The Democratic National Committee Saturday released a report blaming the lack of a central narrative and waning support from Southern, white voters for “devastating” losses in midterm elections and at the state level.
“It is strongly believed that the Democratic Party is loosely understood as a long list of policy statements and not as people with a common set of core values (fairness, equality, opportunity),” said the long-awaited DNC autopsy of what went wrong for the party in 2010 and 2014.
“This lack of cohesive narrative impedes the party’s ability to develop and maintain a lifelong dialogue and partnership with voters,” the report explained.
The self-assessment comes months after Democrats suffered embarrassing losses in November, leaving Republicans with complete control of Congress.
Democrats, most recently President Obama, suggested that Americans side with liberals on most issues — they just say the party has done a bad job selling their ideas.
The nine-page report also says Democrats need to do a better job attracting white voters, which increasingly have sided with Republicans.
“In order to win elections, the Democratic Party must reclaim voters that we’ve lost including white Southern voters, excite key constituencies such as African American women and Latinas, and mobilize the broadest coalition of voters possible to not only recapture state houses but also Congress,” the report said.
Democrats have been unable to translate the success of recent presidential elections into contests where Obama’s name was not on the ballot.
The report noted that since 2008, Democrats have lost control of 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats, 910 state legislative seats, 30 state legislative chambers and 11 gubernatorial posts.
Republicans were quick to dismiss the DNC diagnosis.
“The first step toward fixing a problem is admitting that you have one, but it’s clear the DNC isn’t willing to come to terms with why their party lost in historic fashion last November,” Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short said. “The reality is their divisive message doesn’t resonate and their liberal policies don’t work.”
