I'd get into the fact being directly involved in the party probably involves an aspect of "head in the sand" that an outsider looking in doesn't but the main point is Tom is a relative authority on the matter and he acknowledges some things need fixing.

I also wasn't criticising the GOP for lack of effort, besides their core is much more motivated and they have much less to gain by heavy campaigning elsewhere than the Dems because the audience you're trying to appeal to isn't as likely to vote for you unless you change some of your stances anyway.