AVENTURA, Fla. ' Senators, protesters and admirers weathered a cold, rainy day in the nations capital for the inauguration of President Donald Trump. One thousand miles or so to the south, roughly 120 Democratic donors and dozens of other party insiders retreated to a golf resort to regroup. It was a balmy funeral. Self-styled leaders of the resistance sipped cocktails around a heated outdoor pool, debated voter outreach strategies under the chandeliers of a piano bar and listened to hour after hour of presentations about What Went Wrong and how to right it.The event was organized by David Brock, a longtime Hillary Clinton operative whose various organizations collectively burned through $75 million in the 2016 election cycle only to watch their political patron fall to a reality TV demagogue. In the opening address of the conference at Turnberry Isle Resort, Brock defended both his own work and the direction of the Democratic Party. Trumps election, he insisted, was a black swan event born of James Comey and traitors inside the FBI. Democrats should not over-learn the lessons behind their loss. Clinton, after all, won the popular vote by 3 million, despite Russian interference ' a grand achievement in the face of the vile sexism of voters who would not accept one of the most qualified, dedicated, committed, forward-thinking and honorable people to ever seek the presidency of the United States. Brock didnt mention her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs.Brocks only regret, if it can be called that, was the Clinton campaigns refusal to follow his advice about Trumps business record. Republican nominee Mitt Romney was known as a successful businessman before Barack Obama savaged him in 2012 over Cayman Islands investment schemes. A sustained campaign blasting Don the Con, Brock said, could have prevented the 2016 Rust Belt wipeout by focusing on Trumps reliance on cheap foreign labor and his aggressive avoidance of federal tax bills.Did Hillarys own campaign rob her of the only anti-Trump argument that would have opened up the all-important economic issue to her advantage' Brock asked. Thats the inescapable conclusion.Its true that Clintonia botched its economic message. But Brocks broad diagnosis of the Democratic Partys ailment was so obviously wrong that many of the party elites he invited to speak at his Florida retreat rejected their hosts premise. Multiple speakers talked to reporters about a decade-long slide in state and local party viability, which resulted in the loss of over 900 state legislature seats in the Obama era.Did Hillary's own campaign rob her of the only anti-Trump argument that would have opened up the all-important economic issue to her advantage'Democratic political operative David Brock I can tell you, said one insider, the conversations going on in those rooms are a long way from Davids talk. Reporters were not allowed into most of the donor presentations, but many of the speakers spoke frankly to the press afterward about their assessment of the partys predicament.Everyone in that room agrees that absent the Comey letter and absent WikiLeaks, [Clinton] wins, said Jon Cowan, president of the Third Way think tank. Its a close race. But you cant start from that if youre going to rebuild the Democratic Party . Democrats are in their worst electoral position since the Civil War.The challenges that face working people ' and Im not talking code for white working people but all people trying to survive in a 21st century economy ' [result from being] let down by an approach towards globalization and towards financialization and so forth that cant be squared, said Mike Podhorzer, political director at the AFL-CIO, the nations largest federation of labor unions. That has to be acknowledged.Bernie Sanders won the primary in West Virginia, said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Bernie Sanders ran on a zero fossil fuels platform in a state that really, really wants its coal jobs back. So theres a bigger thing at play than just the policy fights that are healthy within a party. And its a values proposition, and its the way were connecting with people from a values perspective.The Brock dissenters at the Florida confab have their own differences. Cowan recently raised $20 million for a project to reinvigorate the party by ' many critics suggest ' essentially crushing the Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wing that has effectively assailed Trumps Cabinet nominees after Clintons loss ' a strategy Brock himself ostensibly disavowed in an (admittedly odd) public letter to Sanders.But some of Brocks allies arent ready to make nice. Populism is inherently anti-government, Cowan told Politico. That works if youre a right-wing conservative, like Donald Trump. That doesnt work if youre the party of government.Others rejected the idea that Democrats need to choose between so-called identity politics and economic messaging, arguing that the party needed to work harder to reach working-class voters of all colors. The Democratic coalition lives in the economy, all right' former Bill Clinton campaign manager James Carville said. The idea that somehow its only white working-class people that live in an economy and, you know, blacks, Hispanics, unmarried women, gay people ' theyre like everybody else. Thats an insane argument to have! While Brocks stable of thinkfluencers battled over different visions of a radical Democratic Party re-think, Brock himself was asking for money to reboot the existing infrastructure. The Democrats got outflanked digitally by the hard right this round, he said. Ramping up funds for the ShareBlue.com space would probably do the trick.[ShareBlue] was one of the few places online where Hillary supporters really felt safe, Brock told reporters. They developed a narrative that they stuck to for the entire campaign that Hillary was not a victim, but she was an underdog in a society plagued by sexism and media bias. And that might not have worked for the campaign, but it certainly lit up their audience, and people ate it up.Other digital media outlets had failed to communicate just how great Hillary Clinton was in 2016, Brock said. The Huffington Post isnt what it was.The reinvigorated ShareBlue project will be heralded by David Sirota, a deeply respected investigative journalist whose work has forced the resignations of officials in New Jersey and Connecticut. Sirota has cultivated a reputation as a nonpartisan corruption watchdog.Brock told reporters that moneyed Democrats generally shared his vision.I think that donors dont feel that were in as bad shape collectively as a party and a movement than what you might read about in the media, Brock told reporters.At cocktail receptions and off-party whisper-sessions, Brocks guests appeared comfortable. But few seemed enthusiastic about the partys political prospects. And they may have grown accustomed to overpaying.Its a very nice tourist course, a golf-enthusiast resort guest told HuffPost. But its not worth $300 a round.How will Trumps first 100 days impact you' Sign up for our weekly newsletter to find out. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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