lost their connection with the American voter. In short they have a macro problem said Bruce Haynes founding partner of Purple Strategies and a GOP strategist.
After the historic elections of President Barack Obama it is becoming more and more obvious that many of the partys leaders may have misinterpreted what his wins meant. Democratic strategists and operatives believed Obama won because of his digital operation micro-targeting data analytics and an ability to find and turn out voters Haynes said.
The reality was Barack Obama won because he was a charismatic candidate who connected to the future with a strong message of hope and change that identified with broad coalitions of voters.
Trump reproduced that and Clinton lacked that in its entirety Haynes said.
And now the Democrats stand on the outside looking in at virtually every major governing function in the country. From the presidency to Congress the Supreme Court governorships and most importantly state legislatures.
In short the classic bottom-up politics of the once iconic party of the people is gone.
The 2016 Election Day losses have evaporated everything that former Democratic National Party chairman Howard Dean had put in place for a comeback midterm election in 2006. Gone is his 50-state strategy program along with values messaging and the 
simple mechanics of good candidates running down-ballot. The national Democratic Party along with the Obama for America folks have divested the party of any investment in party infrastructure in red and purple states that might pay dividends for the party post-Obama.
We need someone who understands the big problem and focuses on it says Kevin Washo who ran the civic side of the Democratic National Convention planning committee in Philadelphia. We need that kind of outreach again Washo said.
Since Dean left and Barack Obama became president Democrats have lost more than 900 state House or Senate seats and 69 Congressional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. After Nov. 8th they will now control the governorship and both houses of the state legislature in just six states.
We need to do a better job of talking to a larger swath of the country said Washo a Philadelphia transplant who grew up in Scranton Pa. where a lot of his fellow Democrats voted for Trump. Our strategy to communicate to those voters as well as having a presence in every state is where we have fallen short Washo said.
We also need a full-time chairperson said David Axelrod the former campaign manager for Obama.
In short a true majority party for the Democrats is one that sees no flyover country and gives equal value to all voters said Axelrod adding that while there were a lot of smart people running both the Clinton campaign and the DNC
There was too much tactical thinking. The Democratic Party cannot send a signal there is a new coalition and tens of millions of white working Americans are not part of it Axelrod says.
That being said democratic power brokers in Washington D.C. have already and rapidly lined up behind 5-term Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison a member of the progressive wing of the party for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Ellison has the support of both outgoing and incoming Senate Minority Leaders Harry Reid of Nevada and Chuck Schumer of New York as well as Bernie Sanders the Vermont senator who pushed the party to impose the most progressive platform in its history at last summers Democrat Convention.We need a bottom up 50-state strategy here for sure said Axelrod
And it is also a full-time job he said adding that it takes a combination of skills that include not only the ability to make a case to voters but building a party organization to reach people with the tools of modern politics.
Axelrod said there is more than the presidency and congressional majorities at stake for Democrats such as state legislative seats and statewide offices
There are a whole series of things that the party should be concerned about and you cannot abandon any of it.
There has to be that recognition that even if the Democrat Party isnt going to carry a state in a presidential race it is still important to be competitive at other levels that is how you build capacity Axelrod said.
One of the things that happened in this election was that there were whole parts of the country largely written off and writing off the party actually accentuated Trumps message to those voters you have been disdained and forgotten.
Because of the notion of economic fairness and the dignity of value of work these are messages that are fundamental to the Democratic Party but they werent well communicated in this campaign he said.
Its an open question as to whether Democrats will let the party elite continue to run the party and pick candidates like Evan Bayh who forgot his own home address in his native Indiana because he never visited the state after he left or not.
