On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated that Democrats’ message needs to be “we understand you weren’t thrilled with the Democratic Party. We have to change. We have to get better. We have to legitimately address immigration. We have to have secure borders. And we didn’t do as good a job on that as we should have. Focusing on identity politics constantly is not what the American people want, alright. We get that. We’re going to fix that. We’re going to run our cities better, which, by the way, we’re starting to do.” And Trump voters are “not all racist, bigoted morons. They’re not. And we need to stop treating them like that and say, okay, you’ve got concerns, we’re going to address them.”
While talking about the Democratic Party’s messaging, Smith said, “There [are] two parts to it: One has to be focused on what Trump is doing and how that is unacceptable. And that, too, has two parts. … One, is this is an authoritarian takeover of our government, alright. And, look, Republicans can argue about the policies, well, here’s why drugs are important, here’s why what Trump is doing makes sense on tariffs. They can’t even really, in any meaningful way, argue the authoritarian aspect of this. The president is ignoring the law and turning us into a monarchy instead of a constitutional republic. If you care about democracy, you have to send a message that this must stop. Second, his policies are really hurting us. Look at what’s happening to the farmers. Look at how the costs of housing, insurance, energy, everything’s going up because of his policies, health care, millions of people are about to lose their healthcare insurance, millions of people are losing access to the food security that they need. His policies are harming the country.”
He continued, “And then, third, as a Democrat, I think we need to say, we understand you weren’t thrilled with the Democratic Party. We have to change. We have to get better. We have to legitimately address immigration. We have to have secure borders. And we didn’t do as good a job on that as we should have. Focusing on identity politics constantly is not what the American people want, alright. We get that. We’re going to fix that. We’re going to run our cities better, which, by the way, we’re starting to do. You look at some of the things that are happening in San Francisco and other places, where, we’re getting after crime and homelessness and drug abuse and actually governing better. We have to understand that all whatever 80 million, I think is the number that voted for Trump, something like that, they’re not all racist, bigoted morons. They’re not. And we need to stop treating them like that and say, okay, you’ve got concerns, we’re going to address them. We’re not going to get them all. We don’t need to get them all, but we need to reach out to people that broadens our coalition. We can’t keep preaching to the choir. Look, I represent a 70% Democratic district. Whether I’m here or not, a Democrat’s going to represent this district, and that’s great. But what are we going to do to reach the people in those places that we aren’t winning? Which is why Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Abigail Spanberger are so important and what’s going to happen in a week and a half. They’re running the type of campaigns that [are] going to broaden the support that Democrats have so that we can begin to turn this around. So, I think we have to do both of those things.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
