On Friday’s broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire,” Rep. Ed Case (D-HI) said that, in past elections, “all we did was to say how bad the other side was without offering our own alternative” and “I hope my Democrats learned that lesson and learned how to talk to the voters that are going to decide whether Democrats do prevail in the midterms.”
Host Dasha Burns asked, “Rep. Case, a lot of Democrats are trying to make this election about the president, a referendum on Trump. Is that enough? Do Democrats need to do more to build an affirmative vision and party platform for voters?”
Case answered, “First of all, the answer to your question is yes, that is exactly what Democrats have to do. But I start with the premise, which is, the president is correct, whether he asked to be on the ticket or not, it’s going — he is on the ticket. This is going to be a referendum on President Trump. And I think what’s on people’s minds is not only whether they agree or disagree with the President, not only whether they believe that the President has delivered on their top concerns, for example, affordability and the state of the economy and jobs, but, you put it exactly right, whether there should be an independent check and balance in Congress. And I think that that’s a legitimate question for voters to ask, is, do we need, in this time, and with this presidency, checks and balances in Congress? Whether those people, as [Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO)] already talked about, are Rs capable of checking and balancing this President or Ds, and so, I think that’s going to, absolutely, be what influences this election the most. And I think that, your second point, which is, do Democrats need more? Absolutely. Because the reason that Democrats have not prevailed in some of these elections, where, frankly, I think Democrats should have prevailed, is because all they did, all we did was to say how bad the other side was without offering our own alternative. And that forced many voters, including those in the middle who make the decisions on these elections, … to a very bad choice, I don’t like the person that the Democrats say I don’t like, but I’m not sure that I’ve heard a good alternative, and so I’ve got to make a bad choice here. And I think that that was the answer to President Trump’s second election. So, I hope my Democrats learned that lesson and learned how to talk to the voters that are going to decide whether Democrats do prevail in the midterms.”
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