The Democrats Have Absolutely No Idea About What They're Going to Do in 2018

With the news coming out of Donald Trump’s administration getting a little more stupid with each passing day, you may be feeling energized and ready to mobilize against the Republicans’ legislative agenda at the state level in the run-up to the midterms. But if you’re looking for bold ideas and fresh leadership, don’t bother looking to the Democrats for help.

In an interview with the Associated Press out Monday, Rep. Joe Crowley, the fourth-ranked Democrat in the House, made a staggering admission when asked about the party’s core message in the run-up to 2018.

“That message is being worked on,” the New York congressman told the wire service, when asked what the party’s core message to voters would be. “We’re doing everything we can to simplify it, but at the same time provide the meat behind it as well. So that’s coming together now.”

What a wonderful, thoroughly reassuring message coming from the self-proclaimed resistance party.

Of course, The Simpsons got this dichotomy right many, many years ago:

Crowley’s remarks come eerily well-timed with the release of polling on Monday that found a majority of Americans believe the Democratic Party stands for basically nothing except to oppose Trump. The number gets even worse among registered voters, 54% of whom reported the the party “just stands against Trump,” while 35% said the party “stands for something,” anything.

As we saw writ large in 2016, candidates win elections by offering voters something they actually want, something they can vote for—rather than just asking people to vote against the other guys. So it’s disheartening to see that even as the Republicans flounder again and again on healthcare, tax reform, and every other major legislative endeavor they spent years promising to pass onto a Republican president’s desk, the Democrats are coming up with…….nothing. Lessons learned from 2016 seem to be few and far between among establishment Democrats.

If only there was some kind of template for a common-sense, grassroots, progressive policy agenda the party could adopt to stop losing elections.