Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., warned Monday that his party needs to change course and stop alienating allies with far-left ideological litmus tests.
The Democratic Party, still reeling from its defeat by President Donald Trump in November, has been trying to make sense of how it lost touch with the American public. Moulton, who has a history of calling out his party’s more ideologically extreme elements, told CNN host Pamela Brown that the great lesson of the election is that his party is long overdue for major reforms.
“We lost this election across the board, an election that should have been easy for us to win,” Moulton said. “I mean, when in our history have we ever run against a convicted felon sitting at the top of the ticket? So this past election should have been an easy one for Democrats. And yet we lost across the board because so many Americans said, ‘You guys are just out of touch. You‘re just out of touch. I mean, this other guy might be crazy, but you guys are not in touch with the majority of Americans,’ which is kind of by definition, what we showed by losing this election.”
When asked by Brown what the party could do to reform, Moulton suggested the process could start by changing the fundamentals of how Democrats communicate, not just with voters, but with each other.
“We‘ve become a party of people who preach down to others, you know, who scold them, who say, ‘If you don‘t agree with me, you‘re not only wrong, but you‘re a bad person,’” he said. “I mean, I think all of us have heard that attitude from many national Democrats in the past couple of years. So I think we need to stop preaching and start listening, start meeting Americans where they are. Don‘t take these minority positions on cultural issues and say, ‘Hey, if you don‘t meet this strict liberal litmus test, then you‘re not even a Democrat.’”
Moulton then cited how one particular hot-button issue has divided the country between the vanguard of the far-left versus virtually everybody else.
“You know, when I questioned whether we should at least just have a debate about rules for sports, you know, whether transgender women should compete on the same level as on girls sports teams, I got accosted by – I got told by people, ‘You‘re not even a Democrat,’” he said. “Well, that‘s the problem with our party.”
He went on to argue, “You can‘t be a majority party if you don‘t accept a majority of views. It happens on this particular issue. Eighty percent of Americans disagree with this liberal litmus test, you know, a checkbox for Democrats on this view. So we’ve got to be a lot smarter in listening to Americans. My job is to represent Americans, not tell them what to think, but actually represent their interests in Congress.”
Brown then observed how California Gov. Gavin Newsom has come around on that particular issue, a sentiment Moulton shared is secretly popular among Democrats.
“I‘ve heard from so many colleagues behind the scenes, ‘You’re right, Seth, you’re right,” he said. “But they all say it whispering because they’re so afraid to say it out in public, lest they be accosted by, you know, the liberal left in our party.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., warned Monday that his party needs to change course and stop alienating allies with far-left ideological litmus tests.
The Democratic Party, still reeling from its defeat by President Donald Trump in November, has been trying to make sense of how it lost touch with the American public. Moulton, who has a history of calling out his party’s more ideologically extreme elements, told CNN host Pamela Brown that the great lesson of the election is that his party is long overdue for major reforms.
“We lost this election across the board, an election that should have been easy for us to win,” Moulton said. “I mean, when in our history have we ever run against a convicted felon sitting at the top of the ticket? So this past election should have been an easy one for Democrats. And yet we lost across the board because so many Americans said, ‘You guys are just out of touch. You‘re just out of touch. I mean, this other guy might be crazy, but you guys are not in touch with the majority of Americans,’ which is kind of by definition, what we showed by losing this election.”
When asked by Brown what the party could do to reform, Moulton suggested the process could start by changing the fundamentals of how Democrats communicate, not just with voters, but with each other.
“We‘ve become a party of people who preach down to others, you know, who scold them, who say, ‘If you don‘t agree with me, you‘re not only wrong, but you‘re a bad person,’” he said. “I mean, I think all of us have heard that attitude from many national Democrats in the past couple of years. So I think we need to stop preaching and start listening, start meeting Americans where they are. Don‘t take these minority positions on cultural issues and say, ‘Hey, if you don‘t meet this strict liberal litmus test, then you‘re not even a Democrat.’”
Moulton then cited how one particular hot-button issue has divided the country between the vanguard of the far-left versus virtually everybody else.
“You know, when I questioned whether we should at least just have a debate about rules for sports, you know, whether transgender women should compete on the same level as on girls sports teams, I got accosted by – I got told by people, ‘You‘re not even a Democrat,’” he said. “Well, that‘s the problem with our party.”
He went on to argue, “You can‘t be a majority party if you don‘t accept a majority of views. It happens on this particular issue. Eighty percent of Americans disagree with this liberal litmus test, you know, a checkbox for Democrats on this view. So we’ve got to be a lot smarter in listening to Americans. My job is to represent Americans, not tell them what to think, but actually represent their interests in Congress.”
Brown then observed how California Gov. Gavin Newsom has come around on that particular issue, a sentiment Moulton shared is secretly popular among Democrats.
“I‘ve heard from so many colleagues behind the scenes, ‘You’re right, Seth, you’re right,” he said. “But they all say it whispering because they’re so afraid to say it out in public, lest they be accosted by, you know, the liberal left in our party.”
