Democrats don't need 'A Better Deal.' They need Bernie Sanders.

Enough with the consultant-generated pablum. The Democrats need a fiery populist message.

Sen. Bernie Sanders.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Like a welterweight boxer knocked into a stupor by an unexpected right hook to the side of the head, the Democratic Party has spent the eight months since the 2016 presidential election stumbling around the ring, trying to shake off the shock of losing to an amateur pugilist like Donald Trump.

For the first few months, it looked as if throngs of grassroots and online activists might take the lead in showing a way forward for the Democratic Party. But the energy fueling mass protests has understandably dissipated and been channeled into important policy battles (especially the seemingly endless succession of bills in the House and Senate that aim to repeal and sort-of replace the Affordable Care Act). Meanwhile, the most militant members of the left spend inordinate amounts of time fighting among themselves online about who is sufficiently woke enough to bring about nothing less than the abolition of capitalism, race, and gender.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.