Former Congressman Explains How Democrats Can Retake Congress

In order to take back Congress Democrats need to be specific about what they are going to do if they get power, former Democratic Congressman from Florida Alan Grayson told Fault Lines.

Grayson told Fault Lines hosts Garland Nixon and Lee Stranahan that the Democrats have to be more specific about their policies if they want to win votes.

"The Democrats can take back Congress by getting more votes than the Republicans, that's still the way that it works," the former congressman said. "What the Democrats need to do in order to win back the House and to make progress in Senate is to explain to people what they are going to do if they win and convince people that those things will be done and that those things are going to be good for their lives."

For instance, Grayson said, the Democrats need to let people know what exactly they are going to do about healthcare. While everybody in America knows the Republican plan is to "destroy what President Obama created hoping that something good arises from the ashes", the Democrats have to tell people how exactly they will make healthcare universal, affordable and "there when you need it".

​According to Grayson, while he may share contempt towards Donald Trump to a large part, he admits that when people were voting in November 2016, they knew that if Donald Trump were elected president, he, for instance, would try to build a wall on the US border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for it.

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"On the other hand, if Hillary Clinton was elected, you knew that she was going to try to make us work together and we'd be stronger as a result of that, "Stronger together" was her campaign pledge, and that wasn't very specific in people's minds." Grayson said.

"The Republicans broke almost 40 unbroken years of defeat in the House of Representatives because their contract was America… But it wasn't unprecedented or creative, they simply said here are ten things we are going to try to do if we win, and that was very appealing to people".