What's clear is that Democratic Party messaging is woefully inadequate

[JHB]

44. That's not what he said, and ignoring the matter just feeds the meme

Since HitPointDem didn't give any examples I'm not going to guess about what he or she was referring to, but I'll use a historical example:

The S&L crisis was a stellar opportunity to hit the Republicans over whole-hog deregulation and the corruption and criminality that goes with it. If nothing else, it would put them on the defensive.

However, plenty of Democratic politicians also had ties to problem S&Ls, so that strategy entailed some blowback against fellow Democrats. Add to that the growing need for big money for campaigns and that the rising "pro-(some)business" faction (which would form the DLC) was on board with deregulation and other conservative economic policies, and the result was that there was no counterattack against them around this issue.

The "no difference" meme is crap, but the whole reason it has any traction whatsoever is because of economic issues: The leadership of both parties advocate "pro-business" policies and don't really have plans to address the structural issues that have been in effect since Reagan that have undermined the livelihoods and futures of most people for the benefit of a small stratum at the top. And that's because of the money needed for television advertising for campaigns. The people who can reliably pony up funds for that like "pro-(some)business" policies.

It's myopic in the extreme, but it doesn't come from nowhere. And ignoring that goes against the goal of improving our message.