role of civil society in u.s. foreign-policy hosted by the open society foundation. that starts at 4:00 p.m. eastern. until then, we will take a look at some of today's "washington journal" and the future of the democratic party. host: veteran democratic consultant mike lux on his book, "how to democrat in the age of trump." but before we talk about the present and future i want to , talk about how democrats got here. you point out in your book this statistic. in the decade since 2008 peak when the future looks promising, we have lost senate seats, 63 , 903s. house seats legislative seats. we also lost the presidency in 2016 to the least prepared and most polarizing demagogue perhaps ever. what were democrats doing wrong in that decade between 2008 and today? guest: we broke our coalition,

basically. in 2009, 2010, it was moving in our -- the demographics were moving in favor, the financial collapse had made americans convinced that republican trickle-down policies were not working. and so things seemed like they were going in our direction and i think they would have continued to have done that had we really delivered on the promises and really changed the country in a transformative kind of way. if we had restructured the financial system rather than just rehabilitated it. if we had really brought wages up for working-class folks. if we had really done immigration reform, something about climate change, i think those things would be both broadly popular and would have fired up our base. but instead, we got bogged down

in a very long, torturous health care debate. we passed a good bill, but it was a discouraging process. in the meantime, we didn't do any of those other things. and then, the sort of final thing that broke the camel's back is we did not prosecute wall street speculators who had ripped off the economy, committed fraud against consumers, and that got people very very cynical. , host: define a big change moment, and why do you think it is time for democrats to have one now? guest: in my previous book, i -- which is called the "progressive revolution," i talked about how in american history, there have been a series of the change moments where problems had built up over time and progressives swept into

power and changed a lot of things in a few years. the new deal was an example of that. the 1964, 1965, 1966 period, where lbj was able to get a lot of things passed, a progressive area of teddy roosevelt, those were times where big changes were happening. we had an opportunity in 2009 , but we blew it. because we blew it our base got , cynical and did not turn out and swing voters also felt like , well, they are not doing , anything for me. i think that is how we broke the coalition in the first place. host: so why is it time to have that moment now? what is in place now? guest: what is in place now is trump, mcconnell, and the house republicans. it is the most right wing period of government in american history, and they have gone so

far to the extreme. and i think we have an opportunity now to lay out a bold agenda that is really focused on working-class folks, all kinds of working-class folks. i talk in my book about how there is a lot more that unites people, a lot more that unites the democratic base and swing voters, then there is that divides them. host: the book is "how to democrat in the age of trump." if you want to join the --versation this morning. morning, the phones are split as usual. we're talking with veteran democratic consultant mike lux. i want to show our viewers the about the author page. the first sentence of the first three paragraphs. "mike lux is a cofounder of democracy partners, innovative full-service national consulting firm launched in 2011.

mike served as senior staffer and advisor on six different presidential campaigns. mike currently serves on the boards of several important organizations and is also cofounder of the center for american progress." why should democrats trust you to be a voice for change? guest: i have been both on the inside and outside of democratic politics for a long time. i was in the clinton white house as the liaison to the progressive community. but i spent a lot of my years working to build outside progressive organizations and grassroots organizations, and i believe one of the problems the party has had is we do not pay enough attention to grassroots folks, to people on the outside that would try to preach down to people rather than listening and engaging. i think that is critical right now. host: let's listen to and engage

some callers this morning on "washington journal." again, phone lines split by party as usual. we will start on the line for democrats. raymond is in silver spring, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning. thank you for taking my call. i want to give a quick suggestion on how the democrats can campaign and take over the house. if you look at what republicans did, you should have a quick line like we need to take our country back from russia, number one. number two, on the tax cuts, you have not used the tax cuts the way republicans used obamacare before. highlight the promises that they made like it did not pay for itself. it did not pay for itself. we borrowed more than we borrowed into years in the first five months of 2018.

and then the third one is on obamacare, they promised for eight years to replace it. when they finally replaced it, they could not replace the family car with a bicycle. you need to highlight those points. then make the promise that the best way forward for health just -- health care is to repair it and not replace it. host: thank you for the call to messaging and strategy. guest: i think he has got good points. i do think that both the tax fight and the health care fight were very much things democrats ought to be focused on now. i think we won the messaging war over both of those sites. right now, people trust democrats far more on health than republicans because they see what the republicans are doing, which is trickle-down economics. they want to take things away

from working people, give them to rich people and the big corporations. that is a message we could definitely use. host: what about the impeachment message? is that something democrats should use this fall to say, if we win, the house will initiate impeachment proceedings against the president? guest: you know, i have never been a big fan of process arguments. i think that we need to focus on issues that matter to folks. there are a lot of democrats who are in favor of impeachment and i do not have a problem at all saying that we should aggressively investigate this president because i think he is very corrupt. i think as time goes on over the weekend, he basically tweeted out something that proves his corruption, and over time, we will investigate those things and do something about it. and i think democrats should talk about that. but i think on the campaign trail, obsessing about donald trump is not what we ought to be doing.

we ought to be laying out our own bold vision on taxes, health care and other important issues. , host: what is the vision of -- on health care that you think could sell? guest: that people ought to have the right to either buy into or get medicare if they want medicare. i think that ultimately the country would be better off with medicare for all. we may need a transition where we move to a system where people like what they've got already, they can keep it, but if they don't, they could buy into medicare. which is something that was suggested 10 years ago during the health care fight and did not happen. so i think looking at how to lower costs on health care is critical. and medicare for all or some version of that would do that.

host: we talk about the future of the democratic party. allen is a republican from knoxville, tennessee. good morning. caller: hi. i don't see how the working class will come back to the democrats. most of the messaging i have seen on television is about russia insanity. meanwhile, you have got donald trump pretty much every day talking about jobs, jobs, jobs, and we got the 4.1% gdp coming in. it is just not looking good for you guys. thanks. guest: well, look. i think trump has been able to take advantage of the growing economy that obama built for him. i personally do not think it will last very long because his policies are so focused toward

the super rich that it is drying up money for everyone else. if you look at the structure of the economy for working people, their wages are still not going up. there are lots of jobs, but people have to work two or three jobs to keep their family together, to make a living. i do not think working people are very excited about trump. we -- trump. i think we are seeing in districts like pennsylvania, the heavily republican district for -- where danny o'connor has a very good chance of winning, we are seeing that working people are rebelling against the economy and its focus on the super rich. host: what happens if democrats win in ohio tomorrow? guest: another earthquake, and we have had a bunch already this year. democrats have done very well in special elections. to win in alabama, to take back

all the seats we took in the virginia house as well as when -- win the governor's race in a landslide when it was supposed to be close in the district, in specialuch every election plus one in the house, we have done far better than the numbers in the previous election. we are winning a lot of state legislative races as well in >> port edward, new york, paul, independent. good morning. >> good morning. everyone. i notice mike didn't answer the question. i'm from upstate new york and ack in the 1990's bill clinton set trend for accepting since thoseney, and days we have nafta, all these that kind of hurt working people. new tell you in upstate york we d