In the aftermath of their humiliating loss during the Presidential Election, the Democrats have been having trouble coming up with a concrete plan. While they’ve had trouble rallying under one banner, they’ve been getting on the “bash Trump” bandwagon. Yet let’s face it: no matter what problems you have with our President, most comedians do a better job at bashing him than Democratic politicians (although sometimes those two groups aren’t mutually exclusive). And it looks like the left has figured that out, and are starting to craft an economic message for the upcoming elections that goes beyond bad-mouthing Trump.
Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that top Democrats are working on a “strong, sharped-edged, bold economic message” that’s guaranteed to tax us all to oblivion. It’s going to be “populist” (i.e. Communist) according to one senior Democratic aide, with infrastructure and trade expected to play large parts.
I never thought I’d say this, but maybe Bernie Sanders was right, or at least the Democratic establishment thinks so. The Democrats have come to blame their 2016 failure on a lack of a solid economic plan, so this economic passage reflects the lasting influence of Comrade Bernie, even if he lost the primaries. After their presidential loss, and even before, the Democrats have had trouble uniting under one banner, and the fact that the Democrats now have a cohesive plan could spell trouble for the GOP.
Nonetheless, Democrats say they don’t feel pressure to issue their Communist Manifesto just yet, as the GOP has suffered from infighting and division in light of the health care issue and Trump’s FBI probe of his ties to Russia. Senate Democrats have already rolled out a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and paid family leave package, but haven’t fully addressed how they’ll pay for it (spoiler alert: you will).
Nonetheless, they’re still having trouble fully uniting. Some lawmakers say they’re still okay with bad-mouthing Trump instead of laying out a plan, but that’s not going to last forever. Democrats need to develop their own agenda in the coming months that they can sell so that they won’t squander a potential opportunity to dominate the House in 2018.
