PCCC Op-Ed In The Hill: Democrats lost on Tuesday, as widely predicted. But for months, pundits got wrong what Democrats would need to win.
PCCC Op-Ed In The Hill:
By Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor, PCCC Co-Founders
Democrats lost on Tuesday, as widely predicted. But for months, pundits got wrong what Democrats would need to win.
There was rumor that youth turnout, Latino
turnout, and cutting-edge Get Out The Vote practices would tip the
balance in close races. But when "close" elections are decided by 7 to
12 points, something much bigger is happening.
Pundits say President Obama was unpopular. Score one for the pundits. But the critical question is: Why was the president so unpopular?
Did voters not show up because of Syria, Obamacare, or Ebola? No.
Was President Obama proposing some big
liberal idea, sparking backlash? No. It's hard to remember the last time
the President offered a big idea.
Jobs and economic security are consistently
the top issues voters say they care about in red, purple, and blue
states. But Democrats did not have a united economic agenda in this
election.
Voters did not wake up on Election Day
thinking that their ability to have a job, have affordable college
education, or to retire with security was at stake. It was a
Seinfeld-ian election about nothing. And nothing does not inspire
potential voters to vote. In the absence of big ideas, Democrats lost.
(Of note, some Democrats campaigned
as Republicans. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) campaigned as the "most
conservative Senate Democrat" -- but voters chose a real Republican over
a fake one.)
However, someone did spark energy this
election cycle. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) attracted standing-room
only crowds in red and purple states. Democrats who didn't want to be
seen with the president were proud to be seen with Warren.
And Warren was the most popular Democrat on
the campaign trail for a reason: Her message of taking on Wall Street,
reducing student debt, and expanding Social Security benefits is popular
everywhere.
While progressives such as Sens. Al Franken
(D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-ore.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) won
re-election -- and Representatives Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) and Mike Honda
(D-calif.) won their close races -- they won because they have
consistently been economic populists and local voters knew that. But for
other Democrats across the nation, nothing substitutes for a clear,
authentic, united Democratic message focused on big ideas.
Moving forward, something needs to change
for Democrats. We need a bigger politics. We won't win our own tidal
wave elections unless we can build a movement around big ideas -- like
free college education, full employment, Medicare for All, expanded
Social Security, and real reform of Wall Street.
We need to make these issues so central to
the national debate that candidates actively campaign on these ideas.
And we need to start now.
Hillary Clinton may be coming around to
this strategy. In the final few weeks of the campaign, she tried to
sound more and more like Sen. Warren. (While not hitting the language
precisely, the intent seemed admirable.)
Progressives will be organizing in states
like New Hampshire and Iowa to ensure that all Democrats running for
president take a position on -- and campaign actively on -- Elizabeth
Warren's bold populist agenda. This is the path to victory in the
primary and general election.
A national progressive movement stands
ready to work with those leaders in Congress who choose to recognize
this imperative and step up to champion big ideas.
And if Obama makes Warren's agenda the
centerpiece of his agenda in 2015, his popularity will rise and
Americans will get the debate about big, bold ideas that we deserve.
Focusing on big ideas is the path forward
for progressives and Democrats. The Warren wing of American politics is
ready to lead.
Green and Taylor are co-founders of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, at BoldProgressives.org
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