Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah when the saints go marching in i want to be in that number when the saints go marching in oh when the saints go marching in when the saints go marching in yes, i want to be in that number inn the saints go marching when the sun begins to shine yes i want to be in the number when the sun begins to shine when the saints go marching on in when the saints go marching on in yes, i want to be in that number when the saints go marching in when the sun begins to shine when the sun begins to shine numberwant to be in that when the sun begins to shine when the saints go marching on in yes, yes, when the saints go marching in i want to be in the number in the saints go marching washington journal continues. Joining us, mike lillis, a Senior Reporter for the hill that covers congress extensively. What does it mean to be a House Democratic these days . Guest it means you are in a position that you do not think you would be in a month ago. There has been some turmoil. They have been in disarray since the election. They came in. They thought that was going to be a bone to them down ballot. They thought they were going to pick up a significant number of seats. They thought they were going to take the senate. None of those things happened. They are in this position of what went wrong . They are going to do an autopsy. Set of the commission and say what went wrong and how did we miss these voters . How can we energize our base . We did not do it this time around. To be a democrat is to be questioning the future of the party. Host there is a lot of talk of unity. Is that the case . Guest we saw a lot of this unity in the wake of this election. There was enormous call for the leadership to be overthrown. Nancy pelosi has been there for 14 years. There is a younger crop of people who are frustrated that they have not been able to move up the ladder. Frustrated that this is the fourth election cycle that they have not been able to take the majority saying we have to go back to square one. We have got to go back to winning. Antipelosi raises a lot of money and yes she has experience. Nancy pelosi raises a lot of money and yes, she has experience. After fourying cycles where to do something to win. Tim ryan came in and challenged her. He lost. Pelosi will be there. Her authority is unquestioned. Going forward, there is this movement that is growing as the years go by, these people are getting younger and younger. You are seeing this happen in real time. Host he talked about tim ryan and his loss. Talk about how many votes he got. Is that significant that he got the number he did . Asked. Depends on who he if you ask nancy pelosi, she got two thirds of the vote. It was 134 to 63. She is saying yes, i still command this enormous amount of the very liberal leading caucus. Question. Is not in tim ryan comes in and says wait a minute, the last time you were challenged, that was after they got wiped out. They lost 63 seats and they have not rebounded since. Heath shuler was a blue dog democrat from north carolina, not very senior. He challenged her. It was more of a symbolic challenge. It is a secret ballot. He got 43 votes. It was a little more than people thought he was going to get. There was that since that with the secret ballot, i can cast this protest vote and say, because we get wiped out, we snap with the same person in. It was that kind of message. He got 43 and line comes in and gets 63. Again, you see this growing. The wave is growing. Younger people coming in. Host the role of the House Democrats postelection. If you want to ask him questions about that, what it means for policymaking you can post on twitter and our facebook page. Lets hear from nancy pelosi just after her reelection, how she talks about Going Forward and mike lillis will get you to comment. , workinggo forward very closely together as the opposition which is a different role. Our unity is very important. Will be strategic, unifying and unwavering in our support. That is what joins us together. Everything else is part of who we are. What unifies us is our values and those values said mike lillis, she americas working families twice. What goes on from here . Unity. She is calling for they have been unified all along. They are scratching their head this month. Pushing,s theyre been economics did not pull very well. They support gun reform. All of these polled in the 80 to 90 percentiles. Figure out why they whenosing based on this she is saying unity, she is stressing that they are on the same page. Tim ryan believes in all of those issues. When she says unity, she is talking about issues and the need to figure out how to convince voters they are on the same page. I think what you are going to see them do long into the future is hone that message, helped convince people that we are for them and how do we translate wage,olls minimum Social Security how do we translate that into sibling which they can go on a Bumper Sticker . Here tim ryan will be wednesday to share his thoughts on the Democratic Party and its future. Mike lillis, our current guest to talk about these things. You can go to the hill. Com to see his writing. Nicholas from pikesville, maryland. Republican line. Go ahead caller . Just go ahead. Caller i have a question in a comment. The implication was with schuyler, there was a secret ballot but with a, there wasnt . Guest the secret ballot was for both of those elections. Because of the secret ballot, someone can vote in or against policy without suffering any political repercussions. Inosi has done very good uniting the party. She can keep she can kick people off committees. She can demote them. She raises tons of money. She cannot give that to certain campaigns. She has ways of keeping democrats in line. The secret ballot just allows somebody, maybe a freshman member, to go in there and vote for the other candidate without nancy pelosi ever knowing. It gives you anonymity and there is no repercussions. I am sorry for the confusion. Wisconsin, independent line. Pedro. Yes, great show, i was going to say, the reason i am independent is because i think the republicans and democrats, neither one of them follow the constitution. The democrats have basically been the same for the last 45 44 years. The mcgovern i took over the party. Media covering them now not exposing their radical agenda. The public is catching on, pretty much so in the midwest where i live. I see theo say media keeps on beating up on trump. I was not a big trump fan at all. I was wondering, do you think the democrats in the future here are going to bring more people in, like heath shuler or tim ryan. Or do you think it is good to stay like a Coastal Party . Host great question. That is the composition theyre having. At the top, it is going to stay a Coastal Party. They try to topple policy. Try to topple pelosi. California after that. What they have done is to carve out new leadership positions that are not going to go to does that are going to go to more junior members that are going to go to more junior members. This was tim ryans argument all along. Out he is the youngstown, ohio, bluecollar manufacturing district. Trump won the district. He says i am the guy who can go to fish fries. I can talk to these voters. We can get these voters back to the democratic fold. Pelosi recognizing this and realizing she has to do something, which she did not do in 2010. The challenge was not strong enough. This year is very different. She has carved out a number of new leadership posts. If you ask the critics, they say they are cosmetic things to cover her for her to save face. If you ask of those who are being placed in those positions, they are appreciative that they are going to have a spot at the table. They will be in those weekly leadership meetings as they steer message and policy. That is the type of thing you are going to see pete we had some elections on friday. We are going to have some elections this afternoon when congress returns. Those names will be unrolled. Host what happens this afternoon . Guest they are going to vote on the campaign arm. Pelosi used to appoint the head of the test the head of the democratic he was appointed two years ago. People have said that is getting too much power to one person. Part of this conversation in revolt postelection is need to spread that power around. Now that role is going to be elected. Here was a thought that would be challenged. Sean Patrick Maloney suggested that he might challenge him. Not going to happen. Lujan will run unchallenged. He will be the chair for the next two years. There is a committee called the democratic policy and taken into effect aas couple of years ago. Nancy pelosi carved a position out. It was appointed, but now it will be elected. It will be divided among three different vicechairman. So, they are trying to spread power and make it more to microsoft democracized. So, spreading the power around regionally and generationally. Allowing these people to vote. Host a democrat from springfield, virginia, erica, you are on. Caller good morning. What i see on the democratic side of the party it seems that they have walked away from the grassroots. Vocation, but we do not need charity. We want a 15 minimum wage raise. Debt reduction to be much more aggressive, so students can go back and invest in the economy. We do not need little things. We need to walk away from corporations. That is very, very important. Say, some people respect nancy pelosi, and i understand. The new generation means new Democratic Leaders coming along. Progressive, and it really want to make change. They want to move away from corporate influence. That is what we need to fight against. Host erica, we will let our guest response. You have put a lot out there. Guest a great comment. Part of the discussion they are having right now is how are we going to defend president obamas legacy from donald trump and congressional majorities in both chambers. There is a lot of disagreement on what to do on that front. A lot of people agree with you that the reason the democrats lost was that the message did not resonate. That they did not get there liberal base out because they went to soft. They did not fight hard enough for court, liberal values. Values. Liberal i should mention, they have strong checking in congress in Bernie Sanders and senator elizabeth moran. Nancy pelosi is in a different spot because she is a leader, and she has to negotiate with the other republican leaders. Think shef policy, i is 100 on the same page as Bernie Sanders and elizabeth warren. Policy wise, you have that sector. It is a very liberal heavy democratic caucus. So a lot of people agree with exec or what you have said. Shifting gears, there is also recognition that they will have to compromise if they want to get anything done. When obamanell was elected, Mitch Mcconnell was the Senate Minority leader at the time. He said that his primary goal was not going to be to allow obama to do anything at all. He wanted him to be a one term president , so they blocked everything. He was criticized soundly for that. Eight years later, politically, it seemed to have worked out for republicans. So, some democrats are saying we need to make donald trump a one term president. That was set in no Uncertain Terms last week. So, theres kind of a mixed message on whether or not we should work with donald trump. Democrats have always been a party that wants to govern and believe in government. They are at this crossroads where they do not they cannot burn the house down just to defeat donald trump and block everything he wants to do. There is a sense they have to work with him. A the same time, there is group of liberals that feel they need to fight for their values and block everything that would undo them. Host from pennsylvania for our llis, this isi john. Go ahead. Caller pelosi is 76 years old. Democrats are in the upper 70s. They are part of the new the neoliberal switch that can be attached to the clintons. Clinton in 1996 when neoliberal which is a corporate stance. That has not worked. It split the Democratic Party between the black caucus in the neoliberals. And the neoliberals. Bernie sanders was popular because he was a democrat. He was not taken in by all the money. The neoliberals work. Liberals were. Eo that is one of the problems. They need to learn from republicans. They are really the organization that runs the republican party. Guest i think this goes back to the previous question. As the democrats try to locate a strategy to get them back on the winning track, do they stick with their liberal values or compromise . You mentioned alex, but the alec, but the democrats have id of support, t plenty of support, too. With the demise of labor unions over the years, a lot of their support base has eroded. So, the trick is to appeal to a lot of those workers left behind by the great recession. Everything is economics these days. That is what this election said. That is almost what all of these elections said. 2010 was a little different, because obamacare made a difference. However, economics is the way. Democrats need to find a weird appeal in this way, otherwise it will not work. Have a twitter message sent in. Going into 2018 and 2020, what do democrats face as far as elections . Aret midterm elections always difficult for the incumbent party. Nancy pelosis argument was that she has done this before, and she knows what it takes. In 2004, we wiped out the republicans in the midterm elections. Her or is it right now is she experienced and she can do it again. Thats her argument. 2018 will be a very different cycle for republicans. A lot of people that were thought to be wiped out this year were not, but they will be very vulnerable in two years. Historically, it is a tough cycle for the incumbent party. So, nancy pelosi is saying that with all of those actors combined we could make enormous those factors combined, we can make an enormous difference. Give me a chance, and i will make it happen. That is her message. Nancy pelosi thinks she can do it, and we will not know until two years from now. That is her argument. Host sun city, california. On the democrats line should write, go ahead on the democrats line, roy, go ahead. Caller can you hear me . Guest host yes, you are on. Caller first, i wish the democrats would be more obstructionist like the republicans were. We as democrats always want to govern and look out for the people. We need to be ruthless just like republicans. I want to make one quick statement about your last issue. I wonder how many of the people would accept the pipeline running under Arlington National cemetery or the pearl harbor memorial. Host thank you, roy. Guest there are a lot of people that agree with you. A lot the democrats and they should be ruthless. Mcconnell was ruthless. He did not want obama to do anything. He filibustered everything, even things that republicans were going to support. That was just as a delay tactic to keep other things off the floor. There are a lot of delay tactic there are a lot of things lot of there are a democrats that think nancy pelosi should do the same thing. For years, democrats have said they are the party of government. They believe in government, and they believe in governing to help people in their everyday lives. If they block everything and we have shut down threats and all the things we have seen over the past couple of years, if democrats are being blamed for those things, then they are not the party of Good Government anymore. It would be very sharp political tactic on their part. They would have to somehow walk the tightrope by saying we are knocking down government in order to save it. I do not know how successful they would be descending would be sending that message. That is what is happening right now the disagreement in the party about how they should proceed. Host taking a look at potential leaders that could have risen up to replace what is currently in place, they highlighted how the bacerra. Javier would you view as the shining thes who do you view as shining stars . Figuresou mentioned the just the latest one. Have to start looking deeper into the bench. They have to start rubbing rooting for these younger guys to come up. We do not know who these figures will be. You mentioned one man in texas that is a rising star. Another one in massachusetts. I think people believe he will jump back to the state. If he remains in the house, he is certainly a rising star. If you look at the nominees that nancy pelosi just made for some ,f the new leadership positions we have a hawaii democrat that will now be in leadership. They are going to have to elect someone five terms or less today. There will be so when a house at the table, and we do not yet know who that will be. Certainly, there are three choices who have made her name this month by opposing nancy pelosi. They came out very publicly at the end to endorse tim ryan which is a Political Risk for them in the near term. They have only been here they are all sophomores just elected into their second term. They are playing a long day. Those are some rising stars you will see. There are a couple of other names to mention. She is a relatively young illinois democrat. In queens alsos nominated someone for the position. Right from pennsylvania Matt Cartwright from pennsylvania also a choice. These are the types of people that want to move up, and maybe moving up. We will wait to see how successful they are. Lillis of the hill joining us. We are talking about how House Democrats will play following the recent election. Next caller, go ahead. Caller three points. Number one, democrats, no matter what, they have to be caught to get out the vote. Taught to get out the vote. It is not a matter of how many people you can register, or how much money you can raise. The main point is that come election day you have to vote. They are not inspired. Republicans are very organized. Democrats are a mess. It is tragic. The other thing is that you have to get rid of the old guard. Nancy pelosi the other oldtimers have to go. A changing of the guard has to come about. When democrats do get in, they always promise to the unions. However, they do nothing for the unions. When obama got in, it was the same old stuff. Houses. All three these people were talking about minimum wage. Thank you, caller. Guest you are exactly right. It is back to the original point of how you get voters to the polls. I think everybody is talking about how to energize the vote. About why thisly cycle was such a dismal turnout for the democrats. People are l