Webb: Democratic Party has moved "very far to the left"BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/12/17
Former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on Sunday said the Democratic Party has moved "very far to the left" over the past five or six years.
In an interview on NBC's "Meet The Press," Webb said the Democrats are looking at 2018 and they "don't have a message."
"When you can't have a Jefferson-Jackson dinner, which was a primary celebratory event of the Democratic Party for years, because Jefferson and Jackson were slaveholders," Webb, a candidate in the 2016 Democratic primary race, said.
"They were also great Americans in their day. Something different has happened to the Democratic Party."
Webb said the Democratic Party's message has "been shaped toward identity politics"
"And they've lost the key part of their base," he said.
"The people who believe that regardless of any of these identity segments, you need to have a voice in a quarters of power for those that have no voice. And we've lost that for the Democratic Party."
Webb said the Democrats haven't done the kind of "self reflection" they needed starting in 2010.
"You've lost white working people. You've lost flyover land, and you saw in this election what happens when people get frustrated enough that they say, 'I'm not going to take this,'" he said.
"There is an aristocracy now that pervades American politics. It's got to be broken somehow in both parties, and I think that's what the Trump message was that echoed so strongly in these flyover communities."
Webb also declined to share his vote in the presidential election.
"I'm comfortable for my vote and my vote is private to me. But at the same time, I will say that I did not endorse Hillary Clinton," Webb said.
"The Democratic Party's got to do some real hard looks on whether or not they are going to expand and get back working people who used to be the core of their party."
http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/319131-webb-dem-party-has-moved-very-far-to-the-left
