As for younger voters, they've grown up under the most economically unequal conditions in more than 100 years. Social mobility is down. Millions are burdened with staggering student debt. The entry-level job market has been poor since at least 2008, and their generation has been plagued with under-employment that's likely to cripple their lifetime earning potential.
Is it any wonder they're unimpressed with party leaders whose main claims to leadership are their lengthy re'sumes as members of the ruling elite?
Leftward MovementWisely, these voters are looking to "movements," and not to the party itself, for answers. That's where change is likely to be born -- from the activism of those who understand that economics and identity are inseparable. It's certainly not going to come from leaders who seem determined to purge the representatives of those movements, while at the same time trying to elevate corporate lobbyists to leadership positions.
Nothing could be more antithetical to the wishes of the party's base, as expressed in this poll.
There are those who say the party's base voters are wrong, as a hedge-funder turned Democratic operative did recently. They claim that a "left" agenda will lead the party to defeat. They're wrong, for at least three reasons.
Working ClassFirst, many of the left's ideas appeal to voters across the political spectrum. A number of polls -- see here, here, and here, for example -- have shown that most voters, including most Republicans, support expanding Social Security.
Donald Trump won the GOP nomination -- and ultimately the presidency -- in part because he adopted left-seeming positions on trade, job creation, and cracking down on Wall Street. A bitter irony, I know.
Despite improvement in the topline economic numbers, voters remain deeply uncertain about their economic prospects and the nation's future. 60 percent of respondents to the Harvard-Harris poll said the country is "off on the wrong track."
Economic uncertainty affects voting across racial and ethnic lines. Regarding Trump voters, pollsters Pete Brodnitz and Jill Normington told House Democrats earlier this year:
"We suffer from the lack of an identifiable positive agenda. Without it, voters will turn to Trump for progress. With it, we can make significant gains."
That doesn't mean Democrats should adopt a race-based approach. Turnout was down significantly for black and Hispanic voters last year, which may well have changed the race's outcome. An "identifiable positive agenda" on the economy is likely to bring out more working-class people of color as well.
Democrats don't need a "white" strategy. They need a "working class" strategy.
The Vanishing PersuadablesSecond, establishment Democrats have spent far too long trying to appeal to that rapidly-vanishing creature known as the "persuadable" voter -- perhaps because that approach suited their own ideology (or self-interest) very neatly. Survey data shows that fewer such voters exist with every passing year.
In this environment, turnout is a much more decisive factor than persuasion. Conservatives are more likely to vote than liberals, and early polling indicates that Republicans will outperform Democrats on turnout again in 2018.
To boost turnout, Democrats should look to candidates and policies that mobilize left-leaning voters.
A Movement is More Than a PartyThe third point is the simplest one of all. it's hard to argue that the leftward path leads to defeat when the party's had so many losses under its current, more right-leaning ideology. Arguments about how to win are most persuasive when they come from people who win on a regular basis. Democrats are out of power in all three branches of the federal government and two-thirds of the states, which means the party's current leaders don't have much credibility on the subject.
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