'A Better Deal,' or Just a Better Spiel?

Democrats have unveiled their 2018 agenda, and it suggests they understand why they lost to Trump.

Have Democrats finally come to grips with why they lost the presidential election? On Monday party leaders traveled to a rural Virginia county that Donald Trump won by 20 points. There they unveiled their 2018 campaign platform, called “A Better Deal.” The plan keeps in mind both kinds of Democratic candidates—blue-state progressives and red-state moderates. It includes a $15 minimum wage, a proposal to lower prescription-drug costs, new child-care support and tougher regulation of Wall Street.

One of the document’s authors, Rep. Cheri Bustos, is among the dozen Democrats who won a congressional district last fall that went for Mr. Trump. Ms. Bustos, who represents working-class northwestern Illinois, is precisely the type of Democrat party leaders ought to be listening to, and bully for them if they’re taking her counsel.

“In the last two elections, Democrats, including in the Senate, failed to articulate a strong, bold economic program for the middle class and those working hard to get there,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in an op-ed announcing the new agenda. “We also failed to communicate our values to show that we were on the side of working people, not the special interests. We will not repeat the same mistake.” This is a long way from blaming Hillary Clinton’s loss on those deplorables.

Read the entire piece here at The Wall Street Journal

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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator.

This piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal