A Worker Centered DNC

Take any official statement from the labor movement for what you will, but at the very least, the AFL-CIO certainly believes that there are two parties of billionaires in this country and that the Democrats need to readjust and became an actual party of the working class if it wants to win again.

As labor DNC delegates, we will measure our support for the next slate of DNC leaders using the following principles:

1. DNC leadership must have a strong connection to working people and unions. That means having extensively worked with—or even for—labor in the past. In addition to understanding working-class values, DNC leaders need to know how to organize and how to talk to working people. Having leaders who prioritize big-money corporate donors is flatly unacceptable. 
    
2. The party must restore its connection to working people by focusing on the core economic issues they care most about. That means working closely with the labor movement to develop an economic framework of values-based policies and messaging that speaks to ALL working people, regardless of age, race, gender, or ideology. To be the party of working people, Democrats need to talk openly and often with all working people about kitchen table economic issues families think about daily. 
    
3. Party leaders must commit to a robust, 365-day-a-year field program that engages workers in our communities. The only way Democrats can break through the political noise with a working-class agenda is to have a year-round infrastructure in place to reach voters where they are. 
    
4. The party must address its failure to communicate successfully with working people and invest in innovative and creative methods of messaging instead of simply enriching the consulting class. Democrats must better utilize a variety of community-based platforms to reach working people wherever they are on the issues that matter most, not just near election time, but all the time. 

I certainly couldn’t agree more. If the Democrats keep losing voters who make less than $100,000 a year, they not only will never win again, but they don’t deserve to win either.