When you take on a leadership role in an organization, you generally become attached to it, hoping for its continued success, even after you step down. That is how I feel about the Sussex County Democrats, having served as chair of the 14RD Committee for 4 years, and sitting on the County executive committee because of that role. Consequently, I’ve been asking myself these questions: Democrats had a registration advantage in Sussex County in 2014 (49,865 v. 49,615) and only a slight disadvantage in 2016 (57,522 v. 59,907), so why can’t Democrats get elected in Sussex? Why did every single Democrat lose in 2014 and 2016, except for the one Trump supporters love? Is the County just hopeless, best written off as a lost cause?

[T]he most important thing progressives can do is play united defense against Trump and the GOP rather than get into squabbles about which affirmative policy proposals are best. The tea party, after all, was successful in large part because it understood itself as primarily a defensive group. It was “focused on fighting against every proposal coming out of the new Democratic Administration and Congress,” note the authors. “This focus on defense rather than policy development allowed the movement to avoid fracturing. Tea Party members may have not agreed on the policy reforms, but they could agree that Obama, Democrats, and moderate Republicans had to be stopped.” Progressives should follow the same tack, the authors argue: “[W]e strongly recommend focusing on defense against the Trump agenda rather than developing an entire alternative policy agenda,” they write. “This is time-intensive, divisive, and, quite frankly, a distraction, since there is zero chance that we as progressives will get to put our agenda into action at the federal level in the next four years.” Given the amount of left-liberal infighting that has raged since the election, it feels like important advice.

Jim Ryan - Retired CWA Debbie Harrington - Retired Military, DSU Trustee Dave Woodside - 27th RD chair Stephanie Hansen - Former County Council president Maggie Jones - Campaign manager for John Walsh Harry Dudlek - Committee member, IBEW member