BvBPL
Pour Decision Maker
For much of the last two years, Democrat leadership has been sorely lacking any premise other than opposing now-President Trump. Democrats have been matching the puerile with the childishness of sticking their thumbs to Trump. The effort expended to condemn Trump hasn’t gotten the Democrats very far. Obamacare hangs on by a thread. A grotesquery of a tax bill was passed. The US Department of Education is run by a woman with little more recommendation than the fact that she bought her office. They shut down government. Dodd-Frank comes down as the wall goes up.
It’s time for Democrats to change tack. It ain’t a great time to be a Democrat Who Focuses Excessively on Complaints About Donald Trump so Democrats should stop Focusing Excessively on Complaints About Donald Trump. Democrats need to stop solely playing against Trump and start advocating and advancing their own interests. Right now, Democrats seem to have a chance of retaking the House and Senate in November, based largely on the fact that they are the party opposed to Trump. Imagine how much better the Democrats’ chances would be if they added policies and principals to that quiver. Imagine how much more effective a Democratic House and Senate would be in 2019 if there was a cohesive set of goals that they party wanted to achieve that had been vetted before the citizenry in the nine months prior.
In a recent op-ed, Richard Kluger provided one way by which Democrats could present a unitary plan to the American people while at the same time vetting the bench for potential leaders. Kluger purposes a series of weekly broadcasts wherein elected Democrats talk about the shared values of the Democrats and how to achieve the goals of those values. Kluger’s concept of fifty such forums would demand that Democrats move past just talking about Trump. To fill fifty such forums, Democrats would need to talk about actual issues beyond the incompetency of the current executive. What’s more, overtime the forums may enable a new means of citizen involvement in politics by soliciting viewer responses.
There’s no doubt that Trump’s wrongheaded policies are deserving of opposition, but the American people need and want more than just an opposition party from the Democrats. We elect officials to govern, and it’s high time that the Democrats show us how they will govern. Whether that’s using Kluger’s model or something else, it’s time for Democrats to be for something more than being opposed to someone.
It’s time for Democrats to change tack. It ain’t a great time to be a Democrat Who Focuses Excessively on Complaints About Donald Trump so Democrats should stop Focusing Excessively on Complaints About Donald Trump. Democrats need to stop solely playing against Trump and start advocating and advancing their own interests. Right now, Democrats seem to have a chance of retaking the House and Senate in November, based largely on the fact that they are the party opposed to Trump. Imagine how much better the Democrats’ chances would be if they added policies and principals to that quiver. Imagine how much more effective a Democratic House and Senate would be in 2019 if there was a cohesive set of goals that they party wanted to achieve that had been vetted before the citizenry in the nine months prior.
In a recent op-ed, Richard Kluger provided one way by which Democrats could present a unitary plan to the American people while at the same time vetting the bench for potential leaders. Kluger purposes a series of weekly broadcasts wherein elected Democrats talk about the shared values of the Democrats and how to achieve the goals of those values. Kluger’s concept of fifty such forums would demand that Democrats move past just talking about Trump. To fill fifty such forums, Democrats would need to talk about actual issues beyond the incompetency of the current executive. What’s more, overtime the forums may enable a new means of citizen involvement in politics by soliciting viewer responses.
There’s no doubt that Trump’s wrongheaded policies are deserving of opposition, but the American people need and want more than just an opposition party from the Democrats. We elect officials to govern, and it’s high time that the Democrats show us how they will govern. Whether that’s using Kluger’s model or something else, it’s time for Democrats to be for something more than being opposed to someone.
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