DCCC advice to Dems for the midterms: Don’t ‘sound like a jerk’

“…House Democrats are holding a retreat in Philadelphia today, trying to come to an agreement on how best to sell themselves to voters in the coming midterm election. NBC News reports that rather than uniting Democrats behind a common plan, the meeting seemed to emphasize their disagreements. Progressives think their best hope is to pass the Franken-BBB bill so they’ll have something to run on. Moderates think they just need to stop talking like preachy progressives.

Asked whether Democrats need to pass a Build Back Better-like bill to keep the majority, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, replied: “No.”…

Maloney’s advice? “Talk like real people.” Don’t “sound like a jerk.” And “be a human being in relation to your voters.” Or put more simply: Be “real people.”

It may not sound like Maloney is being very pointed but in context sounding “like a jerk” is a reference to some recent DCCC polling which found that “battleground voters think the party is ‘preachy,’ ‘judgmental’ and ‘focused on culture wars.’” So sounding like a jerk means sounding like a squad progressive. One squad-adjacent progressive seemed to agree with Maloney:

“We need visionary, historic leadership and new conversations that are smart and engaging with the entire American people instead of the dumbing down [of issues], and the way we’re framing these issues is worrisome,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). “We’ve got to trust the American people to be able to receive and engage in and guide us on what needs to be done.”

That actually sounds like a smart approach even if it is also an attempt by a far left congressman to hide a far left agenda…”