W(h)ither The Democrats

A Great Distraction in Perilous Times

As tempting as it is to write about yesterday’s social media food fight between Elon Musk and President Trump, we don’t know how permanent the rift may be. It could pass over and find some kind of resolution. It may have always had the seriousness of the WWE. It is also possible that this was yet another example of Trump trying to control the news cycle as the difficulties of Senate passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill come to light.

The courts have so far blocked some of the administration’s actions, because as Kate Shaw said, they are violating the law in ways like we’ve never seen before. Or consider the failures of DOGE, which (dubiously) claimed to have cut $153 billion in government spending instead of the original claim of $2 trillion and doing so at serious damage to programs, as this stunning story from ProPublica explains. I expect many more stories about how AI was used to cancel grants.

Then there are the issues with the One Big Beautiful Bill — actually with the way supporters are talking about it. From Joni Ernst reminding us of our impending mortality to the fiction that able-bodied Medicaid recipients are playing video games six hours a day to the argument that “these aren’t cuts” because the support of “deserving” recipients won’t change, there’s a lot of misdirection (more on this next Wednesday). That’s to say nothing of the stuff added to the OBBB in the last hours before the vote that Republicans now say they opposed.

Given these situations, it’s clear that the most important issue before us as a democracy is “what’s wrong with the Democrats?” Why did they lost ground in the 2024 election? Shouldn’t they completely alter their campaign strategy?

While it is true that Republicans had a brief flirtation with introspection following Romney’s loss in 2012, they got over it very quickly. Since 2015, their mantra has been — as Musk’s hat says — Trump Was Right About Everything.

But the Democratic punditocracy seems to have settled on the opposite view. Democrats Are Wrong About Everything. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank had an excellent piece this week titled “Let us count the 3,515 ways in which Democrats are lame”. He did a Nexis search on the phrase “Democrats need to..” and shared a sample of what he found.

“Democrats need to fight President Donald Trump everywhere.”

“Democrats need to work with President Donald Trump, not against him.”

“Democrats need to rail against Mr. Trump, Elon Musk and the billionaire class.”

“Democrats need to look to Donald Trump as an example.”

“Democrats need to embrace males with affection.”

“Democrats need to mansplain to men.”

“Democrats need to shore up their identity.”

“Democrats need to make sure they ditch the identity politics.”

“Democrats need to energize their base voters.”

“Democrats need to move to the middle.”

“Democrats need to build a broader coalition of groups.”

“Democrats need to persuade nonvoters.”

“Democrats need to be fearless.”

“Democrats need to be careful.”

“Democrats need to encourage more debate within their ranks, not less.”

“Democrats need to sort out infighting — and quickly.”

“Democrats need to fight more.”

“Democrats need to engage in deep introspection.”

“Democrats need to be forward-looking.”

“Democrats need to perform an autopsy.”

“Democrats need to listen to the voters.”

“Democrats need to have a frank conversation — with themselves.”

“Democrats need to develop an appealing economic message.”

“Democrats need to prioritize public safety.”

“Democrats need to offer solutions to our immigration challenges.”

“Democrats need to resolve organizational problems.”

“Democrats need to stop dithering about process and rules.”

“Democrats need to take control from the left wing elements of the party.”

“Democrats need to pay attention to the way Ocasio-Cortez … continues to be able to speak to so many millions of people.”

“Democrats need to jazz up their messaging — and fast.”

“Old Democrats need to quit — now.”

Can you imagine the Republican version of this? Maybe they need to be more sensitive to immigrant families or trans families or racial inequality or working class college students. But they won’t do any of these because they can’t imagine that they are ever incorrect.

David Brooks shared his views yesterday on what Democrats need to change. Again, by comparison, would anybody listen to Rachel Maddow’s advice on how Republicans could improve their brand? Brooks writes:

Trump has taken the atmosphere of alienation, magnified it with his own apocalypticism, and, assaulting institutions across society, has created a revolutionary government. More this term than last, he is shifting the conditions in which we live.

Many of my Democratic friends have not fully internalized the magnitude of this historical shift. They are still thinking within the confines of the Clinton-Obama-Biden-Pelosi worldview. But I have a feeling that over the next few years, the tumult of events will push Democrats onto some new trajectory.

There were two new Democratic groups launched this week with similar goals: to sand the edges off the Democratic party to make it more palatable to rural non-college voters. One group, Searchlight, was formed by former Senator Harry Reid’s and John Fetterman’s chief of staff. It calls for the end of “purity tests” demanded by the progressive fringe of the party. The other, called WelcomeFest, had a big gathering in Washington D.C. hotel this week. As Tessa Stuart reported in Rolling Stone (paywalled), it “was everything that wrong with the Democratic Party”. To get a sense of where WelcomeFest comes down, you just need to know that the Democrat they highlight as a model is former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Other speakers encouraged Democrats to distance themselves from “The Groups” who supposedly demand uniformity.

There’s a little bit of truth here. Candidates for office shouldn’t be pressured to answer candidate surveys that measure their allegiance on hot-button issues. Such a survey was the source of the Kamala Harris “trans surgery for prisoners” ad that was so effective. My view is that she wasn’t really on board with the idea when it was broached years ago and so couldn’t defend her position when it mattered. Similarly, the next debate moderator who asks for candidates to raise their hands to some inane question should be banned from the airwaves.

Democrats cannot create candidates in the lab: a little military service, compelling biography, claims to serve all constituents, pride in “not being a politician”, some small business experience. The candidates who will be successful will be those who can authentically relate to the concerns of their constituents and find the pathways to alleviate their felt concerns. Again, I’d note that this isn’t every a problem for Republicans who simply rent an apartment in the district and run on nationalized fear-based models.

Because this is my newsletter after all, I feel confident to add to Dana Milbank’s list. So here is my advice.

#3516: Democrats should campaign on addressing the key public issues of 2028. It’s not enough to complain about how things currently are. I recently read someone quoting Wayne Gretzky that you need to skate to where the puck will be, not where it is.

#3517: Invest political capital on fixing known issues. If, for example, there are lingering effects of Covid shutdowns on public education, make clear that there should be investments to fix those problems. It may be satisfying to what Education Secretary Linda McMahon stumble over education policy in a Senate hearing but it would be far better make her talk about how to improve the situation or better yet to make her respond to actual proposals. As John Oliver illustrated on Sunday’s show, you could do the same thing with the air traffic control system. And it would be nice to see Democratic Senators offer amendments to reduce the size of the tax cut to address these issues and make the Republicans vote it down.

#3518: Candidates need to run on their values and not simply in opposition to Trump or incumbent Republicans. Simply decrying the weaknesses of the opponent will not be effective because it feeds into the stereotype that all politicians say whatever works in order to be elected. They need instead to have clear reasons for running and regularly communicate those to their prospective constituents. And for goodness sake, they have to do so before they ask for money. There are now five candidates for my congressional district on the Democratic side. The primary isn’t until June 2026 and I’m already bombarded with requests for donation. I put this on social media this morning:

To the announced Democratic candidates for CO 08 congressional race: There is a primary a year from now. Don’t ask me for money by complaining about what’s wrong with Gabe Evans. Convince me that you are worth my vote in that primary.

So lets not rehash what went wrong in the 2024 election and who knew what about Biden when. Let’s not pick out every little thing the Harris-Walz ticket should have done as if it were the one thing that would have flipped the result.

As the Oklahoma Thunder learned last night, finding one little thing is hopeless. You can play a great game and still have Haliburton make a wild shot with 0.3 second left.