Democratic Party Is Having A Really … Really Hard Time Getting Back Up After Trump’s November Beating

Fresh off a historic November loss and plunged into an identity crisis, the Democratic Party now finds itself struggling to cobble together a plan to oppose President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda.

Trump’s win in both the Electoral College and the popular vote, Democrats have split over the reasons behind their loss with voters. In a recent report, The New York Times revealed that after more than 50 interviews with Democrats, the party is divided on how to mount a successful defense to Trump’s policies, and still doesn’t know what its platform should actually be about.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) members gathered Saturday to finalize their selection of the new DNC chair, choosing Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Chairman Ken Martin. In an interview with the NYT after his win, Martin stated that the issue wasn’t the policies themselves but rather a “messaging” and “brand problem.”

“The policies that we support and the message that we have is not wrong,” Martin said. “It is a messaging problem and a brand problem. Those voters are not connecting our policies with their lives.”

Martin, who has served as DFL chairman for several terms, said after his win that he would conduct a post-election review, focusing mainly on tactics and messaging. While he did not define the parameters of the review, the one issue Martin will avoid is questioning whether Biden should have run for re-election, according to the NYT.

Martin’s sentiments mirror those of Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who, in a Jan. 5 NBC interview, said that while his party had some issues to address ahead of the upcoming election, voters were unaware of how much the party had done and cared for them.