The New(er) Deal
According to a new poll from ABC News/Washington Post, approximately 52% of the country believes that “Democrats stand for nothing more than opposing” President Donald Trump. At the same time, the poll also shows President Trump with a 36% approval rating, the lowest of any president in 70 years. With the Democratic Party needing to win just twenty-four seats to flip the U.S. House of Representatives, and twenty-three Republican seats in districts that were won by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democrats may be able to pull it off in opposition to President Trump alone.
However, any Democrat running for office should give voters a reason to vote for them, not just against President Trump, even if they could win solely based on stout opposition. Candidates should explain their vision for government, their priorities and agenda, and give the voters legitimate insight into the policies they will advocate for as their elected representative.
We have seen what happens when candidates do not provide such details: the platform for the Republican Party during the eight years that President Barack Obama was in office was to oppose anything President Obama supported. The Republican Party, to their credit, managed from 2010 to 2016 to take over both the executive and legislative branches with almost zero information on what they would do themselves if elected. Gone were the days of the far more specific “Contract with America:” the Republican platform almost singularly revolved around the vague promise of “repealing-and-replacing” the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with no clear plan on what would “replace” Obamacare.
And what has it gotten the Republican Party? They have won majorities, to be sure, but without a shared vision for government, or even a stated one, all that we have seen is a wholesale inability to pass any meaningful legislation whatsoever. Even with an ongoing investigation into President Trump’s ties to Russia, what has held the Republican Party back from repealing-and-replacing Obamacare is the lack of any consensus on what that “replace” should look like.
Instead, the Democratic Party should go back to the days of the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier, and the Great Society. Specific programs that form the basis of our view of government and demonstrate to people exactly what we intend to do to make their lives better. But more than just some website filled with esoteric white papers, there must be a message that ties the thread between the policy ideas in relatable terms. It must be a message that is premised on our shared values and the collective promise to one another that this country was built upon. It must be a message that demands we find the greatness within us as Americans: the compassion and resourcefulness that made this country something to be proud of.
As Senator Paul Wellstone used to say, “Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives.” Democrats must make sure we keep that in mind heading into 2018.
