The Democratic Party convention has come and gone, and while it was generally successful—and often inspiring—one critical message was strangely missing: Democrats seemed to virtually ignore blue-collar voters. They never explained precisely how their policies are going to help them. We heard plenty of rhetorical hugs and kisses for other important Democratic constituencies—people of color, LGBTers, environmentalists, and Bernie Sanders economic populists. But imagine yourself as an underemployed, financially stretched, blue-collar worker watching from your couch in suburban Ohio or Pennsylvania. What did you hear? Nothing. Zip. Nada, as Tim Kaine might say.

By contrast, the Republican convention seemed to be talking only to those voters. The Democrats’ omission is mystifying for three reasons:

1. Blue-collar workers traditionally have been a critical part of the Democratic base. Union support is vital to Democrats for fundraising, voter turnout, and loyalty.
2. Pundits have been saying it is precisely the white, blue-collar voters in swing states who could tip this election for Trump.
3. Democratic policies have so much to offer middle-class and working-class families. Why wouldn’t you showcase them?

Democratic campaigns throughout the country can’t make the same mistake. We should be aggressively fighting for those voters in three ways:

1. By reminding voters that Democrats have been the party of workers for a hundred years. Since the turn of the 20th century, almost every significant improvement in the lives of American workers has come from Democrats:
   • The 40-hour workweek
   • Social Security
   • Medicare
   • Paid vacations
   • The first minimum wage
   • Time and a half for overtime
   • Unemployment insurance
   • The right of women to join the workplace
   • Affordable health care for everyone
   • The recently passed law to curb the worst abuses of the credit card industry
   • The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to keep people from getting ripped off by unscrupulous finance companies
2. By emphasizing how Democrats are still fighting for working people today, and how our proposals will specifically help them, including:
   • Tax cuts for the middle class, not the wealthy
   • Support for unions, so that people have a voice in the workplace
   • Raising the minimum wage
   • Affordable college tuition
   • Affordable child care
   • Guaranteed sick pay
   • Paid family leave
3. By contrasting Democrats’ specific proposals with the sad record of Republicans and their emphasis on tax cuts for the wealthy. Conservatives have opposed virtually every improvement in the lives of workers.

Americans live in the greatest, richest, most powerful nation in the world. They have a right to ask for a decent quality of life. Democrats are the only party with a long and accomplished history of fighting for our nation’s workers. We need to tell that story.

Not to throw a wet blanket on the Democratic National Convention, but this recent Politico article, about how Democrats are losing blue-collar voters to Trump, should give liberals the willies. It should also tell Democrats what their primary message should be at the convention and beyond: that Democrats are the only party of the working class, and we have been for a hundred years. See our previous post for specific ways to do this.

As we show in that post, Democrats must contrast Trump’s mindless generalities by outlining the real, tangible ways Democrats will improve the lives of everyday Americans:

• tax cuts for the middle class, not the wealthy
• support for unions, so that people have a voice in the workplace
• an increase in the minimum wage
• reduced college tuition
• affordable child care
• guaranteed sick pay
• affordable health care for everyone

Remind voters that they live in the greatest, richest, most powerful country in the world; they have a right to demand a decent quality of life, and they don’t need to be insulted by conservatives telling them they just want to be taken care of by their nannies. Americans want to take care of their families, and they should fight for the benefits that come from living in a 21st-century superpower.

Democrats must also prove the abject failure of the GOP’s trickle-down economics by showing this chart.

Democrats and liberals have an amazing story to tell as the champions of the middle class, working class, and the poor. We must tell that story from now till November.

It may be tempting for Democrats to spend the entire four days of their convention just mocking Donald Trump, but Democrats must think bigger. With Republicans in disarray, now is the perfect time to create an expansive, big-picture message that will rally voters to the Democratic Party and help down-ballot candidates take back Congress. Beyond ridiculing Trump and praising Hillary Clinton at the convention, Democrats must convey three other critical messages to voters:

1. Democrats are the only party of working people.
2. Democrats are the true party of reform.
3. Conservatism is dead.

Here are some specifics on how they can do that:

1. Democrats are the only party of working people.

How is it that Trump and the GOP are supposedly winning among white, working-class voters when Democrats have been fighting for American workers for a hundred years? The party has to tell that story! Since the turn of the 20th century, almost every significant improvement in the lives of American workers has come from Democrats:

• The 40-hour work week
• Social Security
• Medicare
• Paid vacations
• The first minimum wage
• Time and a half for overtime
• Unemployment insurance
• The right of women to join the workplace
• Affordable health care

Today we’re fighting as hard as ever for American workers, with proposals like raising the minimum wage, guaranteed sick pay, and affordable child care.

The contrast between the two parties is stark:

• Democrats support unions, so workers have a voice in the workplace. Conservatives want to destroy unions.
• Democrats want to raise the minimum wage. Republicans oppose it.
• Democrats gave health insurance to millions of people who couldn’t otherwise afford it. Republicans want to take it all away, with nothing to replace it.
• Democrats want to enforce the Dodd-Frank banking reforms following the Great Recession. Republicans want to weaken them.
• Democrats passed the Credit Card Act and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect you from the worst abuses of the credit and financial industries. Republicans sided with the credit card industry and Wall Street.
• Republicans tried to repeal the inheritance tax for people who inherit $5.4 million or more. Democrats oppose more tax cuts for the wealthy.
• Democrats are fighting for paid sick leave for all workers. Republicans side with business and oppose it.
• Democrats kept the internet fair and equal for everyone. Republicans wanted one internet for the wealthy and a slower one for everyone else.

Democrats, make the case! For example, try running a branding commercial like this during the convention and in the industrial swing states.

2. Democrats are the true party of reform.

Many voters are clearly in a pissy mood and looking for change. Fortunately, Democrats have a long and impressive history of social and workplace reforms, and they’re the only party fighting seriously to take money out of politics. At their convention, Democrats must shout the story of progressive reform: From early worker rights like the 40-hour work week and the minimum wage to civil rights and women’s rights, to health care, to today’s calls for universal sick pay and child care, Democrats have always led the fight for change. If voters want to improve their lives and reform government, that will only happen by electing Democrats.

To convincingly make that case, Democrats will need a very specific agenda for workplace and government reforms (see previous post, “Hillary Clinton: You Need a Plan for Change”).

They will also need to contrast their 100-year history of change with conservatism, whose very ideological foundation is to keep things the way they are or go back to the way things used to be.

3. Conservatism is dead.

Which brings us to our third message. Democrats: Please, please, please don’t squander this chance! While the Republican Party is in chaos and most of the world despises Donald Trump, you must take this opportunity to attack not just Republicans but conservatism. Barely a third of Americans have a positive view of the Republican Party, according to a recent Bloomberg poll (compared to almost 50% approval for Democrats). Now is the time to attack!

The goal is to discredit the very foundation of Republican thought—to delegitimize the entire philosophy of conservatism in the same way Republicans have made liberal an epithet. The message is: Trump is only the end result of conservatism—its meanness, its narrow-mindedness, its fundamental pessimism, its obsession with helping the rich at the expense of the poor. Show America that conservatism as an ideology is:

• Angry
• Concerned more about the wealthy than about average Americans
• Afraid of new ideas
• Pessimistic
• A zealously anti-government philosophy that doesn’t believe in the ability of Americans to govern ourselves
• Stingy, hard-hearted, and callous
• Fiscally incompetent (conservatives exploded the deficit twice under Reagan and Bush and experts say Trump’s proposals will do the same)
• Old-fashioned and backward-looking
• Narrow, constricted, and negative
• Unable to envision a better future
• Un-Christian (for Democrats who dare) or immoral in its policies toward the poor
• Unable to deal with the complex issues of a modern 21st-century superpower
• Unworthy of leading a great nation
• More than a little nuts

And Democrats, while you’re conveying these essential messages, please don’t forget the cardinal rule of The Liberal Message: Never talk about issues without talking about values. And be sure to incorporate the 7 Winning Messages of Democratic Politicians by dressing all your messages in the language of patriotism, optimism, American exceptionalism, faith and values, and fighting for the underdog.

Related posts:

• Winning Issue #5: The Consequences of Conservatism
• 4 Ways Democrats Should Attack Conservatism
• The 7 Winning Messages of Democratic Politicians
• Unbreakable Rule No. 1: Never Discuss Issues Without Discussing Values
  

It’s certainly possible that Hillary Clinton can coast to victory in November simply by not being Donald Trump. But at this point that’s not a sure thing. Voters are clearly in a feisty, contrarian, reformist mood, and running as a status quo candidate may or may not be enough to carry the day.

Even if it works, it’s a short-sighted strategy, and it may not be that helpful for down-ballot candidates, especially those in moderate states and districts. It’s not just Trumpsters and Sandernistas who are longing for reforms—most voters are fed up with the corrupting influence of money in politics and feeling that their voices are being drowned out by the rich and well-connected. Plus, reform has been the strength of the Democratic Party for a hundred years. Why sit on our heels now, when millions of Americans are crying out for change?

Donald Trump or not, Democrats need to show some fire, and we must prove to voters that we are the true party of reform. If Hillary Clinton and Democrats really want to win the minds and hearts of Americans, we must put forward an ambitious agenda that will show voters we are serious about changing the way Washington does business. We must also contrast that agenda with conservatism—an ideology whose very premise is maintaining the status quo or going back to the way things used to be (see the essay “The Case Against Conservatism”).

We’ll leave it to Clinton and her strategists to decide what specific proposals they want to lay out, but here are a few ideas:

• A constitutional amendment to overturn Citizen’s United
  
• Aggressive enforcement of Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms
• Real-time disclosure of political contributions and expenditures
• Overhauling the Federal Election Commission and stringently enforcing existing campaign finance laws
• Shortening the primary season by starting it in April or May, to lessen the influence of money
• Comprehensive immigration reform that includes tougher border enforcement plus a path to citizenship
• Fixing the filibuster so senators have to actually filibuster to stop votes on legislation
• Closing, or at least slowing, the revolving door of politicians who become lobbyists
• Small-donor public financing of candidates as advocated by Common Cause and others
• Workplace and family reforms such as:
  • Raising the minimum wage
  • Guaranteed sick pay for all workers
  • Affordable child care
  • Reduced college tuition

Candidates nationwide must stress that these reforms will only happen by electing Democrats. We are the true party of the people—the only party with a long history of fighting for underdogs.

So conservatives are trying again to cut food stamps for the poorest people in America. This time, Paul Ryan wants to eliminate $23 billion in food stamps to recipients who are in school or training for a job—in other words, people who are trying to better themselves and become financially independent, so they won’t need food stamps.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lackey Chris Christie is trying to pull another food stamp outrage in New Jersey

What is it with the Republican Party and their obsession with making life even harder for people in poverty? These never-ending indignities they visit on the poor have to become a campaign issue for Democrats (and they will continually crop up between now and Election Day). Conservatives around the country need to be confronted on the campaign trail with this kind of mean-spiritedness.

The message should be:

• Proposing to give huge tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting food stamps for the poor is literally immoral.
• Their proposals are an affront to:
  • basic values of fairness and decency
  • our self-image of America as a compassionate country
  • the Christian beliefs conservatives so often espouse. (See the essay “The Shocking Hypocrisy of Conservative Christians.”)
• This is not what great nations do.

Americans have an acute sense of fair play, and continually calling out conservatives on values issues like these will resonate with a broad constituency, including independent and even moderately conservative voters. This message incorporates at least 3 of the 7 Winning Messages: American exceptionalism, fighting for the underdog, and faith and values. Anecdotes like these will add to the growing narrative that conservatism is an angry, cold-hearted philosophy unfit for a great nation.

Remember:

• Democrats have to run values-based campaigns; we can’t just talk about topics.
• We have to run against conservatism; not just specific opponents.We must universalize our arguments against the GOP and delegitimize the very foundations of conservative thought, as Republicans did so effectively against liberalism.
• We must continually send the message that Democrats are the true party of the people.

Here’s a small news item that passed virtually unnoticed last week, but it could be an effective bit of ammunition against Republicans on the campaign trail: House Republicans voted unanimously for a resolution against a new Department of Labor rule that financial advisers have to be honest with people planning for their retirement. The DOL rule says advisers have to act in the best interests of their clients, and not steer them toward plans that don’t meet their needs.

Sure, it’s pretty “inside baseball,” but if told in the right way it could be a powerful demonstration to voters of where Republican loyalties lie.

For example, what would happen if a Democratic candidate told this story to an audience of swing voters?

“Republicans keep saying they’re on your side, but they’re not, and they never have been. Here’s a perfect recent example that you probably didn’t hear about, but it shows exactly who conservatives are really fighting for.

A lot of people planning for their retirement have been getting bad advice from financial advisers who try to sell them plans that the advisers get commissions on but aren’t really in their clients’ best interest. The advisers are recommending plans that benefits them and their financial company, not the client. The Obama administration estimates that people are losing $17 billion every year because they’re being advised to buy more expensive financial products than they need to.

So the Department of Labor passed a very sensible rule that said financial advisers must act in the best interests of their clients. And guess what? Republicans tried to block the rule! The House of Representatives passed a resolution to override the regulation. Republicans voted unanimously to continue letting financial companies give bad advice to people planning their retirement. Democrats voted unanimously against it. And it’s only because of President Obama that the resolution was vetoed.

Every time—every time!—Republicans have a choice between supporting average Americans or big business, they always choose big business. Think of all the other ways they’ve sided with the rich and powerful over regular Americans:

• Democrats want to enforce the Dodd-Frank banking reforms following the Great Recession. Republicans want to weaken them.
• Democrats passed the Credit Card Act and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect you from the worst abuses of the credit and financial industries. Republicans sided with the finance industry.
• Democrats created a health care program for people who can’t afford health insurance. Republicans want to take insurance away from millions of people, with nothing to replace it.
• Democrats support unions, so workers have a voice in the workplace. Conservatives are trying to destroy unions.
• Democrats want to raise the minimum wage. Republicans oppose it.
• Republicans tried to repeal the inheritance tax for people who inherit $5.4 million or more. Democrats oppose more tax cuts for the wealthy.
• Democrats are fighting for paid sick leave for all workers. Republicans side with business and oppose it.
• Democrats kept the internet fair and equal for everyone. Republicans wanted to make people pay for better service.

Why would any American worker think conservatives are your friends? They’re on the side of people who are already rich and powerful, not you. If you’re a moderate or independent voter, you may want to seriously reconsider who you’re voting for, and why.”

(Last in a series on the Top 5 Winning Issues for Democrats)

This winning message is closely related to the first winning message: that the Republican Party is completely dysfunctional and incapable of leading a 21st-century superpower. But beyond that, voters need to be reminded what life under an ultraconservative government would look like. Here are specific ways to get that point across:

The messages:

• Modern ultraconservatism is not a philosophy of greatness. It is a philosophy of smallness, diminishment, meanness of spirit, stinginess, narrow-mindedness, rigid thinking, and fiscal incompetence.
• All the Republican tax-cut proposals would explode the deficit, as they have twice before under Reagan and Bush.
• The Republican budget would require devastating cuts to social services and programs that are part of what makes us a great nation:
  • Scientific research and space exploration
  • Programs to alleviate poverty and help those in need
  • Environmental and public health programs to keep our air, water, food, and medicine safe
  • Funding for the arts
  • The nation’s infrastructure
  • And many other quality-of-life programs and services
• Republican budget policies would devastate America the same way they’ve already devastated the budgets of Kansas, Louisiana, and Wisconsin.
• Millions of people would lose health insurance, with nothing to replace it.
• We’d be at war in the Middle East again within months of Republicans taking office, judging by their rhetoric.
• Medicare would be privatized and radically changed.
• Any philosophy that would give huge tax cuts to people who are already rich but cut food stamps for people who are desperately poor is immoral.

The contrasts:

• Democrats, by contrast, will continue the nation’s healthy state of economic progress and stability.
• For those struggling financially, we will focus our attention not on the rich but on American workers and people in poverty—the people who need attention the most, as Democrats have been doing for a hundred years.
• Democrats will maintain the high quality of life Americans have come to expect, while continuing to reduce the deficit modestly and responsibly.
• We will continue to provide affordable health insurance for those who need it most, and millions more will be signing up in the years to come.
• Democrats will continue a thoughtful and restrained foreign policy—keeping ISIS on the run, while elsewhere pursuing diplomacy before rushing off to other wars.
• Democrats will protect Medicare and Social Security.
• We will protect the environment.
• We will protect social programs like food stamps for people in poverty.
• We will protect civil rights for everyone, in the spirit of a great nation that cherishes freedom and equality.
• We will continue to uphold the American ideals of compassion, fairness, and equality for all.

Other posts in this series:

WINNING MESSAGE #1: The Republican Party

WINNING MESSAGE #2: Political and Financial Reform

WINNING MESSAGE #3: Helping the American Worker

WINNING MESSAGE #4: The Growing Inequality Between the Rich and Everyone Else

(Fourth in a series on the Top 5 Winning Issues for Democrats)

The shocking growth of income inequality isn’t just a message for Bernie Sanders. It’s a potent, populist issue for every Democratic candidate, and one that will resonate will almost everyone—liberal, conservative, or moderate—by appealing to Americans’ basic sense of fairness and our instinct to fight for the underdog. It also presents a stark contrast between the policies and values of Democrats and Republicans.

The messages:

• Republican policies of “trickle-down economics” have created a massive disparity in wealth—on a level we haven’t seen since the 1920s.
• Giving huge tax breaks mostly to the wealthy, in the hopes that it will spur the economy, doesn’t work. To prove it, show this chart.
• Or cite a few statistics:
  • The gap between the wealthy and the rest of America was the widest on record, according to a Pew Research Center study: The median net worth of upper-income families was 6.6 times that of middle-income families, and nearly 70 times that of lower-income families (2013 figures).
  • The top one-tenth of 1% of the richest Americans own nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%.
  • Income inequality is higher in America than in any major developed country on earth.
• Republican policies will only make the problem worse. Their agenda is almost exclusively focused on people who are already rich at the expense of workers and people in poverty:
  • Conservatives want to give more huge tax breaks to the wealthy and to the biggest corporations.
  • They are trying to destroy unions.
  • They voted for major cuts in food stamps for people in poverty.
  • They are refusing to raise the minimum wage.
  • They want to repeal or defund the health care law that has brought affordable health insurance to 16 million people.
  • They support the Paul Ryan budget, which would slash funding for food stamps, Medicaid (health care for the poorest of the poor), and other social service programs.
  • They are blocking the expansion of Medicaid for low-income and disabled people in Republican states.
  • They’ve proposed steep cuts to Pell grants to help low-income students go to college.
• Great countries are judged in part by how they treat their poorest and most vulnerable citizens. Conservatives fail that test of greatness. Giving tax cuts to the wealthy while voting to cut food stamps for the poor in immoral.

The contrasts:

• Democrats are the only ones talking about income inequality. Nothing will get done about the problem until Democrats are elected.
• Democratic policies focus on helping workers and the poor.
• Democrats will raise the minimum wage.
• Democrats will fight cuts in food stamps.
• Democrats strongly support unions.
• Democrats support sick pay for every worker.
• Democrats have always fought for the underdog.
• We believe that all of us are created equal. We represent the deeply held American values of equality and fairness.

Other posts in this series:

WINNING MESSAGE #1: The Republican Party

WINNING MESSAGE #2: Political and Financial Reform

WINNING MESSAGE #3: Helping the American Worker

WINNING MESSAGE #5: The Consequences of Conservatism

(Third in a series on the Top 5 Winning Issues for Democrats)

Democrats have a long and truly remarkable history of improving the lives of the American worker. And while Republicans also claim to be on the side of average Americans, that scandalous assertion can’t go unchallenged. Every Democrat must make the case that Democrats are the true party of the people. Our party has by far done the most to improve the day-to-day lives of the middle class, working class, and the poor.

The messages:

• In the last hundred years, almost every significant improvement in the lives of American workers has come from Democrats. We gave workers:
  • The 40-hour work week
  • Social Security
  • Medicare
  • Paid vacations
  • The first minimum wage
  • Time and a half for overtime
  • Unemployment insurance
  • The right of women to join the workplace
• Democrats have strongly supported unions, so workers have a voice in how they’re treated on their jobs.
• Democrats created a health care program for people who can’t afford health insurance.
• Democrats have initiated almost every raise to the minimum wage in history, and we’re fighting to raise it again.
• Democrats passed the Credit Card Act and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers from the worst abuses of the credit and financial industries.
• Democrats are fighting for paid sick leave for all workers.
• Democrats kept the internet fair and equal for everyone.

The contrasts:

• If you’re a worker in America, why in the world would you vote Republican?
• Conservatives at one time or another have opposed almost every important advance for American workers.
• Conservatives want to destroy unions by passing “right to work” laws and taking collective bargaining away from state workers. If they succeed, workers will have no voice left in the workplace.
• The Republican agenda is about helping big business, not workers. Their “trickle-down economics” doesn’t work (as this chart dramatically shows).
• Republicans want to take away health insurance, with nothing to replace it.
• Republicans voted on the side of the credit card industry and against protecting consumers.
• Republicans oppose a significant raise in the minimum wage.
• Republicans voted to repeal the inheritance tax for people who inherit $5.4 million or more. Democrats oppose more tax cuts for the wealthy, who have already received very generous tax breaks from conservatives.
• Republicans wanted a two-tier internet to benefit business over consumers.

Other posts in this series:

WINNING MESSAGE #1: The Republican Party

WINNING MESSAGE #2: Political and Financial Reform

WINNING MESSAGE #4: The Growing Inequality Between the Rich and Everyone Else

WINNING MESSAGE #5: The Consequences of Conservatism

(Second in a series on the Top 5 Winning Issues for Democrats)

Voters are clearly in a reformist mood. Everyone, no matter their political leanings, is fed up with the influence of money in politics. They’re tired of policies that grant huge favors to corporations and financial institutions at the expense of average Americans. Political and financial reform is the second winning message for Democrats. Candidates can make a strong case that we are the only party capable of changing business as usual.

Remember to link these bullet points to basic American values like fairness and equality, and to incorporate the 7 Winning Messages. Also be sure to contrast Democratic values with those of conservatives.

The messages:

• Both parties say they want to reform government and take money out of politics, but which party has proven that it’s on the side of the people?
• Democrats have been the party of change and innovation for a hundred years. We have always fought for the underdogs.
• Democrats have pushed for a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United, which allowed obscene amounts of money into politics.
• When Congress voted on real campaign finance reform in 2002 (the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which Citizens United partly overturned), Democrats in Congress collectively voted 246-14 in favor of it. Republicans voted 52-214 against it.
• Democrats support strict enforcement of Dodd-Frank Wall Street financial reforms, enacted after the financial crisis that caused the Great Recession.
• The Founding Fathers built checks and balances into our system of government, but they couldn’t have imagined the modern influence of money in politics. We need to restore those checks and balances to keep the system fair.

The contrasts:

• Conservatism by definition is a philosophy of the status quo. Conservatives are fundamentally against change. They either want to keep things the way they are or go back to the way things used to be. (See the essay The Case Against Conservatism.)
• It was conservative Supreme Court justices that gave us Citizens United and opened the floodgates of campaign cash.
• Conservatives have repeatedly tried to block any type of campaign finance reforms.
• Conservatives are trying to weaken Dodd-Frank laws and return to business as usual for the finance industry.
• The entire conservative agenda is about doing favors for those who are already wealthy. Republicans are not friends of working Americans and never have been.

Other posts in this series:

WINNING MESSAGE #1: The Republican Party

WINNING MESSAGE #3: Helping the American Worker

WINNING MESSAGE #4: The Growing Inequality Between the Rich and Everyone Else

WINNING MESSAGE #5: The Consequences of Conservatism