses was not the fault of the House Minority Leader. The case can be made that the candidates did better in those races than Democrats have done in those districts in decades. But the Democratic Party will not return to power until it develops a unified message that inspires its base.
Donald Trump will help Democrats take back the Senate and make substantial gains in the House in 2018. It will be a wave election. But without a populist economic message, the party will continue to shrink. The Democratic Party needs to think beyond a short-term election strategy and develop a message that will grow the party for the future.
The fastest growing political group is “No Party.” The American people don’t believe that either major party represents them. Voters in Georgia didn’t care who the Democratic leader in the House was; they saw two boring candidates running vanilla campaigns, and they returned the seat to the Republican Party, which has held it for decades. Pssst ... it was Newt Gingrich’s position before 2000.
It’s silly to keep looking at these special elections as a sign of what will happen in 2018. None of the positions opened up because Donald Trump appointed a Democrat to serve in his administration. Part of any administration’s calculation when forming a cabinet is to avoid creating losses for their party.
I am not trying to defend Nancy Pelosi or the Democratic Party. I am saying that way too much is being read into these special elections. The Republican Party would still have won the election in the Georgia 6th if Tim Ryan had been the House Minority Leader. I like Nancy Pelosi more than Tim Ryan. He is not the answer for the Democrats.
When the Democratic Party realizes the winning formula was presented to them in the 2016 primaries by Senator Bernie Sanders and they start running on a message that puts people above corporate interests, they will start winning elections again. It is not about Nancy Pelosi or Tim Ryan. It is about putting Main Street ahead of Wall Street.
Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott moved to Des Moines in 2015 to cover the Iowa Caucus.
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