[This piece of Democrat worldview showcased in their booth at the recent Nevada County fair is both illuminating and informative.  They see and experience not what we see and experience, but tacitly admit that they have no "working Democratic message"   Also note that Republicans have "the power to prevent minorities from voting in more than two dozen Republican controlled states." – can't make this up.  Emphases in the original.  gjr]

IN SEARCH OF A WORKING DEMOCRATIC MESSAGE

Suggestions for Effective Communications @ Fair

“Try to find common ground and emphasize that regardless of differing perspectives, we all want this country to succeed. For example, we all want gun safety, whether we’re NRA members or not; availability to good medical care, whether we support ACA or not; a healthy environment, whether we view the Centennial Dam as the way to go or not. Find terminology that connects rather than separates”.

This quote is from the Directions for Volunteers at the Democratic Booth, and it goes to the core of the dilemma we find ourselves in. Even politically interested people seem unaware of the gradual changes that have turned the Republican Party from a basically positive force since its birth as the anti-slavery party and certainly through the Eisenhower years to a reactionary power committed to rolling back our social safety net and our infrastructure. The Tea-Party/Trump faction has gone even further and seems intent on bringing us back to the time of the robber barons of the 19th century.

It is simply not true to say that the current right-wing Trump Administration wants gun safety, good medical care available for all, and a healthy environment with clean air and water for people as we can see from their actual policy choices.

The facts are that Republican policies over the last decades have been to weaken and work against affordable health-care, a well-functioning social safety net, good environmental policies, infrastructure investments, and have worked on behalf of large corporations and against lower and middle-class Americans, and we need to be steadfast in pointing this out at every turn. We should do this in a factual and controlled manner, but accepting the lies of right-wing wishful/knowingly false thinking puts us at a huge disadvantage where uncommitted voters may conclude that even Democrats believe there is no real difference between the two parties, affirming the general and widespread disinterest for politics by average voters in this country.

Both Democrats and mainstream media have been very neglectful in not seriously challenging the blatant myths and untruths peddled by the right-wing that has taken control of the once decent and honorable Republican Party, and now our beloved country. I believe that our primary message should be that the right-wing now controlling our country is fundamentally different from not only Democrats, but traditional Republicans as well. In fact, many of the main principles from the 1956 Republican Party Platform are remarkably similar to those of Democratic Party Platforms during the last many decades. So when people complain that “we are so far apart” it is not the Democrats that have moved substantially. It is the Republican Party that has been hijacked by forces that are committed to destroying the very fabric of the civilized and advanced society that both parties built up over more than a hundred years, including the Progressive Era, the New Deal Era, and the Civil Rights Era.

I believe this is the message that all Democrats should be able to agree upon, and I also believe it is the one that has the best chance of overcoming the advantages the right-wing currently has with control of all branches of government, unlimited corporate funding at their disposal, and the power to prevent minorities from voting in more than two dozen Republican controlled states.

By Richardt Stormsgaard 

[update] And here’s how the Alt-Left wing of the Democratic Party sees the world.  As made clear by the husband/wife team of Distinguished Professor (I kid you not) Bill Ayres and Bernardine Dhorn, founder of the Weather Underground of the 60s, who are still there in the spirit and enthusiasm of today’s young communists who continue to dream of “free love and free land, free food and free housing, (and) dancing in the street”, and await their opportunity to co-opt or join Antifa to again mount the barricades and make it so.  Here is a snootful for your reading pleasure.