The national Democratic machine is in full catastrophe mode over the possibility of Republican dominance in this fall’s presidential election, a mailer recently sent by party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz shows.
The “Official 2016 Democratic Election Survey” features several fear-based multiple-choice questions for the party faithful to mull as they watch Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders continue to battle over the nomination.
“Which of the following election outcomes would be most catastrophic for our nation?” reads one leading question.
The survey offers only three possible answers — with no blank space for any other hypotheses — “a Republican winning the White House, the GOP tightening its stranglehold on Congress [or] increased Republican control of state and local governments.”
In the “Republican Threat” section, voters are asked: “Which elements of the radical Republican agenda are most dangerous to America’s future?”
The leading question is followed by a similarly narrow set of answers, including: “Dismantling the Affordable Care Act, restricting women’s reproductive rights, reversing marriage equality and other LGBT civil rights [or] opposing a minimum wage increase.”
The “Contribution” section of the mailer is far more flexible. Options to give $18, $25, $35 and $50 are accompanied by a blank line to allow for higher donations.
Republican strategists said the survey’s alarmist tone demonstrates that Democrats who have dismissed — and even welcomed — the candidacy of Republican nominee Donald Trump are much more frightened than they’ve been letting on publicly.
“This is proof that Democrats are waking up to the reality that Hillary Clinton is a terrible candidate and doesn’t have the enthusiasm behind her that Trump or Sanders does,” said Republican strategist Evan Siegfried.
“When you’re trying to motivate your base by scaring them six months from an election, that shows you don’t have much going on.”
Hogan Gidley, a party operative who worked on the presidential campaigns of Republicans Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, described the mailer as a stab at co-opting Bernie Sanders’ anti-establishment tone to attract supporters to Clinton, the presumptive winner.
“They’re trying to . . . make the Democratic Party seem less establishment,” he said.
But even Democrats acknowledge that’s part of the problem.
“We have our own house to clean,” said state Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan), a Sanders supporter. “We have to make sure we clean our own house, and Bernie is raising that [issue] in a way that’s very compelling.”