Dems unveil a ‘Better Deal’ to lure voters
WASHINGTON — Adopting a bolder populist message to take to voters in next year’s midterm elections, Democrats on Monday rolled out what they called a “Better Deal” economic agenda that attempts to unify the party around the concerns of working-class men and women.
They said their plan to “build an America in which working people know that somebody has their back” attempts to unite the party across the disparate racial, class and cultural divides that have fractured it in the past. In several areas, from a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal to a plan to force pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices, the plan is tailored to reclaim the
populist mantle from President Trump, who embraced such ideas during his campaign for the White House.
“Democrats know a better deal for hardworking men and women demands bigger, braver thinking,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said as she and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer showcased the new agenda in Berryville, Va., a small town an hour outside Washington in a district held by a Republican they are targeting in next year’s election.
Pelosi and Schumer, the party’s top two officials, were joined for the rollout by liberal firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and more moderate Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Mark Warner of Virginia, as well as three House Democrats from widely diverse districts who are leading their party’s messaging and policy effort.
After a string of election losses left Democrats devoid of power in Washington, Pelosi, who represents San Francisco, and Schumer of New York acknowledged that Democrats need concrete proposals and a sharper message to persuade working-class voters to put them in charge. Simply running against Trump won’t do, they said.
Democrats lost the last two elections, Schumer said, because “the No. 1 thing we did wrong is not present a strong, bold economic agenda to working Americans so that their hope for the future might return again.”
Trump, he said, “campaigned on a populist platform, talking to working people. That’s why he won. But as soon as he got into office, he abandoned them, making alliance with the powerful, special interest, Koch-brother-dominated, hard-right wing of the Republican Party, which appeals to the very wealthy, not the working people — leaving a vacuum on economic issues.”
The “Better Deal” agenda repackages several familiar Democratic proposals such as a $15 minimum wage and the infrastructure plan, while adding ideas like a big push for an apprenticeship program to help companies train workers who lack college degrees for available jobs.The strategy also calls for an attack on the monopolization of industries, including cable television and airlines, that Democrats charge has let “vulture capitalists” exploit market power.
The plan adopts former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ fiery rhetoric about a “rigged economy,” signaling that Democrats are abandoning the soft liberal centrism of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and embracing more of the hard-edge populism that lifted both Sanders and Trump in last year’s presidential race.
Doug Elmets, a Sacramentobased Republican political consultant who worked in the Reagan White House but opposed Trump’s candidacy, said Democrats are “promoting the very things Trump promised but has been unable to deliver.”
“While the Republicans are bogged down with a president who is more intent on settling scores with those in and out of his administration, the Democrats are seizing the opportunity to offer a jobs plan that will potentially resonate with voters in the midterm elections,” Elmets said.
Larry Gerston, a professor of political science at San Jose State University, called it the beginning of a framework that hasn’t been easy for Democrats to work out.
“You’ve got the progressive wing and traditional liberals, and finding common ground between those two components of the party is really the missing link,” he said.
With Trump’s popularity at a record low in the history of modern presidencies, his administration beset by investigations into Russia’s involvement in last year’s presidential election, and Republicans showing an inability to deliver on significant legislation despite their unified control of Washington, Democrats see a tantalizing opportunity to retake the House next year and at least hold Republicans to their narrow majority in the Senate.
To win the House, Democrats will need to net two dozen seats next year, a number independent analysts said will be tough but within reach given Trump’s unpopularity and the difficulty Republicans have had in governing.
The Senate is widely viewed as a tougher climb for Democrats, even though Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority. That’s because most of the contested seats next year are held by incumbent Democrats, while far fewer potentially vulnerable Republicans face re-election. Only a third of the Senate seats are up for election every two years; in the House every seat is up for election.
Independent political analysts generally praised the Democrats’ new effort, while emphasizing that it’s only a start.
“This is a first step, and a necessary step at this stage,” said John Kenneth White, a political scientist at Catholic University in Washington. “The key is going to be to what extent they follow through on all of this.”
White said Democrats should borrow the “Contract with America” playbook that former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich used to bring Republicans back to power in the 1994 landslide election, by outlining a specific set of promises and a timetable to land them on the president’s desk.
Democrats need to promise action, White said, and keep hammering a simple message of “two or three big things. Repetition matters in politics, and that’s going to be key.”