Kennedy pleads with Dems to win back votes
Says ‘we lost their trust’
U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III, breaking ranks with other Democrats who are trashing Presidentelect Donald Trump and boycotting his inaugural, is imploring his party’s rank and file to figure out why middle American voters went Republican in November.
“Somewhere along the way, we lost their trust. We have to get it back,” Kennedy said, departing from many in his party who have sought to cast blame for the loss elsewhere.
Kennedy rallied roughly 160 Democrats in a high school cafeteria in deep-blue Newton, giving a brief outline of what he sees as the future of his party.
An important step, he said, is to find out why people voted for Trump, rather than reacting to everything he posts on Twitter.
“The danger with going down that road is that it risks distracting us from what the core message was on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8,” Kennedy said. “For some reason this time, they decided to trust Donald Trump with their vote.”
He said liberal voters need to find common ground with Trump supporters, and said berating them for their decision is the wrong way to win them back. “Folks, we lost their trust and being mortified and mystified about their vote doesn’t bring it back,” he said.
Kennedy, who’s starting his third term in Congress, spoke for 15 minutes before ducking out and leaving state Democratic Party chairman Gus Bickford to address the crowd about Democratic grass-roots efforts locally.
“I would like to empower you to be better at what you do,” Bickford said. “That’s what is going to make us better as a Democratic Party.”
But as Bickford spoke, some members expressed their frustation. One person yelled out that the meeting was “a colossal waste of time.” Another took a shot at Kennedy for leaving “after only 20 minutes.”
Outside the gathering, Kennedy told the Herald that not all Trump tweets should be brushed off. If the Republican firebrand steps too far over the line, he said, voters and politicians need to speak up.
“There are going to be times when he says or does things that are deeply offensive and we have to stand up to that,” Kennedy said. “But the overarching message that we have to address is there are an awful lot of people out there hurting, and that’s the central concern that we have to address.”
Kennedy added that he will definitely be in Washington, D.C., on Friday for Trump’s inauguration.
“It’s an opportunity to recognize that an awful lot of people around the world are still fighting for a political system where there is a peaceful transfer of power,” he said. “That’s something to celebrate.”
He also noted at the Newton rally that it’s important for Democrats to show Massachusetts as a model of liberalism and “that policies of inclusion work.”
“We have a great story to tell in Massachusetts,” Kennedy said. “We don’t have a perfect story to tell.”