Dems wonder if 'identity politics' did them in

Some Democrats are beginning to openly wonder if identity politics did them in on election day, and left them watching Donald Trump and congressional Republicans win the White House and keep control of Congress.

The soul-searching seems likely to continue for months, possibly right up until the next election. But less than two weeks after their unexpected election day results, some are saying Democrats might be focusing too much on urban minorities and the targeting of various blocs, while ignoring the economic plight of working class votes in rural areas that the GOP overwhelmingly carried to victory.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who nearly clinched the Democratic nomination himself, expressed this idea openly over the weekend, and seemed to pin the blame directly on Hillary Clinton for ignoring millions of potential voters who might be willing to call the Democratic Party home, despite declining to mention her by name.

"It is not good enough for somebody to say, 'I'm a woman, vote for me.' That is not good enough," Sanders said in what seemed to be a clear reference to Clinton. Throughout the campaign, Clinton leaned heavily on the idea that her victory as a woman would be historic, but Sanders indicated that her theme wasn't substantive enough, and may not have mattered to millions of people with more immediate concerns related to their jobs and their families.

"What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industries," he said.