Populism need not be Right Wing. Dems can ride the wave, or be drowned by it.

[bigtree]

8. I think the concern about Democrats right now is misplaced

...and is mostly expressly uninformed in complaints as to what Democrats are actually saying and doing.

I also find concern about what we stand for as a party to be obtuse to the ridiculously stark contrast between the parties in what is almost always going to be a binary choice in elections.

Indeed, I find it extremely frustrating that the primary effort isn't to make certain that reality is understood - the reality that Democrats ALWAYS produce progressive legislative advancements in the majority which protect, defend, and enhance American lives; republicans the abject opposite.

THAT should be our main focus in our messaging; not what I view as the pretense that critics care more about these things; or are fighting for them more than people who have ALREADY fought and won elections against actual republicans to stand in the position to be able to confront them in the actual political system of legislative action.

I think more value would come in explaining to these voters the actual process of how a bill becomes law and the process in which we established a Bill of Rights and the Constitution and it's amendments; than leading them to suppose exploiting wedges in a party out of power is going to lead them to the things they say they want out of government.

Addition; not subtraction. That's the political formula to success for Democrats, or any other political enterprise.