The blame game is underway for Democrats after Kamala Harris’ crushing defeat.
One painful reality about the party can’t be denied any longer.
And a top Democrat gave one dire warning to MSNBC that left Kamala Harris feeling sick.
Former House Democrat admits his party’s brand is toxic to voters
Democrats are still processing what went wrong in the Presidential election.
They were sure that Vice President Kamala Harris was headed toward a commanding victory.
Former Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH) had some hard truths for Democrats during an appearance on MSNBC’s The Weekend.
Ryan represented the Youngstown, Ohio, area when he served in the House.
President-elect Donald Trump became the first Republican to carry Mahoning County, where Youngstown is located, in the 2020 Election since President Richard Nixon in 1972.
Youngstown is ground zero for the working-class areas in the Rust Belt that have slipped away from Democrats under Trump.
Ryan admitted that the Democrat brand has become “toxic” to voters throughout the country.
“You start with a complete reset. We need a rebrand. I think you and I have been talking about this since 2016, like, our brand is toxic in so many places and it is like, you are a Democrat? That’s the stuff we get like in Ohio,” Ryan explained.
Democrats need to face the painful reality about their agenda.
Ryan called for a complete reboot of the party, starting with the Democrat National Committee.
“I’m telling you, the middle-of-the-road people, they’re like holding their noses to vote for him [Trump], but we didn’t give them enough. Like, we are reindustrializing,” Ryan stated. “We are talking about American competitiveness. We are moderate on things like natural gas in Western PA, which ended up being a big issue. We can’t be against natural gas replacing coal.”
The cryptocurrency industry spent big defeating U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in Ohio after he called it rife with scams and fraud.
Ryan urged Democrats to embrace it moving forward.
“We are in a big fight with the crypto industry. What are we doing? Why are we in a fight with crypto right now?” Ryan asked.
He said that Democrats needed to return to their working-class roots and focus on the economy.
“If you are a working-class person, the Democratic Party is for you,” Ryan claimed. “Here is how we will rebuild the future: we will reshore chips. We have a battery plant outside Youngstown, 2,000 autoworkers, got a great contract — $30 an hour, good benefits, and good retirement. We did that. If we can’t reclaim that, and if it means saying no to some of the issues, like, we’re with you on the issues, but we have to lead with the economy. We have to lead with growth.”
Ryan pointed to former President Bill Clinton as the example the party needed to follow moving forward.
“The other thing that I think is really big: we can’t be solely for redistribution,” Ryan explained. “It’s not, ‘We’re going to tax the bad guys who are rich, which we want people to aspire to make money in America. We’ll tax them because they’re really bad people, and we’re going to give you money.’ No, it’s about growing the pie. It’s about getting back to you want — it’s the Bill Clinton campaign. It’s the modern Democratic campaign.”
Tim Ryan’s calls will fall on deaf ears because that brand of blue-collar Democrat politics is as extinct as the dinosaurs.
