The Democrats and the Road to 2020

Writer Jemele Hill talks about the challenges Democrats face going into 2020. She and other journalists discuss just how big the fissures are within the party.

On the heels of the fourth Democratic debate, the party may seem more fractured or more formidable, depending on who you ask. Amy Walter, national editor for The Cook Political Report, says some Democratic voters she’s spoken to wonder how their party can’t win. “You have a president who’s sitting at 42 percent. He has yet to hit 50 percent,” she said in June. And yet, will Democrats unify in time to win the election? Jemele Hill, staff writer for The Atlantic, says a perceived conflict within the party is self-inflicted and due to poor messaging. The rift grows, she says, when centrist ideas, like health care reform, are thought of as radical. “A lot of people in this country really want to find an adequate, competent health care system. I think we all kind of want that. But it’s been labeled as some kind of radical concept.”

Covering 2020 Better

The press and pollsters provide critical information to voters that inform their decisions on election day. Studies following the 2016 election show media coverage of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was negative, light on policy, and disproportionately focused on sideshows. Can news organizations do better? What have they learned since 2016 — and what’s the role of the reader, viewer, listener, or “clicker” as we head into 2020? Get informed — watch Covering 2020.

— GO DEEPER —

Hear more of what our speakers are saying about the 2020 election. How will tech companies and the government combat disinformation online? How might millennials and post-millennials change the democratic 2020 primary? Hear from some of the candidates who are running for president. Prior to their candidacy, they spoke at Aspen Ideas about various issues impacting society.

QUOTED AT ASPEN IDEAS

“Democracy only works if people vote. The voter turnout in 2015 for the 2016 presidential election was pathetic in this country. Less than half the people who were eligible to vote actually voted.” — Chip Bergh, New Corporate Trailblazers: The Purpose Leaders

Bergh, president of Levi Strauss & Co., wants young people to vote. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, the company registered voters in their stores and gave employees half the day off to vote on election day.