Dan Pfeiffer, former adviser to President Barack Obama, said on his podcast Sunday that Democrats have allowed Republicans to brand the party as a “cultural elite,” which has led to working-class voters turning away from the party. He claimed that was the reason he left.

Following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday night, Democrats and political experts are baffled by the former president’s landslide victory in both the Electoral College and the popular vote. It seemed like that. On “Pod Save America,” Pfeiffer told his guest, anti-Trump Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, that while criticizing Democrats’ “woke” ideology is popular among party strategists, He said the party was also struggling with working-class voters after losing its “brand.” It’s a “war” against the Republican Party.

“This is very difficult because the best way to get attention is there are a lot of people like Fox News who are Democratic strategists who say, ‘Democrats are too woke.’ They’re doing things like, “We should stop calling people Latinx and things like that,” Pfeiffer said. “Then you’re like, ‘Oh, by the way, when did Kamala Harris do something like that…in this campaign?'”

“I say this because as a party we have a broader branding issue. We have allowed the Republican Party to brand us as the party of cultural elites. . So there’s a cultural disconnect with working-class voters of all races, and that’s what keeps them from liking us,” Pfeiffer added. “Despite the fact that we put our policies side by side with Trump’s policies in a blind test, they would choose our policies almost every time when it comes to economic issues, raising the minimum wage, raising the middle class. Tax cuts, tax increases on the wealthy, Social Security, Medicare, they protect all of that. We don’t trust doing things like that because we don’t believe that’s who we’re fighting for and that’s what we’re focused on. I think we’re completely losing the branding war here and we’re going to have to think hard about how to solve it for the party.”

Pfeiffer went on to highlight similar struggles in both Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and former President Barack Obama’s campaign, and how Trump changed the image of the Republican Party during the 2016 campaign. They pointed out how they had restructured it to their advantage. (Related article: ‘Take the L’: Former CNN analyst slams historian who ‘blamed’ his incorrect election predictions on ‘disinformation’ and bias)

clock:

“One of the challenges for Kamala Harris is that she started with a blank slate, so she quickly adopted… She can’t be unique within the Democratic Party. “When he became a candidate, the Democratic Party had a lot of similar challenges, but he had the time to name-check and introduce himself, and he was able to be different from that caricature.” Mr. Pfeiffer continued.

“Trump, similarly, the Republicans had the opposite problem with Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, cutting Social Security and Medicare. Just as we’ve done a very good job as a party of branding ourselves plutocratic, when Trump comes along we redefine the party, but in a kind of America-first nationalist way. ,” Pfeiffer said. “He thinks they’re more likely to trust him, even though he has a ton of policies that harm working-class people. He’s a billionaire with a golden toilet on his plane. So I know it’s insane but he’s being watched [as] Culturally, I think they are more similar in that they are more anti-establishment than the Democratic Party. It doesn’t matter where or how Kamala Harris was raised or what her personal story is. ”

During the campaign, when Harris appeared on stage with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, JLo and Beyoncé, undecided voters and former Democrats criticized her for being out of touch with everyday voters. did. With support from Hollywood elites and billionaire donors, Harris raised nearly $1 billion during the campaign.

All content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan news distribution service, is available free of charge to legitimate news publishers with large audiences. All republished articles must include our logo, reporter byline, and DCNF affiliation. If you have any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact us at licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.