January 1, The Democratic Party Is Having an Identity Crisis

After the Democratic Party was stunned by their loss in the Virginia governor’s race, strategists examined what went wrong to understand the scope of the party’s poor prospects nationwide next year.

David Siders of Politico writes: “What they discovered, largely through focus groups and polling, was even worse than expected. The problems cut far deeper than the failings of their gubernatorial nominee, Terry McAuliffe, or President Joe Biden’s flagging approval ratings. Rather, the Democratic Party’s entire brand was a wreck.”

“Voters couldn’t name anything that Democrats had done, except a few who said we passed the infrastructure bill,” the left-wing group Third Way said in a report on focus groups they ran in Virginia.

According to the report, most of the voters “could not articulate what Democrats stand for. They could also not say what they are doing in Washington, besides fighting.”

Even after the House passed the massive social spending package recently, one Democratic strategist said, “Too late. We’re f—ed.”

“It’s not great news. Any [focus group] report that starts out, ‘Our weak national brand left us vulnerable’ is not great news,” Third Way’s Matt Bennett said.

Nevada-based Democratic consultant Megan Jones said her party is “doing a ton of stuff” but “not communicating it well.”

Jones said a family member recently told her that “Build Back Better,” Biden’s legislative agenda, “sounds like a f—ing fitness plan.”

“Nobody knows what it is,” she added.

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The Democratic brand is broken. The infrastructure bill isn’t fixing it.