Tina Smith

I think it's a question of whether you actually think that the status quo is pretty much working, whether you think that it needs to be fundamentally changed.

I think that this is exactly the issue.

If you look at Americans over the last probably, what, 20, 30 years, significant majorities of Americans have said that they think that things are terribly on the wrong track.

That they're working as hard as they possibly can and nothing is really changing.

And so...

If you have a governing body that isn't capable, hasn't been capable of making the big changes that need to be made, of course people are going to be frustrated.

And what I think is so interesting, because we often kind of get sucked into this sort of, are you moderate?

Are you progressive?

Where do you fall in the continuum?

I actually don't think that's the right continuum at all.

I think it's a question of whether you actually think that the status quo is pretty much working or whether you think that it needs to be fundamentally changed.

And Americans are telling us that the status quo is not working for them.

And they're telling us that things that maybe would be seen as being, like,

progressive.

It's actually like 75% issues, paid family and medical leave, childcare that people can afford, raise the minimum wage.

I mean, even Medicare for all, which was seen as being incredibly radical, a majority of Americans want to see a complete revamping of our healthcare system.

So all of that argues to me that we need a body, a Senate and a Congress that's capable of making those kinds of big changes.

When I read what James Carville said, I was thinking about how my view of it is that for the last 10 years, I think the Democratic Party, the National Democratic Party, has been kind of stuck in a – it's like we're stuck in a bad relationship.

We've so defined ourselves by being opposed to Trump.

It's like we've forgotten how to do the other part of our job, which is to put forward an aggressive, strong, positive vision that is about where we think the country ought to go.