In this episode of “The Opinions,” David Leonhardt, the editorial director of the editorial board, asks the Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg what Democrats are doing right, what they’re doing wrong and what they should consider doing next.
Michelle Goldberg: ‘More Democrats Need to Be Doing This’
Democrats have a lot of problems. But they are getting some things right.Below is a transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
David Leonhardt: I’m David Leonhardt, the editorial director of the New York Times editorial board.
When I ask Democratic voters how they feel about their party’s performance since President Trump took office in January, I tend to hear a lot of negative responses, words like “confused,” “out of touch” and, above all, “weak.” Some of those critiques are accurate, but there is also a reason to believe that the Democrats may be doing a better job as Trump’s opposition party than many people recognize. After all, Trump’s approval rating has significantly declined since he took office. That’s a sign that some of the Democratic critiques are landing, and if you look at Congress right now, you’ll see the Democrats are largely united while Republicans are bickering about what to include in their big budget bill.
Democrats, to be clear, do have a lot of problems. They don’t control a single branch of government and their party is even less popular than Trump is today. On “The Opinions,” we’re going to talk about what the party is doing right, what it’s doing wrong and what it should consider doing next. We have a great guest to talk about these issues today, my colleague Michelle Goldberg, a Times Opinion columnist who’s reported extensively on the Democrats’ response to Trump. Michelle, welcome to the show.