Opinion | Cures for What Ails the Democratic Party

Christine Harrington
Mount Kisco, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Your editorial is as honest an examination of the party’s poor strategy, poor results and habit of transferring blame as I’ve seen. May I emphasize a national party phenomenon that is very evident here in Rhode Island, an extremely Democratic state: chanting that Republicans will end Medicare and Social Security and other such threats.

This is not a political platform. It is a tactic that reveals both arrogance and disrespect for voters. Instead of presenting something positive and exciting that the Democratics want to accomplish, the party asked the nation to choose between the lesser of two evils, and we did.

Alan Weiss
East Greenwich, R.I.

To the Editor:

I am a lifelong Democrat who worked on Capitol Hill in 1972 and the Democratic National Committee in 1974. If you ask me, the best way for my party to win back the White House is to take a page out of the Republican playbook and create Project 2029. Not that it needs to be a 900-page manifesto like the conservative Project 2025; Democrats just need a handful of bullet points that all candidates can repeat in their sleep.

My suggestion is to start with three: Re-establish the fundamentals of a sound economy; provide new opportunities for homeownership, especially for 30-somethings; and pledge unwavering support for American values like fair voting and free speech. Looking back is helpful, but I want to win in 2028. Creating Project 2029 clearly is the path forward.

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach, Calif.

To the Editor:

Re “Bernie Sanders and the Surging Politics of Anger,” by Megan K. Stack (Opinion guest essay, March 30):

After reading the editorial board arguing that the Democratic Party must offer new ideas to survive, I turned the page to the essay by Ms. Stack, who wrote, after attending a recent Bernie Sanders rally, that people are connecting with the senator’s message, even though “he’s not really saying anything new.” He’s offering the same program, she wrote, “often for decades.”