The Democratic Party, at both the national and local levels, is suffering from a lack of leadership after the re-election of Donald Trump left the party in a state of “mourning,” Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels said.
In a lengthy, wide ranging interview on the Alabama Politics This Week podcast, Daniels was critical of the lack of planning, poor messaging and failures to unite Democrats under a meaningful platform that drew in a broad coalition of voters. And in the wake of those failures, he said, the party has been embarrassingly absent when it comes to organized messaging about Trump’s recent actions.
“I think for me as a political leader, I was just really concerned that we’ve not heard any type of strategy or any pushback at the national level at all,” Daniels said of the surprising lack of response to Trump’s executive orders. “There’s no plan to be able to say, ‘hey, here’s what you guys should be doing at the local level. Here’s what you should be doing at the state level. Here’s what you should be doing at the county level.’ There’s no conversation about that.
Everyone right now is just trying to figure out what to do. There is no leader at the national level to help us understand the strategy on how to get out. That’s why think tanks are important. The other side … they’ve mastered having think tanks and policy groups and disruptors within their own ranks. But right now there’s no leader.”
Overall, Daniels said he believes the party has slipped badly when it comes to creating and disseminating messages about Democratic priorities that really cut across demographics and reel in massive numbers of voters. Instead of focusing on so-called “kitchen table issues,” the party has allowed itself to be dragged into culture war fights and into the weeds on issues that American voters really don’t care much about.
At the same time, popular Democratic Party ideas, such Daniels’ overtime tax cut and protecting public education, get little push.
Much of that, he said, is due to the party being responsive to “mega donors” instead of voters and being led by single-issue groups.
“We’ve allowed mega donors to dictate policy instead of voters,” Daniels said. “We’ve led with our policy positions being more about what the donors want versus what people need or want.
“We have groups within our own ranks that only give to the candidates that focus on the single issue, but expect the other people (in the party) that they didn’t help and support to fight and defend their issues.”
Daniels said he knew some of his comments would be controversial, but he thinks it’s time for a change.
“I’m just tired, man – sick and tired of this,” he said. “Something has to change. We have to make major changes in how we’re doing things.”
Daniels also offered opinions on “so called progressive groups” that often accept funding from progressive donors and sources and then “spend all their time talking to the other side and never speak to Democrats.” And he offered a defense for the Alabama Education Association and the way it has done business over the last several years, as Republicans have steadily cut into public school funding.
To listen to the full podcast and interview, go to the Alabama Politics This Week website or subscribe to the podcast on all major platforms.
