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A New Democratic Think Tank Wants to Curb the Influence of Liberal Groups
NY Times ^ | Sept. 17, 2025 | Reid J. Epstein

Posted on 09/17/2025 10:39:54 AM PDT by Salman

As Democrats search for their way out of the political wilderness, a new think tank, introduced on Wednesday, has some ideas about where the party went wrong.

Among them: too much emphasis on issues like climate change and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, and far too much deference to the powerful liberal organizations championing those causes at the expense, some argue, of appealing to voters in battleground states.

The think tank, the Searchlight Institute, was started by Adam Jentleson, a veteran Democratic operative. He knows that his effort, intended to minimize the sway that left-leaning groups have over candidates before what is expected to be a crowded 2028 presidential primary, will infuriate almost everyone — activists, organizations and the party’s liberal base, which is urging Democrats to fight President Trump.

“The folks who are most to blame about Trump are the ones who pushed Democrats to take indefensible positions,” Mr. Jentleson said in an interview Tuesday, citing a series of positions Kamala Harris took in 2019 before walking back many of them once she became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024.

“Right now we’re pursuing every tactic imaginable except for the obvious one, which is taking positions that are more in line with the people we are trying to win over,” he added.

...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bolshevik; fakenews; homosexualagenda; newyorkslimes; woke
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Democrats pitching themselves as Republican-lite. Or at least some of them.

So piss off their base and not win over any of us?

1 posted on 09/17/2025 10:39:54 AM PDT by Salman
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To: Salman

Apart from fooling the electorate I don’t think the left is into moderation.


2 posted on 09/17/2025 10:43:22 AM PDT by xp38 (He's on a work trip with Jesus....Erika Kirk)
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To: Salman

So, basically, they are RINOs. I’m sure Liz Chaney is available to join, and we know how popular she is these days.

“Led by a former aide to Senator Harry Reid...”

Oh, good Lord...


3 posted on 09/17/2025 10:44:25 AM PDT by IMTOFT (At least I'm enjoying the ride...)
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To: Salman

Democratic Think Tank...

Isn’t that an oxymoron?


4 posted on 09/17/2025 10:45:49 AM PDT by adorno ( )
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To: Salman

I hope they are unsuccessful. I don’t care how many layers of candy coating you put on the Democrat turd. It is still vile excrement.


5 posted on 09/17/2025 10:46:03 AM PDT by Right Brother (I don't really care Margaret.)
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To: Salman

In other words, they’ll come up with some MAGA-lite talking points, and parrot them until and through the election. They’ll win, and immediately revert to actions based on what they REALLY believe.

It’s a trap. Do. Not. Trust.


6 posted on 09/17/2025 10:47:32 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: Salman

“Right now we’re pursuing every tactic imaginable except for the obvious one, which is taking positions that are more in line with the people we are trying to win over”

PRECISELY.


7 posted on 09/17/2025 10:50:15 AM PDT by Samurai_Jack (This is not about hypocrisy, this is about hierarchy!)
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To: Salman

Raise your hand if you saw this move coming. There’s gonna be a stampede to the middle democrat/independent.


8 posted on 09/17/2025 10:53:23 AM PDT by TalBlack (Their god is government. Prepare for a religious war.https://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=4322961%2)
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To: Salman

LOL. I can’t wait for the “Democrat Civil War” headlines.


9 posted on 09/17/2025 10:55:10 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: Salman

If you have to hide who you are and what you are for, then you are admitting that you are not what the nation wants. Go away. Don’t just start lying and gaslighting and hiding the truth until you can cheat your way into more power and influence.


10 posted on 09/17/2025 10:59:18 AM PDT by Teacher317
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To: Salman

Too late. That horse has already escaped the barn, leaving the moron, who left the barndoor open and then told the horse to bolt, alone with the barn rats.

It’s very possible that the Dim Party will go the way of the Whigs and the Bull Moosers.


11 posted on 09/17/2025 11:01:58 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.”)
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To: VanShuyten
It’s very possible that the Dim Party will go the way of the Whigs and the Bull Moosers.

I wonder if we'll get a "real" socialist party. European definition that is. Like the German version of the Greens.

12 posted on 09/17/2025 11:07:01 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along.)
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To: adorno
Democratic Think Stink Tank...
13 posted on 09/17/2025 11:08:58 AM PDT by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man, but it's ok---- I wasn't married to it.)
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To: Salman

Rat party is already socialist all the need to do is put a new sign on the door!


14 posted on 09/17/2025 11:09:20 AM PDT by Reily
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To: MayflowerMadam
In other words, they’ll come up with some MAGA-lite talking points, and parrot them until and through the election. They’ll win, and immediately revert to actions based on what they REALLY believe.

It’s a trap. Do. Not. Trust.

Of course it is a trap. This seems like a re-run of the late 1980s/early 1990s Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), Bill Clinton's group. Before the election, he pretended to be centrist, after the election moved left.

15 posted on 09/17/2025 11:14:04 AM PDT by jeannineinsd
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To: Salman

Democrats pitching themselves as Republican-lite.

Indeed it’s like skunks promising not to spray anymore.


16 posted on 09/17/2025 11:22:34 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Salman

Kind of hard to do, when you embraced them, encouraged them, and enabled them to begin with.


17 posted on 09/17/2025 11:26:14 AM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: Salman

They’d better start wearing armor, then. The Pervertocracy won’t like this palace coup.


18 posted on 09/17/2025 11:34:27 AM PDT by decal (They won't stop, so they'll have to be stopped)
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To: Salman

Blue dogs were neutered and died off a long time ago;-)


19 posted on 09/17/2025 11:34:58 AM PDT by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than having to WORK like the rest of US;-))
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To: Salman

Going back to the Clinton era tactics of lie non stop to voters pretending to be something they are not.


20 posted on 09/17/2025 11:36:35 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
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