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What does the democratic party stand for?

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Id82:
 I've been listening to The Wilderness by John Favreau which is a great documentary that functions as a post mordem to the democrats of 2016 and where do they go from there.
A big topic that comes up when swing voters are interviewed is what do the democrats stand for?
Now I can say that that is easy. They're the party of personal liberty and equality and fairness, but it seems a lot of people have a different opinion of how democrats should go about this message.
It seems Republicans have taken a more focused message. The party of low taxes and anti immigration. They have embraced their more libertarian and authoritarian side. I feel this makes their ideas simpler and more stream lined to beat into voters heads. What can the democratic party do?
When Favreau talked to voters that voted for Trump in 2016 but Obama in 2012, they come up with different opinions as to where the party should go. One person says it's becoming too PC and it needs to become more centered, while another says that the party isn't left enough that it needs to become more socialist, and this I feel is a huge problem. Because I feel they could lose a ton of voters depending on which direction the party tries to sway. It also doesn't help that the Repiblicans can easily paint democrats as high taxes and open borders, I feel that can easily scare away any moderate voters to the their side.
What's the best message that the democratic party can make to bring in the most voters and unify the party. Because it seems difficult.

Tolpuddle Martyr:
Not an American here, but what you guys call socialist, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, aren't any more "socialist" than FDR's new deal and one of the big problems with centrists is they have trouble articulating what they are for, a Republican or a Libertarian could just as easily claim to be for equality, freedom and fairness. And they have a tendency to follow conservative parties to the right in their quest for consensus, also to appease their special interest groups who fund them.

The problem I see with centrist parties worldwide is that there adherence to neoliberal economics is just as blinkered as any Trotskyite or Anarchist's adherence to their own respective ideologies, maybe more so as they dare not speak their ideologies name.

Id82:
Unfortnately the far right stance that the Republican party has taken is forcing the democratic party to the center. But should democrats play it safe and be the center party, but not be clear ehat they stand for? Or should they go further left and risk alienating voters?

Tolpuddle Martyr:

--- Quote from: Id82 on August 07, 2018, 11:17:19 am ---Unfortnately the far right stance that the Republican party has taken is forcing the democratic party to the center. But should democrats play it safe and be the center party, but not be clear ehat they stand for? Or should they go further left and risk alienating voters?

--- End quote ---
See there's the assumption, that it's the left wing ideas of liberals that will alienate voters which to me, again as a foreigner seem counter intuitive. When your middle class is shrinking the worry is that attempted efforts to cancel student debt or relieve health care costs are what will repel your voting base as opposed to the fact that, while your Democrat's aren't Republican, they aren't actually helping the Democrat base much more than the GOP. The best that can be said currently is that they aren't actively trying to hurt it.

At least the GOP favors federal assistance to American farmers, they aren't afraid to spend money to help their electorate. It's just spending money on minorities, academics and city dwellers that they oppose.

dpareja:
They're only spending money on farmers because they previously hurt farmers by engaging in needless trade wars, and the countries against whom they levied tariffs retaliated with tariffs targeting GOP voting blocs.

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