Politics is not a straight forward math problem.
There are no simple answers. Everyone "knows" where we went wrong, most have a small bit of truth. There simply is no easy or individual answer.
This fight is not new. What is governments role and how far should it infringe on freedom, individual rights, state rights, etc?
These issues become compounded and blurred in segregated societies. The US as a whole is a segregated society. Said segregation makes it easier for leaders to divide and conquer. Makes it easier for leaders to pick winners and losers. Makes it easier for leaders to disenfranchise specific groups.
As for the Democratic Party, we are not in our death throes. In many areas of the country I'm sure it feels like that and in some areas the Democratic Party is just about dead. Same with the Republican Party in some areas of the country. We have a lot of great fighters out there in the game. Working hard every day. We hold numbers in the House and Senate to the point one or two cycles could easily throw either our way. We have a lot of work to do to make it happen. We must make it happen.
Our Party's Platform is solid. It is progressive and is a great playbook for what we expect from our members, overall. If we keep beating its drum it will resonate with people. Meanwhile, we must become better at the local level. That is where so much is won and lost. We seem to be on a losing trend in that area. Too much emphasis is put on the big prize.
The Party and its leaders came together during the Presidential election like something I haven't seen outside of an incumbent running. We were united. It really was a thing of beauty. I get that it doesn't feel that way right now. Rewriting history on this won't work.
I'm excited to see who gets appointed to head the DNC. It's my understanding my first pick will not be the one. I truly wanted O'Malley. O'Malley is extremely impressive in depth and breadth. I've never been a one and done person. He isn't the only one for the job. Our efforts really need to be directed toward supporting our platform and getting people to run in local elections all over the country. We need a solid structure within the DNC to help this along. Please note, not a bit of this is about wasting time talking about how I hate the DNC, or the DNC killed my cat, or the DNC is mean. Simply that as a whole it needs to be better moving forward.
The simple answer is that we have a lot of hard work ahead in many areas. That is the only way to define a simple answer because there isn't one. It's going to take a lot of work and organization. We are great at the hard work aspect and often excel at the organizing part. We have the ingredients.