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Reeling from across-the-board defeats in attempts to flip congressional seats in Georgia, South Carolina, Kansas and Montana, Democrats are searching for answers. How they can appeal beyond their urban coastal base to the working-class, rural voters who propelled Trump to victory?

Enter the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, the Senates attempt to repeal Obamacare. Like the House legislation, it would usher in deep cuts to the Medicaid program, jeopardizing the 14 million low-income Californians who rely on Medi-Cal (Californias version of Medicaid) for health care and create an opportunity for Democrats to appeal to working-class Trump voters whose coverage will be decimated by the legislation.

But if Democrats dare to seize the opportunity (and thats a big if), they need a message. And a messenger.

So far they are 0 for 2.

Take Kern County, the heart of Californias rural Central Valley, where almost half of residents depend on Medi-Cal for health care. As a health policy expert in Los Angeles, born and raised in Kern, Im alarmed by the devastating impact repeal would have on friends and family back home. At least 95,000 Kern residents those newly eligible for Medi-Cal under Obamacare stand to lose coverage under the proposed legislation. And the deep cuts proposed under the Senate legislation could force California to cut Medi-Cal eligibility and services even further.

Democrats recognize a chance to drive a wedge between working-class communities across the nation with the most to lose under the House and Senate legislation, and their Republican representatives who support it.

But working-class voters distrust of Democrats runs deep. Democrats fail to understand these voters way of life, and the recent challenges that further isolate working-class voters from the coastal elites who dominate the Democratic Party. In the Central Valley, plunging gas prices have decimated jobs and opioid overdoses have skyrocketed. Voters here play second fiddle to coastal elites who hoard their water; raise taxes on the gas they produce to pay for road repairs they will never see, and speak with the kind of arrogant authority claimed by those with fancy college degrees. Simply put, these voters dont feel represented by Democrats who make them feel inferior, as if they dont matter.

Case in point. I cringed at a recent Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles when an entertainment executive stood up to proclaim, I just want to shake these low-income people and make them understand. Why are they voting against their economic self-interest? I rolled my eyes. Arent you voting against your economic self-interest? Its too easy to judge a world youve never inhabited nor tried to understand.

Attempts by Democrats to preach to working-class voters about the dangerous impact of the Senate legislation on their access to health care will fall on deaf ears. Especially when the only solution offered is to rail on Republicans.

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There is an opening, however, for Democrats who demonstrate a real understanding of working-class communities cultural landscape (messenger), and a willingness to posit a legislative agenda that invests in the future of working-class communities (message).

With both the House and Senate legislation removing the requirement under Obamacare that addiction services be made available to Medicaid beneficiaries in states like California which expanded Medicaid, the working-class voters who have been hit the hardest by addiction will be stripped of the help they need the most.

Democrats can demonstrate a genuine understanding of working-class communities and commitment to helping them by bringing the hidden addiction crisis to the fore. Champion a strategy to provide vital medication, counseling and therapy for those struggling with addiction. And run candidates who relate to the plight of working-class voters.

Criticizing Republicans and running out-of-touch carpetbaggers as candidates only serves to further alienate working-class voters.

The campaign by Democrats to overtake the House in 2018 can begin now, with health care if they are humble enough to go back to the drawing board, and bold enough to truly earn the hearts and minds of working-class voters.

Courtney Powers is an attorney and lecturer at UCLA School of Law. She lives in Pasadena.

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How can Democrats win back working-class votes? Start with health care: Guest commentary - LA Daily News

About 25 Democratic lawmakers have signed on to a bill that would create an Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity.

Their goal: declare the President of the United States mentally incompetent under Section IV of the 25th Amendment and remove him from office.

This is a distraction on so many levels, but it is disingenuous of those lawmakers ini part, because they know they cant get bi-partisan agreement, and also because they would need the vice president to sign off on it, too. That wont happen.

Particularly disturbing is the fact that lawmakers would turn to this as Americans are coming together to celebrate the birth of our nation, this Independence Day.

When accusing the president of Russian collusion and misogyny didnt stick, it looks as though Democrats have sought a new low: declaring the President of the United States insane. This is a dangerous and petty sideshow. Not to mention it is unethical for anyone except health care professionals to give medical diagnoses.

John D. Feerick is a former Dean of Law at Fordham University who was a chief architect of the Section of Article 25 that the lawmakers are attempting to use. He cites the original congressional debate on the section that he spearheaded, and he says that policy and political differences are not grounds for enacting Section IV of Article 25 to declare the president mentally incompetent.

Only 24 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. Tactics like this are part of the reason why Americans dont trust Congress.

These lawmakers are 100 percent Democrat, and this is a partisan effort designed to undermine the work of this president.

In 1964, Democrats used this tactic against Barry Goldwater during his campaign. A news magazine called Fact published a pictorial of mental health professionals who declared Goldwater was unfit for office. Though his presidential bid did not prove victorious, his libel suit against the magazine was. This is commonly referred to as "The Goldwater Rule," and it is the reason why the mental competence argument is almost never asserted against a serving president.

It is unethical to attempt to make diagnoses on living public figures one has not clinically evaluated. This is commonly accepted across the medical and mental health professions.

A recent Gallup study said that 61 percent of Americans want tax reform. A FOX News poll said a majority of Americans want Obamacare fixed. Only 24 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. Tactics like this are part of the reason why Americans dont trust Congress.

This is low-brow, even for Democrats who worked with Russian nationals to create a now discredited dossier on the president. This is low for a party who has lost more than 1,000 state and local elections in the past eight years, and is 0-5 in special elections since this Republican president was inaugurated.

Democrats continue this witch hunt because as long as they do that, they excuse themselves from tending to the work of the American people in a bipartisan way. Their problem, in reality, isnt with this president. It is with the American people who elected him, and continue to support him despite their relentless smears and collusion against him.

This blatant, partisan attack speaks more to the despair of a broken Democratic party than it does to the sanity of a very productive president of the United States.

Dr. Loudon is a behavior analyst and bestselling author who often appears to talk about mentalhealth issues on FOX News and FOX Business.

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A new low for Democrats - trying to declare the president mentally incompetent - Fox News

Democrats remain shaken by the loss of last weeks special House election in Georgia, but are taking solace from voter data there that yields hopeful omens for them in next years congressional elections.

Republicans retained a congressional seat they have held since 1979 in a suburban Atlanta district thats populated by many of the kind of well-educated voters who tend to disapprove of President Trump.

Some disappointed Democrats have argued that they failed because their candidate wasnt tough enough on Trump, and didnt take strongly progressive positions that would energize their most loyal voters.

That theory doesnt hold up to an analysis of voter-turnout data by John Anzalone, the pollster for the Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff.

Anzalones breakdown shows that Democrats turned out to vote in impressive numbers. There were 125,000 votes for Ossoff, more than Democratic congressional candidates had gotten in the district before and more than Barack Obama received in the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012.

We did excite the Democratic base, Anzalone said. Trump was the accelerant that brought out Democrats who would not normally vote in a midterm or special election.

The problem for the Democrats was that there was a larger-than-expected Republican turnout too, enabling the GOP candidate, Karen Handel, to win by 10,000 votes. Some Democrats had hoped that Trumps unpopularity would dampen turnout for the Republican House candidate; it didnt happen.

Democrats learned in Georgia, and also recently in Kansas and South Carolina, that its going to be hard for them to win in districts where Republicans have been solid, despite any Trump undertow. That would take some 2018 contests off the board for Democrats.

They also learned that the national-security card still resonates for Republicans; supporters of Handel hammered Ossoff in the closing weeks of the campaign for inflating his national-security resume and for working with the Qatari-based media network Al Jazeera. (Democratic polls also showed that Trumps favorable poll ratings in the district rose only once, when he ordered the bombing of Syria in April.)

Republicans spent millions linking Ossoff to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, filming television commercials in her hometown of San Francisco. That tactic is likely to be repeated in other congressional districts next year.

Yet Democrats note that in every special House race and statewide contest this year, they have significantly outperformed their showing in recent elections even in defeat.

This makes them think they have a chance to gain the two-dozen seats theyd need in 2018 to take back control of the House.

They claim that they expect to contend seriously for more than 70 Republican-held seats in districts where Democrats have done better in recent years than theyd previously done in the Georgia district that was up for grabs last week.

Says Anzalone, This isnt bad news for 2018.

Albert R. Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist.

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Albert R. Hunt: A hopeful omen for Democrats? - Topeka Capital Journal

RALEIGH The North Carolina Democratic Party has ordered Robeson County Democrats to re-do precinct meetings and hold a new county convention after finding that local Democrats did not follow party procedure when they elected their chairman and executive committee members.

The state partys 13-member Review Committee rendered its ruling Saturday after holding a hearing in response to a petition filed by several county Democrats charging that the process used to elect local party officers at the April 8 county convention violated the state partys Plan of Organization.The Review Committee consists of one representative from each of the states 13 congressional districts.

After several hours of testimony, the 11 members of the Review Committee present at the hearing in Raleigh voted 10 to one that state party rules were violated when local Democrats other than those elected convention delegates at precinct meetings were permitted to vote for their party leadership.

Basically the Robeson County Democratic Party is now defunct, Sheila Beck, a Democrat from Saddletree and chairman of the Lumbee Tribes Elections Board, said. Everything that the party has done since the convention, including the election of Pearlean Revels as chairman, means nothing.

No date for the precinct meetings or countywide convention has been set, but John McNeill, a former Robeson County Democratic chairman and mayor of Red Springs, said he believes the convention will be held late this month or in August.

The decision to allow all of the approximately 50 Democrats at the convention to vote for their party leaders, rather than just delegates from the 10 of about 40 precincts that were organized when the convention was held in April, ended with Ed Henderson, a Red Springs town commissioner who is black, not being re-elected to another two-year term as chairman. According to McNeill, Robeson Countys Democratic Party for the past 46 years has operated under a gentlemans agreement that the party chairmanship would rotate by race to guarantee equal representation among the countys white, black and American Indian communities.

The agreement, McNeill said, is that a member from each race can serve a two-year term as chairman and another two-year term as chairman if they choose to seek re-election. At the April convention, however, Henderson, who just finished his first two-year term and wanted another term, was defeated by Pearlean Revels, an American Indian.

This was Eds year to serve, McNeill said. By not following this longstanding agreement, the Robeson County Democratic Party kicked the African American population thats so much needed here to win election in the rear end.

McNeill acknowledged, however, that the gentlemans agreement that has governed selection of Robeson Countys Democratic leader over the years is not part of the state partys regulations and requirements.

McNeill said that Henderson did a good job as chairman considering the time and situation during which he served. Democrats took a beating locally during the General Election, with two Republicans elected to the General Assembly and Robeson County favoring the GOP from top of the ticket and Donald Trump on downward.

McNeill has blamed a depressed Democratic turnout locally, especially among blacks, for the results.

It wasnt easy to organize and win an election with the challenges of Hurricane Matthew, he said.

The petition challenging the convention results was filed by several black elected officials from Red Springs, Maxton and Fairmont.

The last convention, that allowed more than just delegates to vote, was not proper, said Charles Townsend, the mayor of Fairmont. Lets do things the right way, no matter where they lead.

Those defending the local partys decision to allow anyone to vote at the convention include Johnson Britt, Robeson Countys district attorney. Britt made the motion to suspend party rules and allow all Democrats present at the convention, not just delegates, to participate in the election of the party leadership.

If we want more people to come out to the convention and participate in the party we have to allow them to take part, said Britt. Historically Democrats have been the party of inclusion.

Britt, who is white, also said he opposes the continued use of the gentlemans agreement governing the rotation of party chairman by race.

What difference does the chairmans race make? In this day and age race shouldnt matter in who holds public office, Britt said.

McNeill said that he believes when the next convention is held and the state party regulations about who can participate in elections and vote on policy is followed, the results will be drastically different.

There was a huge mistake made at the convention, McNeill said. It was clear violation of the state Democratic Partys Plan of Organization . That plan is a 42-page document that tries to handle any situation that can come up. It tries to address issues to avoid conflict.

The Robesonian was unable to reach Revels for comment.

John McNeill

http://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_John-McNeill_12017746736353-2.jpgJohn McNeill

Johnson Britt

http://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_Johnson-Britt_12017746128382-2.jpgJohnson Britt

Sheila Beck

http://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_sheila-Beck-Jones_cmyk20177461253772-2.jpgSheila Beck

Charles Townsend

http://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_Townsend-Charles20177461616232-2.jpgCharles Townsend

Bob Shiles can be reached at 910-416-5165.

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Robeson Democrats ordered to redo local election - The Robesonian

President Trump may have a chance to break the legislative logjam behind healthcare with a victory on one of his signature issues: immigration.

Buried in a sea of tweets, Trump notched a rare bipartisan win in the House when 24 Democrats crossed over last week to support Kate's Law, a bill toughening penalties for criminals who illegally enter the United States multiple times.

The legislation was named after Kate Steinle, a young woman murdered by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times. Now both it and another bill from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., cutting off certain federal grants to sanctuary cities local governments that don't fully cooperate with immigration enforcement head to the Senate.

Trump highlighted both bills in his pre-Fourth of July weekly radio address, calling on "members of both parties to stand united with victims to stop these terrible and senseless crimes from ever happening in the first place" and implicitly challenging red-state Democratic senators who might be tempted to join in a filibuster of either one.

"This legislation presents a simple choice: Either vote to save and protect American lives, or vote to shield and comfort criminal aliens who threaten innocent lives and they've been shielded too long," Trump said.

That would make for a tough campaign ad against any of the ten Democratic senators running for re-election in 2018 in states Trump carried last year. The president needs eight of them to break any attempted filibuster, assuming no Republican defections.

Perhaps mindful of this, House Democratic leaders didn't whip hard against Kate's Law. House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., initially told reporters he was "advising members to look at it carefully and see what their conclusion is."

Democratic leaders took a stronger stance against the crackdown on sanctuary cities, losing only three of their members. Seven Republicans voted against that bill. Both bills are nevertheless wedge issues that could be used either to fracture the Democratic caucus or give fodder to Republican challengers next year.

At the very least, the pair of bills could force Democrats to take a tough vote ahead of the midterm elections. They are also an opportunity for Republicans to put some legislative wins on the board.

It won't be easy, however. Senate Republicans are currently preoccupied by healthcare after failing to come together on a leadership-backed plan to partially repeal and replace Obamacare. The party has struggled to come up with an Obamacare alternative that unites both its centrist and conservative wings.

Despite running prominently on immigration during the presidential campaign, Trump himself has had trouble staying focused. Even as Trump met at the White House with "American families whose loved ones were killed by illegal immigrants," as he put it in his weekly radio address, his administration dubbed it "Energy Week."

"You lost the people that you love because our government refused to enforce our nation's immigration laws," Trump said at the event, where he rallied the House to pass the two immigration bills. "And that's even the existing immigration laws, without new laws. That's existing immigration laws."

Trump did lead his radio address recounting the meeting and talked about the two immigration bills throughout. But it will take more to get them through a narrowly Republican Senate, and some of the immigration activists who supported the president during the campaign are losing patience.

As Trump met with the family members of those slain by undocumented immigrants, some 60 radio hosts and activists gathered down the street for a Hold Their Feet to the Fire event demanding Trump deliver on immigration. "I will say that a lot of them feel that Trump made a lot of promises throughout his campaign regarding immigration and haven't seen much action in those areas," said an event organizer.

Trump has promoted stricter immigration enforcement, expanding the number of illegal immigrants inside the United States who are at risk of deportation. Many an Independence Day editorial cartoon will contrast the president's rhetoric with the Emma Lazarus poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

Even without building the wall or signing new legislation, the United States Customs and Border Protection reports a more than 60 percent drop in illegal immigrants stopped or caught along the Southwest border from February to May under Trump as compared with the same period last year.

Shifting to immigration would please some of the hardline Trump supporters who believe the president won because he wasn't a conventional Republican. While the president remains deeply unconventional in his approach to Twitter and fighting with the media, which these supporters appreciate, he has often deferred to Republican congressional leaders on not just the timing of legislative priorities like healthcare and tax reform but the substance of the bills themselves.

On healthcare in particular, Trump has publicly supported whatever legislation House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have believed they can pass despite privately expressing misgivings about a lack of "heart" in Republican Obamacare replacement proposals.

A surge in working-class white support in several key battleground states that hadn't voted Republican at the presidential level since the 1980s delivered Trump a majority in the Electoral College despite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's narrow popular vote edge.

Veteran conservative columnist Ann Coulter, author of the election-year book In Trump We Trust and a writer increasingly focused on immigration, has been arguing Trump has been too similar to a hypothetical President Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio since before the inauguration.

"Maybe the White House needs an immigration week,'" said a D.C.-based Republican strategist.

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Trump's coming immigration battle with Senate Democrats - Washington Examiner