I really do think that since 1994 the party has been apologizing for itself. Maybe I don't always make it clear enough, but "actually some of this stuff is popular and you should embrace it" is part of the basic lefty Dem critique. Maybe full communism isn't the way, but I think they are all a bit embarrassed by whatever the Republicans are snarling about on cable news that day and perhaps it's the Republicans who should be embarrassed.
Litter boxes? Just get on TV and mock that shit.
I regularly tell the tale of the ex-senator from Florida (ok it's been like 14 years so I will name him now as it wasn't even off the record- Bill Nelson) who explained that he couldn't support a minimum wage ballot initiative because if he did the Chamber of Commerce would nuke him with ads. His point wasn't that the minimum wage initiative was unpopular, it was that they'd run $10 million worth of ads calling him a pedo terrorist or whatever.
