Schumer’s advice to Democrats: To win in 2016, embrace big government

As policy director for the Democratic Party, Sen. Charles Schumer promised to diagnose what went wrong for Democrats in the midterm elections. On Tuesday morning, he explained all at the National Press Club. The New York lawmaker said voters blamed the Democratic Party for a string of monumental government failures. But that’s no excuse to give up on a strong government, he cautioned - insisting that an all-embracing government is the key to a 2016 White House win.

“Middle class incomes have been in decline for over a decade, and the grand optimism over the American dream is in jeopardy. The 2014 election results can be explained this way. During 2013, neither party convinced the middle class that they had an effective way to get them out of this morass, that they had an effective plan to create good jobs and raise incomes. As 2014 began, the parties were in stalemate. But when government failed to deliver on a string of non-economic issues - the rollout of the Obamacare exchanges, the mishandling of the surge in border crossers, ineptitude at the VA, initial handling of the Ebola threat - people lost faith in government’s ability to work, then blamed the incumbent governing party, Democrats - creating a Republican wave,” Mr. Schumer said.

“Ultimately, the public knows in its gut that a strong and active government is the only way to reverse the middle class decline and help revive the American dream. Democrats lost in 2014 because the government made mistakes that eroded the electorate’s confidence in its ability to improve the lives of the middle class. But that same underlying expectation that government should help make life easier for the middle class is as strong as it has ever been, setting the stage for a Democratic victory in 2016, if and only if we can convince people that government can work and help restore the middle class to prosperity,” the lawmaker said.

“We are in a much better position to do this than Republicans because when economic conditions are declining for the middle class, the electorate instinctively turns turns to Democrats. But in order to win in 2016, Democrats must embrace government, not run away from it,” Mr. Schumer concluded.