Democrats Debate New Strategy: An Alliance with Trump?

After losing the election, the Democrats debate how to face the next four years being opposition. Members of Hillary's party are discussing whether to make common cause or resist hoping that discontent will benefit them in 2018.

On November 9, one day after the presidential election, the former House Speaker and one of Congress's most influential women, Nancy Pelosi, said her conglomerate had the "responsibility to find common ground" with the President-elect Donald Trump. "We're not starting a campaign against the Republicans," he said after the defeat of Hillary Clinton. "We want to work together," he added.

But the Democrats woke up this morning in the face of something they thought was a Republicans' only problem: a crisis in their party. Not only did they not regain the majority in Congress, but the next generation of Democrats is "nonexistent," the Washington Post noted. The biggest leaders of the party are over 65 years old and face a growing disconnect with young voters. Among the under-30s, only 55% supported Hillary, five points less than Barack Obama's support in that segment in 2012. And the Democrats who voted in these elections were six million fewer than four years ago. David Axelrod, a former adviser to the current president, told La Tercera, "many are going to tell Obama to stay in politics."

Now the Democrats, divided and without a clear leader, are debating how to confront the next four years from the opposition path. They are faced with the decision to make a common cause where, along with Trump, they can again win white working-class voters who the President-elect took away, or resist waiting for discontent to benefit them in 2018, according to The New York Times .

According to the paper, Trump has touched on some issues that Democrats have been advocating for years and that Republicans have resisted: increased spending on roads, bridges, railways, child tax credits and paid maternity, among others.

Thus, there are several figures willing to work with Trump, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, while Obama affirmed today that he was willing to support him if he improved his health reform.

Democrats are looking for ways to work with Trump "and force Republican leaders to choose between their new President and their free-market principles," the Times reports.

But analyst John Zogby tells La Tercera that he does not believe they are aligned with Trump since "it is a tradition to offer a honeymoon period." "This is the time to check for ways to cooperate before the fight starts," he says.

As Democrats face their own internal struggle, Trump held a series of meetings today, including a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first foreign leader to talk to the President-elect face-to-face.