A new national agenda put forth by Democrats is receiving, at best, a lukewarm reception among journalists and major news publications.
Congressional Democrats on Monday officially announced their “Better Deal” platform, a set of goals for better-paying jobs, readily available healthcare and increased regulation on large corporate businesses.
The agenda is an apparent effort by Democrats to refocus the party on policy proposals instead of serving as simply an opposition to the Trump administration, but some in the national media said it fell flat.
Referring to the platform’s targeting big business monopolies, the New York Times editorial board said it “seems more populist talking point than legislative possibility.” The paper also expressed skepticism about whether Democrats were serious in their proposal or simply planning to use it for the midterm elections.
“If Democrats believe their ideas will provide middle-class people with better jobs, wages and futures,” said the Times, “they should do everything possible to move them through Congress, and worry later about who gets credit.”
An editorial by the Washington Post similarly said the “Better Deal” agenda was “less than compelling” because it lacked solutions to problems President Trump successfully campaigned on, like international trade and tax reform.
“Democrats are right that the United States hungers for a more equitable and effective alternative to GOP economics,” said the Post. “Obviously, though, they’re still working on it.”
Eugene Robinson, a liberal columnist for the Post, even took issue with the title of the agenda, writing Monday night that “‘A Better Deal’ is not the worst slogan I’ve ever heard, but it’s far from the best.”
The text of the “Better Deal” is mostly a set of aspirations, some of which even coincide with Trump’s campaign issues, like lowering prescription drug prices.
However, Democrats are lacking a clear leader on a national level to serve as a focal point in selling their message. (“I don’t know if we really have one to be honest with you, and its reflected in the polls,” Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan said last week.)
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, a self-identified Democrat, said of the new plan: “They need a person who stands for those things in how he or she has lived his life and can communicate those things effectively with his or her voice. … Making the slogan and then trying to find the person to fit the slogan … you can’t do it.”
Washington Post reporter Anne Gearan suggested in a TV interview the agenda was backward looking, calling it “reminiscent, frankly, of the main pillars of the Hillary Clinton campaign” which “obviously didn’t resonate with people in the way that Trump’s much simpler and more direct economic message did.”
