Emphasizing the desperation of Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, minority leader of the House, on Wednesday badgered Congressman Andre Carson to reintroduce himself as a "Muslim member of Congress” in protest of Pres. Trump’s travel restrictions implemented to protect U.S. citizens.
“Greetings from the great state of Indiana. I’m Congressman Andre Carson!” Carson said, prompting Pelosi to badger him. “Tell them you’re a Muslim,” she mumbled into a hot mic. “Tell them you’re a Muslim.”
The telling plea by 76-year-old Pelosi, who has presided over the largest decline of the Democratic Party in decades, is but a symptom of the party’s deep political woes.
Other than boycotting committee meetings and teaming with mainstream media to bash President Trump, Democrats don't seem to have a recognizable comeback strategy.
DNC choices disaster for national Democrats
Chaos within Democratic Party leadership is further evidenced in the fierce battle between former VP Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in choosing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman.
For example, Biden wishes to continue the status quo by backing tom perez to head the Democratic National Committee, calling the former Obama administration labor secretary the "best bet to help bring the party back." Perez is a little-known Dominican-American civil rights lawyer who grew up in the Rust Belt.
Biden is promoting the Obama appointee as as a champion of working Americans, immigrants, and the disabled.
While name recognition is a formidable problem for Perez to overcome, Bernie Sanders is promoting Keith Ellison, a Muslim Minnesota congressman, for the job. Similarly, Sanders says Ellison is a spokesman for the working man.
"I say we go forward and create a grassroots party which speaks for working people," Sanders said recently.
Perez is a political insider, Ellison a fiery left-wing zealot
Between the two, Ellison is the long shot because Biden and his former boss, Barack Obama, are the acting leaders of the party in the view of most Democrats and still command a greater share of party loyalty.
For example, knowledgeable Democratic strategists say Perez has up to a 66-member lead with 304 members out of 447 committed.
The overall problem for Democrats is that Perez is largely seen as an extension of the Barack Obama administration, which proved to have little or no coattails in 2016 when it counted. Meanwhile, Ellison is seen as zealot of leftwing causes who lacks national support.
Other, less formidable candidates to head up the DNC include: South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, South Carolina Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison, New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Raymond Buckley, Democratic strategist Jehmu Greene, and the executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party, Sally Boynton Brown.
Democrats need to re-brand, not disband
The Democratic Party hopes to rebuild and re-brand itself as a national party after losing the White House, both houses of Congress, hundreds of state and local offices, and the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice to replace deceased conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Skeptics of the headless Democratic Party say its aimless leadership is still moving in the wrong direction; it’s only a degree of how far.
