As snappy marketing slogans go, the Democratic Party has offered up "A Better Deal" to woo back disaffected voters, who demonstrated in November they are willing to be led by a narcissistic, thin-skinned, intemperate Mr. Dithers of the Electoral College with less grasp of the inner workings of government than Groucho Marx's Rufus T. Firefly.

Hail, hail Trumpdonia!

It's become something of a rite of damage control for political parties that have had their heads handed to them to engage in a period of reflection, soul-searching and navel-gazing to ponder what went wrong at the voting booth and come up with ways to do better next time.

You'll recall that after 2012, when President Barack Obama whipped Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the GOP embarked on what was called an "autopsy" of the campaign. And what were the results?

Republicans deduced they needed to do a far better job in broadening the party's appeal to blacks, Hispanics and women. Eureka! Who knew?

But 2016 came around. Republicans nominated a misogynistic, bombastic, potty-mouthed candidate who managed to offend blacks, Hispanics and women, not to mention the pope, POWs, Gold Star families and the disabled. But Donald Trump was still elected president.

What would we call this? A Re-Hoot of a political party?

Since November, Democrats have been wandering the moors searching for a way to re-energize their fortunes come 2018 and beyond.

And that is how we got "A Better Deal," a rather clumsy, pallid, yawning variation on Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal campaign pledge to lift America out of the Great Depression in 1932.

"A Better Deal" sounds like Democrats want to channel a Billy Fuccillo car commercial. "Single-payer health plan! It's a Better Deal! And you get a free cruise! It's gonna be huuuuuge!"

Led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a gaggle of Democrats decamped for Virginia to tout their new "Better Deal" agenda for the great unwashed. Just what was this "Better Deal"? Well that's a bit vague, sort of like Hillary Clinton's explanation for why she needed a private email server.

Amid great fanfare, Pelosi, accompanied by a phalanx of apparatchiks, rolled out the "Better Deal's" manifesto. It calls for: a) cracking down on corporate monopolies, b) lowering prescription drug prices and (ta-dah!) c) creating more jobs.

Gee, thanks a bunch.

By comparison, FDR's New Deal accomplished the following: the creation of the Works Progress Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Economy Act, the Emergency Banking Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Public Works Administration, the Rural Electrification Administration, the Farm Security Act, the Food Stamp Plan, the Federal Housing Administration and the Social Security Administration.

Oh, and FDR also got rid of Prohibition, which by itself would seem to be accomplishment enough.

Showing up at a contrived rally to sing the praises of "A Better Deal," which was little more than a Cliffs Notes list of cliches, is not going to transform the Democratic Party into electoral juggernaut.

The first thing Pelosi and the her Democratic friends need to grasp is that the public knows when it is having a plume of smoke blown up its kilt. Nobody believes for a moment Democrats will break up corporate monopolies. And who isn't in favor of lower drug prices and more jobs? Now there's a Medal of Honor moment of bold political visionary courage for you.

What the Democrats don't grasp is that, for all his shortcomings as a candidate, a president and a human being, Trump successfully tapped into a white, middle-class, blue-collar belief that the economic recovery had left them behind. And that somehow an elitist billionaire New York real estate developer and television game show host could fix what was ailing them. That's the Democrats' problem. That's how low they've fallen.

If the Democrats want to reconnect to their traditional middle-class base, they need to take a chance, tell people in detail what the party wants to accomplish and how it is going to do it. FDR did, and it worked out pretty well for him.

Rallies, photo-ops and symbolic gestures are not going to win back a constituency that feels it has been taken for granted and marginalized. And get a presidential candidate who isn't burdened with more baggage than Samsonite.

Otherwise, "A Better Deal" is really nothing more than code for: "A Better Spiel."