Without Russia, what do they have?

It’s a quiet week in Washington, all things considered. That’s bad news for the Democratic Party.

It’s a quiet week in Washington, all things considered. That’s bad news for the Democratic Party.

President Donald Trump is on a week long trip around the Middle East and Europe. Nine days without Trump presents the Democrats with a problem. For the past four months, the party has concentrated on alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign as the driving argument against the administration.

What the party does now without the distraction provided by Le Carre like visions of Kremlin machinations could define the next election cycle. The Democrats are the opposition party, yet they need to do more than simply oppose. Offering solutions, plans, and policy is a better technique for electoral success than relying on GOP scandals.

There are going to be few opportunities to harry the president over Russia for the next nine days. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in charge of the investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, an investigation that has spilled over into the president’s possible obstruction of justice. Mueller’s appointment has taken much of the air out of the Congressional investigation and robbed the Democrats of the issue.

The focus on Russia has been a successful political tactic — no matter what the truth of the matter is, the specter of Russian involvement in the election and Russian influence over the White House has become a constant irritant to the president and worked to derail the priorities of the Trump administration.

Yet concentrating on one aspect of a repellent presidency presents future pitfalls for the Democrats. We’re already seeing those problems take shape. The Democrats are losing momentum. We’re starting to see, once again, the same problems that doomed the Clinton campaign — a lack of coherent messaging and an inability to grasp the priorities of the base — bubble back up to the forefront.

The inability on the part of the Democratic establishment to address the concerns and priorities of the party’s base was clear over the weekend in California. On Friday, during the kickoff to the California Democratic Party Convention, DNC Chair Tom Perez addressed the party faithful. The crowd was chanting for universal healthcare. But instead of discussing a topic the base was showing its enthusiasm for, Perez delivered a groaner about Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.

“We have a president …. I don’t know who it is, Putin, or Trump,” said Perez. ‘They’re in a bromance. This is really weird.”

The inability of the party Chair to respond to an enthusiastic crowd telling him what they want to hear makes Democratic successes over the next four years far from certain.

The White House released its budget on Monday. The proposal, which is unlikely to pass Congress, cuts Medicaid benefits, slashes disease research, and breaks the welfare state over its knee while it increases military spending and cuts taxes for the rich.

This ideologically grotesque budget presents a golden opportunity for the Democrats to reap the electoral and moral benefit of proposing exactly the opposite — taxing the rich, expanding the welfare state, and offering a strong and universal health care system. Yet by all indications the Democratic leadership prefers to continue to focus on Russia rather than policy.

There’s still time to get the party back on track. Republican policies are vicious, cruel, and unpopular with voters, while left of center policies and politics have support. If it won’t offer a credible and concrete alternative to the GOP, the Democratic Party will not only doom itself to political irrelevance — it will doom the country to catastrophe.

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