The election on November 4th, was a disaster for the Democrats, even if with a Democratic Senate, they weren’t able to pass much legislation anyway. It was a disaster because it shows the continuing weakness of the Democratic party. They cannot win off year elections because their voters don’t come out. One can blame the Republicans for lying but if you followed the campaign commercials both parties run fact free commercials.
The Democrats don’t know how to appeal to the average independent voter. They don’t run on their successes. The Social Security program was a success and is a success. They seem to have swallowed the conservative narrative that we must cut back by increasing the retirement age and slowly turn the program into a means tested welfare program for the elderly. Medicare is another success, rather than the botched ACA, Medicare should have been used as a model for a national healthcare system. Instead they try to defend the president’s handling of the various wars in the middle east or to defend the roll out of the healthcare program last year. Both can be defended but one cannot imagine this tactic winning.
The message of the GOP for the last 35 years has been tax cuts. That program has starved our governments of money needed for existing programs. Our highway system is a joke. In the past decade they have added support for permanent war and an intrusive internal security apparatus. Even the US Chamber of Commerce wants to increase taxes to pay for roads. Yet the Democrats have run away from any discussion of our infrastructure. If you won’t defend your past and won’t talk up current important issues where you have an advantage you probably don’t deserve to win.