Disorganised chaos: why Democrats can't stand up to Donald Trump

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• 00:07

  The Democrats had been on a losing streak.

• 00:11

  They lost the White House to Ronald Reagan in 1980,

• 00:14

  then again when he won re-election in a landslide in 1984.

• 00:19

  They thought they had a chance in 1988.

• 00:21

  Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis was leading into the summer.

• 00:26

  Then the Democrats put him on a tank.

• 00:29

  Wearing a helmet, he manned the machine gun as the tank drove in circles.

• 00:35

  The stunt meant to show that he was tough on national security backfired.

• 00:40

  The Democrats would, once again, lose the presidential election.

• 00:45

  Putting Dukakis on a tank was not the only reason for the defeat.

• 00:49

  But in Democratic Party law,

• 00:51

  it's come to symbolise just how difficult it is to change voters' perceptions of the party once they're set.

• 00:58

  Democrats are, once again, in the political wilderness.

• 01:02

  And they've only been out the White House for less than a year.

• 01:08

  I'm John Prado and this is Checks and Balance from The Economist.

• 01:14

  Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.

• 01:25

  Today, Why are Democrats so bad at opposing Donald Trump?

• 01:37

  Can they offer governing vision for the future while resisting Trump's every move?

• 01:42

  And what's more important to the party, getting the policies right?

• 01:46

  Or style?

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