After Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016, it’s glaringly clear that the Democratic Party is in desperate need of a revamp—and has been for a few years.

In addition to being in desperate need of new leadership, the Democratic Party needs to refocus its message – What does a Democratic future look like, why is a Democratic future important, and how can a Democratic future be achieved?

Throughout the years, the Democratic Party lost touch with American voters, even those who used to be on the left. Since losing the 2016 election, the Democratic Party centered its message more around opposition than anything else — opposing Trump, opposing the GOP, and opposing the administration. While opposition is important, it’s equally important to refocus the message to also show the possibilities of a Democratic future — a Democratic tax reform plan, a Democratic national security plan, a Democratic plan to build infrastructure.

If Democrats find people to blame for losing the 2016 election instead of confronting the problems that are facing the party, they will quickly move into yet another election cycle without understanding why people are so disgusted with Democratic political culture. There are many issues, such as the perceived necessity of having a third gender option on driver’s licenses, that have wormed their way onto the Democratic political agenda that have no business being there, and these are the issues that tend to alienate anyone other than those on very far left on the political spectrum.

Unfortunately for Democrats, those alienated people will associate anyone on the left with the extreme-left. But Democratic leaders are not doing much to separate themselves from the radical and often embarrassing extreme-left, despite the fact that many of these people will do anything to avoid calling themselves Democrats.

Take independent Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, who explicitly stated that he does not consider himself a Democrat, despite running as one during the 2016 primaries. According to Sanders, he did not want to run as an independent and “take votes away from the Democratic candidate” — but when it came down to the general election, that’s exactly what he did. Despite the fact that he essentially hijacked the Democratic party for his own personal gain, Democratic leaders stood by and did nothing.

One of the most obvious example of the Democratic party’s being out of touch is Nancy Pelosi’s long and continued position as the posterchild of the party. Despite her numerous successes and triumphs as the House Minority Leader, she has shown in the recent years that she is completely out of touch with not only American voters, but the party as well. On the 17th of November, Pelosi stated during an event at Hearst that impeaching President Donald Trump would be a “waste of time”, despite voter support for impeachment being at a record high. She said this in response to a small group of Democrats introducing five articles of impeachment against Donald Trump that Wednesday.

A certain amount of disagreement and discourse is healthy within any political group, but that week’s events display a lack of communication that is more crucial and harmful than simple, slight disagreements. This communication not only makes the party seem chaotic and disorganized, it also makes the current legislative goals of the party unclear to voters.

If Democrats want to guarantee future success, the party must find new, fresh leadership and be more effective at communicating its message to American citizens. Currently, Democrats are communicating multiple different goals to America — impeachment, blocks of legislation proposed by Donald Trump, getting to the bottom of possible Russian collusion in the election, ethics investigations, etc. While these things are important, it’s equally or even more important for Democrats to plan for how they will achieve success in the future.

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have been successful in the past, but lately they have been struggling to connect with American voters. It’s time for new leaders to take their place, and in addition to this new leadership, the message of the party must become clear again, that the party is truly focused on building an economy that lifts up all Americans, not just those at the top of the economic food chain.