Democrats are taking the first steps in piecing themselves back together after Nov. 8's electoral drubbing.
Among the many lessons offered by their presidential nominee's stinging defeat, Democrats on Capitol Hill are homing in on the failure of their economic message to penetrate areas and constituencies that were once endeared to them. Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer--who will become the key face of the loyal opposition in Washington under a President Trump--recently elevated Bernie Sanders and other colleagues from predominantly working-class states to party leadership positions, aiming to bridge the gap between coasts, which largely voted Republican in the national election.
But heavy lifts remain. The party is beginning the work of rebuilding without a clear project manager. President Obama's impending exit from the White House leaves a vacuum. House Democrats have delayed their leadership elections, and several candidates are vying to helm the Democratic National Committee. Obama's electoral success and his high approval ratings have in many ways masked a divided and decimated party.
In this uncertain new era, Democrats are debating whether they want to be the party of the diverse Obama coalition or the party of the blue-collar worker. Schumer believes Democrats can incorporate various constituencies.
"Some think we need to make a choice and spend all our energy focused on one group of Americans or another. I believe that there does not have to be a division. In fact, there must not be a division," he said, adding that the party needs "a bigger, bolder, sharper-edged economic vision that talks about how people in the middle class and those struggling to make it there can do better, but also deals directly with the unfairness in the American economic system."
In the more immediate term, congressional Democrats are weighing whether they would benefit more by rebuilding the party and setting up a contrast for the next elections by holding the line against Trump, or working with him to claim victories of their own.
Democrats "don't want to be hypocritical. The one thing that infuriated us the most was Republicans refused to work with Obama," said a Democratic campaign strategist. "On the other hand, the concern is, it's not just any Republican in the White House. It's Donald Trump. And there's a fear of normalizing anything he does."
Clinton's popular vote victory has complicated the path forward in the minds of some Democrats.
"The fact is that we have a country
that was divided in the vote with one candidate getting the majority of votes and the other getting the majority in the Electoral College," said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who was recently promoted to a leadership position. "So this is an election that was split."
A Washington Post poll found that just 29 percent of Americans believe Trump has a mandate to implement the agenda on which he campaigned, while 59 percent say he should compromise with Democrats. In 2008, 50 percent of Americans believed Obama earned a mandate from the election.
"After an electoral debacle such as this, each wing of the party argues that if only Democrats had followed their approach the outcome would have been different. That just ain't so--the defeat was too sweeping," write Jim Kessler and Jon Cowan of the center-left think tank Third Way. "We all need to make some changes. To start with, emphasize more jobs, not just fairer jobs; and achieve social progress with less social shaming."
Additionally, some Democrats feel less inclined to work with Trump after the president-elect chose as his chief strategist Steve Bannon, the controversial former head of Breitbart News, which has provided a platform for nationalist and alt-right views. The appointment "sent a terrible signal," said incoming Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. "It obviously creates all sorts of doubts."
For now, the party is turning to voices like Sanders to rally Democrats and reach out to forgotten constituencies.
"It is clear that at a time when we lost the White House, we lost the election, Republicans control the Senate, Republicans control the House, and I think what is not widely known is that Republicans control two-thirds of the state legislatures and the last eight years Democrats have lost something like 900 seats," Sanders told reporters on Capitol Hill recently. "I think it's time to rethink how we go forward. We can't just keep doing the same old same old and keep losing."
Sanders joins fellow progressive firebrand Elizabeth Warren in the party's Senate leadership. Schumer's team also includes Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, middle America states where Trump won or exceeded expectations thanks to support from blue-collar working-class voters.
Notably, Schumer also promoted West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to a leadership role, ensuring that one of the most conservative Democrats in the chamber--who is also up for re-election in Trump country in 2018--won't switch parties. Manchin, who has been critical of outgoing Minority Leader Harry Reid, is tasked with being the liaison to Trump and congressional Republicans.
"The social rhetoric that was so offensive didn't bother them because they were so mad at everything else," Manchin said of his constituents' feelings about the election. "And if that's not a wake-up call, I don't know what is."
While Democrats consider how to win future elections, they also have to grapple with the reality of unified Republican leadership in Washington. They aren't planning all-out partisan war, at least not yet. Instead, they're walking a tightrope, trying to exploit potential divisions between Trump and congressional Republicans to advance some priorities, such as infrastructure spending, while also criticizing some of the president-elect's earliest decisions. And they're still promising to be a blockade against some of his biggest campaign promises.
"My motto is advance anywhere we can and defend everything we must," Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate, told RealClearPolitics. He criticized the choice of Bannon as "deeply disturbing," but said he would withhold judgment on other aspects of Trump's transition until actual decisions are made.
"I don't want to predetermine it because I just am not assuming that things said on the campaign trail will necessarily happen," Kaine said.
An area where Democrats' willingness to work with Trump might be put to its biggest and most immediate test will be when he nominates a new Supreme Court justice. Klobuchar, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said she and other Democrats felt any Trump nominee to the court deserved a hearing and a vote, a departure from Republicans' strategy to block Obama's pick to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. If they do allow a hearing, however, they will have to decide whether to filibuster the nominee or allow Republicans to confirm someone even if no Democrats actually support the choice.
For some party members, Trump's first post-election week was a telling sign of how oppositional they might be next year. Sen. Chris Murphy criticized the apparent turmoil within the transition team and some of the names that have been floated for secretary of state.
Murphy said the choice of who leads the State Department is "a matter of life or death" and said he is troubled by Trump's apparent "preference for loyalty to him over readiness to serve the nation."
"I think unfortunately it looks like Trump is going to govern like he campaigned. Our unity and our willingness to fight is more important than ever," Murphy said. "... A lot of people have been waiting for years for this pivot. It's not happening and I think that's putting some steel in the spine of the caucus."
Despite such tough talk, some Democrats are, at least publicly, still holding out hope that the president-elect will govern as more of a pragmatist than an ideologue. Congressional Democrats continue to throw out infrastructure spending as an area of common ground, hoping Trump makes good on his promise to invest substantially in meeting the nation's needs. Some have also named tax reforms, including Trump's professed support for eliminating the carried interest loophole, as something they could work with him on.
Beyond those issues, however, there's little indication of other simpatico areas. As for the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, there is little Democrats can do if Republicans move forward using budget reconciliation, a process that allows senators to bypass the filibuster--and a tactic Democrats used to pass part of the law in 2010.
And though party members put on a unified face while rolling out their new leadership team, that unity could be put to major tests next year. In 2018, Democrats have to defend 10 Senate seats in states Trump won, and have to defend 25 seats overall to Republicans' eight. They still have not landed on a senator to lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee next cycle, with Schumer simply saying "stay tuned" for an answer. That, plus the ideological divide within the caucus, could make it difficult to provide a unified front against Trump and congressional Republicans' agendas.
And on the other side of the Capitol, Democrats continue to grapple with whether major changes are needed in their leadership team. They delayed leadership elections until after the Thanksgiving holiday to give members more time to reflect on the 2016 losses.
Caitlin Huey-Burns is a national political reporter for RealClearPolitics. James Arkin is a congressional reporter for RealClearPolitics.
Editorial on 11/27/2016