Posted on 03/03/2025 8:53:09 AM PST by Red Badger
When several dozen Democratic political operatives and elected officials gathered at a tony resort off the Potomac River last month, frustration boiled over at the left wing of their party.
Democrats had become too obsessed with “ideological purity tests” and should push back “against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” according to a document of takeaways from the gathering produced by the center-left group Third Way and obtained by POLITICO.
The group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders who gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia for a day-and-a-half retreat, where they plotted their party’s comeback, searched for why the party lost in November — and what to do about it. Much of what they focused their ire on centered on the kind of identity politics that they believed lost them races up and down the ballot.
One of the key ways to win back the trust of the working class, some gathered there argued, was to “reduce far-left influence and infrastructure” on the party, according to the takeaways document. That included building a more moderate campaign infrastructure and talent pipeline, pushing “back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” and refusing to participate in “far-left candidate questionnaires” and “forums that create ideological purity tests.”
The gathering resulted in five pages of takeaways, a document POLITICO obtained from one of the participants. (Not all attendees endorsed each point, and the document — and Third Way — kept the identities of participants private.)
“In the wake of this election, where it became so evident that the things that the left was doing and saying deeply hurt [Kamala] Harris and down-ballot Democrats, a lot of people are looking to us, not just Third Way, but the moderates in the party, and saying, ‘We got to do it your way, because the other way ain’t working,’” said Third Way’s Matt Bennett, who helped organize the February retreat.
The document itself is perhaps one of the most comprehensive and sweeping of its kind following the election — both in its analysis of what went wrong and how to fix it.
The retreat’s conversation centered on the party’s disconnect with the working class. Among the causes of that detachment: weak messaging and communication, failure to prioritize economic concerns, overemphasis on identity politics, allowing the far left to define the party, and attachment to unpopular institutions such as academia, media and government bureaucracy.
If Trump’s first term energized the party’s progressives, there are early signs his second term is doing the same for Democratic moderates.
The party chose the battleground-state moderate Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan to deliver its response to Trump’s address to Congress and the nation on Tuesday. Slotkin outperformed Harris by more than a full percentage point in all but 28 of the state’s 83 counties, according to a Detroit News analysis.
Those gathered then laid out 20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.
Among their takeaways:
* The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery.”
* Candidates should “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches).”
* The party needs to “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities and commit to improving local government.”
* The party, many of those gathered also argued, needs to “develop a stronger, more relatable Democratic media presence (podcasts, social media, sports broadcasting).”
Bennett said that, with the meeting coming just three months after the election, “we didn’t expect to have a lot of answers about exactly what the Democratic offer to the working class on the economy ought to be going forward. We were still kind of picking through the rubble here.”
Bennett added, “I think what we discussed there on economic issues was the profound disconnect that we saw between the way that leading Democrats were talking about the economy and the way that people were actually experiencing it.”
I hope they ignore these recommendations.
I hope they ignore these recommendations.
The Clinton Machine lives.
Bill was NOT stupid and he sees what is coming for the RATS.
Hillary doesn’t care as long as $$$$ comes her way.
All reasonable recommendations, but they won’t be able to follow through on any of them. The woke element is far bigger than these so called moderate Democrats will realize, and they control the money and the party apparatus.
These Democrat “centrists” will only get a chance when the party completely collapses and that hasn’t happened yet!
Democrat cities are toxic waste dumps.
They know it.
There is absolutely nothing they intend to do about it.
Talking about it is not going to get it done.
What is IC in people?
What is IC intelligence?
The IC is a federation of executive branch agencies and organizations that work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities necessary for the conduct of foreign relations and the protection of the national security of the United States.
Intelligence Community:
Office of Naval Intelligence - Navy.mil
https://www.oni.navy.mil › About › Intelligence-Commu...
What is an IC member?
The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) consists of 18 organizations, such as the intelligence components of the five military services within the Department of Defense (DOD) as well as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Intelligence Community Management | U.S. GAO
Government Accountability Office
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fbS6Q7xgvTiIvazaH_3TCgdBikiP03bpVzCavd8ZzGI/edit?tab=t.0
They will.
Their party has been taken over by the crazies.
They are in all the positions of power.
They will expel the ‘centrists’, if there are any left................
Intelligence Community:
OXYMORON...................
>>>>Talking about it is not going to get it done.<<<<
“To a Democrat, saying something about a problem is the same as doing something about a problem.” - George Stephanopoulos..........
“The IC is a federation of executive branch agencies and organizations that work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities necessary for the conduct of foreign relations and the protection of the national security of the United States.”
Prior to January 20 the IC was a federation of executive branch agencies that worked separately and together to spread perversity at home and abroad—and to crush dissent against leftist policies at home and abroad using both propaganda and censorship partnerships with NGOs.
This should be fun. The fringe will attack the center as if they betrayed them.
No they don't. They're lying. It's part of the DNC's PR offensive, which is, you guessed it, offensive.
“Centrist Dem group rails against leftist identity politics and purity tests”
clearly fake news: there’s no such thing as a “moderate” Democrat elected official anymore ...
“This should be fun. The fringe will attack the center as if they betrayed them.”
Making it even more fun is the fact that what’s left of the ideological “centrists” in the Prog Party is nowhere close to being the “center” numerically.
Rabid progs and their destructive/divisive politics are now running the show - leaving Dems with anything resembling traditional beliefs wandering in the political wilderness.
Centrist Demondogs are just better liars.
It appears Centrist Dems aren’t into Phyllis Murphy’s (Dork-CT) “DemonRAT Core Values.”
“Centrist” Dems
“You idiots! To win you have to lie about what you stand for! You can do what ever you wnat in power but never tell the normies what your really stand for!”
“Centrist” Dems are Leninists opposed to the Stalinist Dems
Excuse me “Centrists” Democrat Candidate
You say a lot of nice sound words and slogans. Please explain to voters why they should trust any Democrat after every single Democrat voted against ending taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and over time wages?
vote MAGA
problem solved
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.