Democrats have otherized straight white males, which happen to be the second-largest demographic group in the US. In fact, since more females than males identify as LGBTQ, you could argue they are the largest group.
The Democrats bet big that they could lean into that hostility and not suffer any consequences from it. For a long time, they got away with it as Millennial men put up with it. No longer. Gen Z men have grown up in a world that celebrates every identity except them in proportion to the amount they are not like them.
Now they have a major problem because the Democrats are firmly the Party of Women, and I don't think they have any interest in reaching out to men. But snubbing the biggest demo in the country is not smart politics.
Spot on . The friends of our college aged son are overwhelmingly Conservative. He went to school out of state, and both high school and college friends are Reps in numbers, unseen since the 80s.
I see no viable plan B so far. And if the Democrats do not get out of their bubble and spend a LOT of time with the working class I don’t think they will get a viable plan B. The plans that seem to be tested in trial balloons are ones developed by elites who think they understand what the working class wants. They are not close yet
Democrats have the problem of being media driven. Left media is probably the most extreme fringe of the coalition. Plus whenever media tries to analyze the working class, It has the flavor of the Deplorables in the Mist.
It’s not just that some people loved Trump. Others, myself included, couldn’t stomach voting for the regressive and blatantly racist policies pushed by the Dems.
I was also furious about the lies: first it was “Biden is in great form,” and then, after shoving Harris at us, it was “we’re going to save democracy.” How, precisely, do you democracy by barring others from running in the primaries against Biden, and then anointing a candidate who had never even participated in a presidential primary?
I was at a graduation ceremony last night. It was all woke and all Resistance. Gone were the days when the speakers tried to inspire the students about their futures. We heard about genocide and racism, but most of all, the speakers smugly talked about themselves and claimed to be “inclusive” while brandishing their intolerance.
Mention any of this stuff and you will find yourself shunned very quickly. Or worse.
A better Plan B for.Democrats might be to abandon this failed identity politics approach to electioneering in favor of speaking to Americans as one people who, for all their lesser differences, still share more in common than what may separate them.
I have no incentive to vote for a party who only seems to care about 4 things. "reproductive rights", hating Trump, transgender issues, concern for illegal immigrants, including those who are criminals. Everything else with the Party seems like an afterthought.
They held up infrastructure bill a couple years ago trying to increase the SALT deductions that the R house just passed. They also gave 7000$ tax credit for luxury cars and new central air systems. The Green New Deal/Inflation Resuscitation Act allocated hundreds of billions to orgs that might be called environmental or might have been brand new, non profits all, with mid six figure salaries for doing nothing. Many orgs had no idea how to even spend the money other than salaries. Writing grant proposals maybe.
Democrats are pretty good at sending tons of money to the professional managerial class. Their base.
Phase I of plan B. STFU. Everyday is another day of bad optics for the Dems. Reminds me of the daycare my wife and I use to own. Actually, as bad as the kids might have been was expected, they were kids. The drama among the young employees, females had to be forcefully suppressed, some times by just firing someone. Ironic, the ones the Dems want talking, Repubs, are relatively quiet. Especially compared to to Dems. The Dems disgusting actions on tv in regards to committee clown shows is appalling. All Zeldin had to say to Schiff was, at least I didn’t rely on known falsified documents to make an ass of myself. I can’t believe the Dems even let him talk.
Short version: They have already won all of the battles. There's nothing of substance to fight.
Long version: Social Security, one of the major features of life now and started by a Democrat (Roosevelt, thanks to Francis Perkins), Medicare, another major feature of life, Medicaid for disabled people, ACA, women's rights, civil rights, LGBTQM rights for marriage, protesting and ending the Vietnam War that primarily resulted in the deaths of children of blue collar workers, women in police forces (like my wife!). You name it.
Democrats have changed our culture mightily, and for the better.
But what battles are left to fight? Answer: niche ones. "Progressive" ones. Ones that only a few people can get behind and that most people don't identify as a need for themselves.
We won folks. I'm proud to be an old fashioned Democrat. But we no longer identify with today's Progressive/Bernie Sanders/AOD/Harris/etc. party, so we have become Independents.
Find a battle to fight that everyone believes in. Not vague phrases, but something that people can point to in their daily lives that matters.
Actually Dems were AWOL on big issues while en route from the bank to trans story hour at the library.
We never did make a system to cover everyone's health care, all we have is universal insurance if you have a good job, or buy it yourself and try to get on Medicaid which is a horrible way to go. Either way don't get cancer or you lose the house.
The last Dem to successfully push min wage was named Kennedy. Ted. He died in 09. With inflation it should be 10.50, if it tracked productivity as it used to we'd be at $21 now.
Our base are a bunch of non profit staffers writing grant proposals and salaried at mid six figures who don't do shit.
Our cities which our party controls are full of feces and drug adicts besides being dangerous as all hell because some guy with big money ran a bunch of azzoles for DA, and they let everyone dangerous out of the jails on a PR bond.
Our party has revived racialist (polite word for racist) discrimination and segregation. What a legacy from the party of MLK.
I have an idea but have not examined it as much as I would need to.
For example: The Republican Bill.
Democrats should say: "Your grandchildren will love it when there is no Social Security for them because you ran them into monstrous debt. Is that what being a conservative means?" "If so, go sit your grandchildren on your lap and tell them this. See if they still like Grandma/Grandpa."
Things like that.
In other words, PRESERVE for people what matters to them.
Some Republican analysts have contended for a long time that Hispanics at least were socially conservative and would eventually gravitate to Republicans. That was a long time coming probably because they tended to be economically liberal. The fact that it happened in 2024 has to do with the extreme overreach by the dominant faction in the Democratic Party on social issues and the failure and tone-deafness on economic issues. In other words a perfect storm. Hard to predict the future as neither party seems to be able or willing to control the economic factors. Democrats could help themselves by reorienting the party as Ruy suggests but probably won't. If the economy stabilizes and improves, Republicans will probably remain dominant for a while. If not, I would expect the Hispanics to snap back, at least partially.
The Democrats bet that open borders would turn Texas purple. Turns out that Hispanics aren't big fans of open borders either - which makes sense. Who wants more competition in the labor market?
Texan here. At least in our neck of the woods, immigration sent Hispanics towards Reps in droves, probably far more than social issues. American citizens residing at the border, mostly Hispanic, spent 4 years in a quasi war zone, and Dems could not have cared less.
Dems, overwhelmingly dumped migrants in Hispanic neighborhoods without a single extra apartment, MD or bilingual teacher. Already failing schools were suddenly knee deep in non English speaking kids, some lacking any previous formal education. Hospitals were overwhelmed. Want to flip a voter registration permanently? Give a parent with a hurt Little Leaguer after a 7 pm game, the choice between an 6 hr ER wait, or a 3 hour drive, because the other local hospital went belly up in millions of unpaid migrant care.
Migrants drove down low skilled wages, even as they drove up affordable housing costs.
It is hard to throw a rock in Texas and not hit someone negatively impacted on a daily basis. The notion of cheap labor may work for business owners , but it is not passed on to consumers.
As I continue to point out---and I'm thankful for Ruy and others here, and for the Catalyst data---these trends are continuing and accelerating. Again (ad nauseum) I return to voter registration stats, which now over a year's period with over 150 observations shows only a single, short blip in the pattern of CONSISTENT GOP GROWING MARGINS over Democrats, and/or of closing the gap on huge Democrat leads as in NJ and NY. It appears PA is back on track to be red by mid-2026. Primaries there in the big cities are over. AZ now looks to have a shocking 400,000 GOP advantage by 2026. In places like WY, GOP growth is outpacing not only Democrats, but Democrats and Indies put together.
THE REALITY OF THESE STATISTICS has been largely missed because the GOP in Congress and in many states is so incredibly incompetent that it's shocking. Moreover, in contrast to Democrats, who know how to wield power ruthlessly, the Republicans always want to "reach across the aisle." I have hypothesized this is due to the trauma of the backlash against the 1995 gubment shutdown that STILL has not left the GOP.
But, the bottom line is that to voters, whether stated in this way or not, the choice seems to be between a barely competent GOP that doesn't hate them and a Democrat Party that, in some cases, actually wants to kill you (i.e., if you are a Jew, if you are a male, and certainly if you are a baby). As a historian, I've learned you can see BIG trends that "seem" to be captured by a slogan or phrase "Free Silver" but are actually underwritten by a deep fear that one side is going to take away all livelihood and conditions of existence (like imposing a vax, or going after "white nationalists" or "Catholics." They may now say it, but they know it.
I see zero evidence that Democratic leaders (Members of Congress, governors, and the smattering of loony "influencers" are following any of your very smart advice. They are doubling down on Sanders/AOC-style progressive socialism. The Democratic Party seems destined for it's own Michael Foote/Jeremy Corbin moment in 2028, and may be surprised by the 2026 midterms.
Speaking for myself: Long time left leaning voter, GenX, environmentalist/conservationist, loved Bernie's 2016 campaign, used to like the Clintons a very long time ago but now wishes he'd voted Perot, liked Lina Khan, skilled tradesman w/advanced degree, so desperately wants at least one of the 2 parties to be sane, competent and ideally non repulsive that i signed up for a paid account just to leave this comment:
I voted Trump this time due to a multiplicity of issues, even tho i thought he was genuinely awful (this was BEFORE the election, the level of awful since has shocked and horrified me, and I'm still not sure the Democrats are definitively better).
Here's how to get me back (and while I'm hardly the most typical person in the world, I know from talking to coworkers and friends this would get a HUGE section of the working class):
1st, DROP THE TRANS CRAZY!!! Please
God will all of you quit ignoring or
minimizing this in what went wrong and
please either completely replace your
leadership or get the current ones to back off this completely indefensible, obviously disconnected from reality position.
No one cares if a guy wants to rename himself Slinky Demure and wear a dress, but everyone cares about their kids being brainwashed and laws like Colorado just passed compelling people to lie or lose their jobs or kids or go to jail, no one who cares about sports wants men in women's sports, no one wants men in women's shelters or as rape crisis counselors, and especially no one wants violent men after arrest declaring they're women and being put in jail with actual real women. This is not only a losing issue, but it is so obviously insane that adopting it proves to everyone that not a single other thing you do or say can be trusted, because eother you can be brainwashed into believing and doing absolutely anything or you are the walking embodiment of The Emperor's New Clothes and will conform to absolutely anything with the right incentives.
Continuing this in another reply because this is getting unwieldy long on my phone.
2. Please drop the open borders stuff and especially the open borders on steroids with lots of extra benefits for people you're basically asking to come over and lie to claim asylum (totally aside from the injustice this does to people who have legit claims and are now lumped in with this group). Please quit lying to people about how this is good for anyone other than the very rich.
Yes, rhe Trump administration turning ICE into the Gestapo and using immigration as an excuse for a tyrannical expanse of powers is even worse, and terrorizing tourists and citizens and Green card holders and people whove been here for 30 years and have families or were brought over as toddlers is horrible and just as yall lost me with the open borders idiocy, they lost me with this, but can one party at least be semi sane? Really, just be sane. Go back to Trumps first term or
any time before that or come up with something sane on your own if you can, keep the borders closed and if you can't offer amnesty, promise to leave people alone if they've been here over 5-10years without causing problems and say you'll focus on removing actual criminals and hey, how bout that e-verify for employers? A cost effective, non tyrannical way to discourage illegal economic immigration that will work faster, better and cheaper than what Trump is doing and won't make people feel like they're living in a police state run by sadistic assholes?
Trump is worse on this, yes, but the open borders crap was also awful and if you can't find an inbetween we're toast anyways.
3. View the working class as real people, just like you! Yes, the Republicans don't give a sh to about us, but eyes don't actively have us, and they tend to view people who work hard with a certain amount of respect, as opposed to some mixture of patronizing condescension, sneering contempt and/or active dislike ranging up to near hatred.
Actually pay attention to what people say and think without putting them into preconceived boxes, and try to take what they have to say seriously, in a way that goes beyond "how can we use this info to improve our messaging?"
I don't think you can or will do this, I don't even think most of the Democratic leadership can conceive of how this might be done and I'm none too sure they wouldn't rather keep losing, but it would help.
4. Quit being obvious hypocrites. Yes, the Trump administration is tyrannical. What did you guys think your Covid policies were, or things like the just passed Colorado law are, or your "keep everyone but us off the ballot" attempts were.
If you're gonna lie, lie better, and if you're gonna be tyrannical dickheads, do it upfront so you look slightly less awful. But ideally, just stop with the excessive authoritarianism, especially while you're complaining about it from the other side.
5. Stop with the racist framing of everything and trying to divide people into different, antagonistic camps. You complain about the GOP doing this but you are the ones whove been doing it far worse for the past 20 years (and are now triggering a predictable backlash of white identitarism, good job, you frigging idiots). Try using the MLK colorblind playbook.
6. Come up with some national leaders that people might want to vote for. AOC has all the charisma in the world and is a great actress and if her policies were good I at this point wouldn't even care that she's a big phony since at least she doesn't visibly exude phoniness from every pore like most of them, but she has a ton of unworkable positions that's gonna be fun trying to walk back from. I wish her luck credibly explaining how she changed her mind. That goes for all of them. I hate Newsom (see: visibly exuding phoniness comment above) but if he convinces me he's actually learned something and won't be awful, I'll take him over what we have now. Good luck with the convincing.
How bout that Maria Perez (?)woman from Southern Washington or Oregon or that independent from Nebraska? They both sound grest from what little i know of them. How bout someone who, as I think you suggested in a previous column, tries to learn from what Mexico's progressive government has done right?
Good luck and sincerely hope and pray you get it together!
Apologies for the very long thread but on the million to one chance someone with decision making power in setting party agenda sees this, you really seem to need this spelled out. I left out lots of entire subjects, but these are the ones that would help the most quickly and I really do want your crowd to get it together.
Nice series of comments. Gluesenkamp Perez 3d district is in WA though heavily influenced by the Portland OR media and commuting market just across the river. Otherwise it's a huge district with a lot of dang trees.
Was kinda expecting a negative response, glad someone took the time to read, apologies for typos and weird phone autocorrects, I didn't proofread.
I only recently learned of her coz of the headlight proposal, some variant of which I heartily support! Checked out her Twitter and liked what I saw. And yay to living in a wilderness district and experience running a small business!
Biden ran as a centrist and won. Isn't there a strong suspicion that his incapacity to govern was taken over by staffers of the progressive left? They doomed the party. My feeling is that unless we can cease the cannibalization of the party by the more extreme left, it won't win for decades. Thoughts appreciated. Thanks.
I do think you are right, that more moderate Democrats have succeeded in losing their voice to the noisy, clumsy and unacceptable Democratic radical Left wing. Until the party can refind its footing, or the GOP screws up big time, Democrats will remain a minority party for the foreseeable future.
I've been waiting for the Catalist results since, well, November. I saw their bar graph analysis but I like the raw numbers of the crosstabs.
I also have to say I'm not at all surprised. I've been looking at the 2020 crosstabs for four years now and the trend was unmistakable. The only surprise is that Kamala Harris did as well as she did. It could have been much worse if she had been running against a different "new right" type candidate.
Let's put this segregated divisional data analysis behind us, and face the reality that Americans, are looking for answers that Democrats have not been able to deliver. The party itself has evolved beyond its ability to bring together a diverse yet cohesive constituency. My point is that the party must rise above identity politics, identify its basic core values and apply those to a their message to America. I see most Republicans backing a very vulnerable and chaotic Trump agenda that is beginning to show cracks and that is not going to be acceptable outside the MAGA bubble. I feel a sense of threat and insecurity percolating up through middle-class America as well as the business community, and if they can be allied might be able to being about a reinvigorated Democratic Party that has some teeth.
I think part of the problem for Democrats is this tendency toward groupism analytics to support their political strategy. The Republicans have nailed the post-civil rights era strategy for focusing on only economic class. Democrats are still stuck on stupid chasing racial, gender and education attainment class. Democrats create the mythology of these things still existing while the voters live in the reality of a completely integrated and diverse society where nobody really gives a shit if you wear a skirt, have darker skin or graduated with a degree in victim studies. They do care that the top 10% keeps looting the country to an empty shell.
Democratic Plan B: Form circular firing squad, decimate party. Republican plan: Laugh heartily, screw up governing. Public's plan: Hide until it's all over.
Democrats have otherized straight white males, which happen to be the second-largest demographic group in the US. In fact, since more females than males identify as LGBTQ, you could argue they are the largest group.
The Democrats bet big that they could lean into that hostility and not suffer any consequences from it. For a long time, they got away with it as Millennial men put up with it. No longer. Gen Z men have grown up in a world that celebrates every identity except them in proportion to the amount they are not like them.
Now they have a major problem because the Democrats are firmly the Party of Women, and I don't think they have any interest in reaching out to men. But snubbing the biggest demo in the country is not smart politics.
Spot on . The friends of our college aged son are overwhelmingly Conservative. He went to school out of state, and both high school and college friends are Reps in numbers, unseen since the 80s.
It is weird when you talk to college-aged men. Deep voices are back. None of that octave-up shit that millennial men seemed to embrace.
I see no viable plan B so far. And if the Democrats do not get out of their bubble and spend a LOT of time with the working class I don’t think they will get a viable plan B. The plans that seem to be tested in trial balloons are ones developed by elites who think they understand what the working class wants. They are not close yet
Democrats have the problem of being media driven. Left media is probably the most extreme fringe of the coalition. Plus whenever media tries to analyze the working class, It has the flavor of the Deplorables in the Mist.
It’s not just that some people loved Trump. Others, myself included, couldn’t stomach voting for the regressive and blatantly racist policies pushed by the Dems.
I was also furious about the lies: first it was “Biden is in great form,” and then, after shoving Harris at us, it was “we’re going to save democracy.” How, precisely, do you democracy by barring others from running in the primaries against Biden, and then anointing a candidate who had never even participated in a presidential primary?
I was at a graduation ceremony last night. It was all woke and all Resistance. Gone were the days when the speakers tried to inspire the students about their futures. We heard about genocide and racism, but most of all, the speakers smugly talked about themselves and claimed to be “inclusive” while brandishing their intolerance.
Mention any of this stuff and you will find yourself shunned very quickly. Or worse.
A better Plan B for.Democrats might be to abandon this failed identity politics approach to electioneering in favor of speaking to Americans as one people who, for all their lesser differences, still share more in common than what may separate them.
Yep. We are two liberals who live in Trump country. We love our neighbors.
Greetings from a one-time liberal turned conservative. 👋
To my point with which I agree.
I have no incentive to vote for a party who only seems to care about 4 things. "reproductive rights", hating Trump, transgender issues, concern for illegal immigrants, including those who are criminals. Everything else with the Party seems like an afterthought.
They held up infrastructure bill a couple years ago trying to increase the SALT deductions that the R house just passed. They also gave 7000$ tax credit for luxury cars and new central air systems. The Green New Deal/Inflation Resuscitation Act allocated hundreds of billions to orgs that might be called environmental or might have been brand new, non profits all, with mid six figure salaries for doing nothing. Many orgs had no idea how to even spend the money other than salaries. Writing grant proposals maybe.
Democrats are pretty good at sending tons of money to the professional managerial class. Their base.
Phase I of plan B. STFU. Everyday is another day of bad optics for the Dems. Reminds me of the daycare my wife and I use to own. Actually, as bad as the kids might have been was expected, they were kids. The drama among the young employees, females had to be forcefully suppressed, some times by just firing someone. Ironic, the ones the Dems want talking, Repubs, are relatively quiet. Especially compared to to Dems. The Dems disgusting actions on tv in regards to committee clown shows is appalling. All Zeldin had to say to Schiff was, at least I didn’t rely on known falsified documents to make an ass of myself. I can’t believe the Dems even let him talk.
Why Democrats don't have a Plan B.
Short version: They have already won all of the battles. There's nothing of substance to fight.
Long version: Social Security, one of the major features of life now and started by a Democrat (Roosevelt, thanks to Francis Perkins), Medicare, another major feature of life, Medicaid for disabled people, ACA, women's rights, civil rights, LGBTQM rights for marriage, protesting and ending the Vietnam War that primarily resulted in the deaths of children of blue collar workers, women in police forces (like my wife!). You name it.
Democrats have changed our culture mightily, and for the better.
But what battles are left to fight? Answer: niche ones. "Progressive" ones. Ones that only a few people can get behind and that most people don't identify as a need for themselves.
We won folks. I'm proud to be an old fashioned Democrat. But we no longer identify with today's Progressive/Bernie Sanders/AOD/Harris/etc. party, so we have become Independents.
Find a battle to fight that everyone believes in. Not vague phrases, but something that people can point to in their daily lives that matters.
Actually Dems were AWOL on big issues while en route from the bank to trans story hour at the library.
We never did make a system to cover everyone's health care, all we have is universal insurance if you have a good job, or buy it yourself and try to get on Medicaid which is a horrible way to go. Either way don't get cancer or you lose the house.
The last Dem to successfully push min wage was named Kennedy. Ted. He died in 09. With inflation it should be 10.50, if it tracked productivity as it used to we'd be at $21 now.
Our base are a bunch of non profit staffers writing grant proposals and salaried at mid six figures who don't do shit.
Our cities which our party controls are full of feces and drug adicts besides being dangerous as all hell because some guy with big money ran a bunch of azzoles for DA, and they let everyone dangerous out of the jails on a PR bond.
Our party has revived racialist (polite word for racist) discrimination and segregation. What a legacy from the party of MLK.
Any suggestions as to what that battle might be?
I have an idea but have not examined it as much as I would need to.
For example: The Republican Bill.
Democrats should say: "Your grandchildren will love it when there is no Social Security for them because you ran them into monstrous debt. Is that what being a conservative means?" "If so, go sit your grandchildren on your lap and tell them this. See if they still like Grandma/Grandpa."
Things like that.
In other words, PRESERVE for people what matters to them.
Thanks for responding.
Some Republican analysts have contended for a long time that Hispanics at least were socially conservative and would eventually gravitate to Republicans. That was a long time coming probably because they tended to be economically liberal. The fact that it happened in 2024 has to do with the extreme overreach by the dominant faction in the Democratic Party on social issues and the failure and tone-deafness on economic issues. In other words a perfect storm. Hard to predict the future as neither party seems to be able or willing to control the economic factors. Democrats could help themselves by reorienting the party as Ruy suggests but probably won't. If the economy stabilizes and improves, Republicans will probably remain dominant for a while. If not, I would expect the Hispanics to snap back, at least partially.
The Democrats bet that open borders would turn Texas purple. Turns out that Hispanics aren't big fans of open borders either - which makes sense. Who wants more competition in the labor market?
Texan here. At least in our neck of the woods, immigration sent Hispanics towards Reps in droves, probably far more than social issues. American citizens residing at the border, mostly Hispanic, spent 4 years in a quasi war zone, and Dems could not have cared less.
Dems, overwhelmingly dumped migrants in Hispanic neighborhoods without a single extra apartment, MD or bilingual teacher. Already failing schools were suddenly knee deep in non English speaking kids, some lacking any previous formal education. Hospitals were overwhelmed. Want to flip a voter registration permanently? Give a parent with a hurt Little Leaguer after a 7 pm game, the choice between an 6 hr ER wait, or a 3 hour drive, because the other local hospital went belly up in millions of unpaid migrant care.
Migrants drove down low skilled wages, even as they drove up affordable housing costs.
It is hard to throw a rock in Texas and not hit someone negatively impacted on a daily basis. The notion of cheap labor may work for business owners , but it is not passed on to consumers.
As I continue to point out---and I'm thankful for Ruy and others here, and for the Catalyst data---these trends are continuing and accelerating. Again (ad nauseum) I return to voter registration stats, which now over a year's period with over 150 observations shows only a single, short blip in the pattern of CONSISTENT GOP GROWING MARGINS over Democrats, and/or of closing the gap on huge Democrat leads as in NJ and NY. It appears PA is back on track to be red by mid-2026. Primaries there in the big cities are over. AZ now looks to have a shocking 400,000 GOP advantage by 2026. In places like WY, GOP growth is outpacing not only Democrats, but Democrats and Indies put together.
THE REALITY OF THESE STATISTICS has been largely missed because the GOP in Congress and in many states is so incredibly incompetent that it's shocking. Moreover, in contrast to Democrats, who know how to wield power ruthlessly, the Republicans always want to "reach across the aisle." I have hypothesized this is due to the trauma of the backlash against the 1995 gubment shutdown that STILL has not left the GOP.
But, the bottom line is that to voters, whether stated in this way or not, the choice seems to be between a barely competent GOP that doesn't hate them and a Democrat Party that, in some cases, actually wants to kill you (i.e., if you are a Jew, if you are a male, and certainly if you are a baby). As a historian, I've learned you can see BIG trends that "seem" to be captured by a slogan or phrase "Free Silver" but are actually underwritten by a deep fear that one side is going to take away all livelihood and conditions of existence (like imposing a vax, or going after "white nationalists" or "Catholics." They may now say it, but they know it.
I see zero evidence that Democratic leaders (Members of Congress, governors, and the smattering of loony "influencers" are following any of your very smart advice. They are doubling down on Sanders/AOC-style progressive socialism. The Democratic Party seems destined for it's own Michael Foote/Jeremy Corbin moment in 2028, and may be surprised by the 2026 midterms.
Speaking for myself: Long time left leaning voter, GenX, environmentalist/conservationist, loved Bernie's 2016 campaign, used to like the Clintons a very long time ago but now wishes he'd voted Perot, liked Lina Khan, skilled tradesman w/advanced degree, so desperately wants at least one of the 2 parties to be sane, competent and ideally non repulsive that i signed up for a paid account just to leave this comment:
I voted Trump this time due to a multiplicity of issues, even tho i thought he was genuinely awful (this was BEFORE the election, the level of awful since has shocked and horrified me, and I'm still not sure the Democrats are definitively better).
Here's how to get me back (and while I'm hardly the most typical person in the world, I know from talking to coworkers and friends this would get a HUGE section of the working class):
1st, DROP THE TRANS CRAZY!!! Please
God will all of you quit ignoring or
minimizing this in what went wrong and
please either completely replace your
leadership or get the current ones to back off this completely indefensible, obviously disconnected from reality position.
No one cares if a guy wants to rename himself Slinky Demure and wear a dress, but everyone cares about their kids being brainwashed and laws like Colorado just passed compelling people to lie or lose their jobs or kids or go to jail, no one who cares about sports wants men in women's sports, no one wants men in women's shelters or as rape crisis counselors, and especially no one wants violent men after arrest declaring they're women and being put in jail with actual real women. This is not only a losing issue, but it is so obviously insane that adopting it proves to everyone that not a single other thing you do or say can be trusted, because eother you can be brainwashed into believing and doing absolutely anything or you are the walking embodiment of The Emperor's New Clothes and will conform to absolutely anything with the right incentives.
Continuing this in another reply because this is getting unwieldy long on my phone.
2. Please drop the open borders stuff and especially the open borders on steroids with lots of extra benefits for people you're basically asking to come over and lie to claim asylum (totally aside from the injustice this does to people who have legit claims and are now lumped in with this group). Please quit lying to people about how this is good for anyone other than the very rich.
Yes, rhe Trump administration turning ICE into the Gestapo and using immigration as an excuse for a tyrannical expanse of powers is even worse, and terrorizing tourists and citizens and Green card holders and people whove been here for 30 years and have families or were brought over as toddlers is horrible and just as yall lost me with the open borders idiocy, they lost me with this, but can one party at least be semi sane? Really, just be sane. Go back to Trumps first term or
any time before that or come up with something sane on your own if you can, keep the borders closed and if you can't offer amnesty, promise to leave people alone if they've been here over 5-10years without causing problems and say you'll focus on removing actual criminals and hey, how bout that e-verify for employers? A cost effective, non tyrannical way to discourage illegal economic immigration that will work faster, better and cheaper than what Trump is doing and won't make people feel like they're living in a police state run by sadistic assholes?
Trump is worse on this, yes, but the open borders crap was also awful and if you can't find an inbetween we're toast anyways.
3. View the working class as real people, just like you! Yes, the Republicans don't give a sh to about us, but eyes don't actively have us, and they tend to view people who work hard with a certain amount of respect, as opposed to some mixture of patronizing condescension, sneering contempt and/or active dislike ranging up to near hatred.
Actually pay attention to what people say and think without putting them into preconceived boxes, and try to take what they have to say seriously, in a way that goes beyond "how can we use this info to improve our messaging?"
I don't think you can or will do this, I don't even think most of the Democratic leadership can conceive of how this might be done and I'm none too sure they wouldn't rather keep losing, but it would help.
4. Quit being obvious hypocrites. Yes, the Trump administration is tyrannical. What did you guys think your Covid policies were, or things like the just passed Colorado law are, or your "keep everyone but us off the ballot" attempts were.
If you're gonna lie, lie better, and if you're gonna be tyrannical dickheads, do it upfront so you look slightly less awful. But ideally, just stop with the excessive authoritarianism, especially while you're complaining about it from the other side.
5. Stop with the racist framing of everything and trying to divide people into different, antagonistic camps. You complain about the GOP doing this but you are the ones whove been doing it far worse for the past 20 years (and are now triggering a predictable backlash of white identitarism, good job, you frigging idiots). Try using the MLK colorblind playbook.
6. Come up with some national leaders that people might want to vote for. AOC has all the charisma in the world and is a great actress and if her policies were good I at this point wouldn't even care that she's a big phony since at least she doesn't visibly exude phoniness from every pore like most of them, but she has a ton of unworkable positions that's gonna be fun trying to walk back from. I wish her luck credibly explaining how she changed her mind. That goes for all of them. I hate Newsom (see: visibly exuding phoniness comment above) but if he convinces me he's actually learned something and won't be awful, I'll take him over what we have now. Good luck with the convincing.
How bout that Maria Perez (?)woman from Southern Washington or Oregon or that independent from Nebraska? They both sound grest from what little i know of them. How bout someone who, as I think you suggested in a previous column, tries to learn from what Mexico's progressive government has done right?
Good luck and sincerely hope and pray you get it together!
Apologies for the very long thread but on the million to one chance someone with decision making power in setting party agenda sees this, you really seem to need this spelled out. I left out lots of entire subjects, but these are the ones that would help the most quickly and I really do want your crowd to get it together.
Nice series of comments. Gluesenkamp Perez 3d district is in WA though heavily influenced by the Portland OR media and commuting market just across the river. Otherwise it's a huge district with a lot of dang trees.
Thank you!
Was kinda expecting a negative response, glad someone took the time to read, apologies for typos and weird phone autocorrects, I didn't proofread.
I only recently learned of her coz of the headlight proposal, some variant of which I heartily support! Checked out her Twitter and liked what I saw. And yay to living in a wilderness district and experience running a small business!
Biden ran as a centrist and won. Isn't there a strong suspicion that his incapacity to govern was taken over by staffers of the progressive left? They doomed the party. My feeling is that unless we can cease the cannibalization of the party by the more extreme left, it won't win for decades. Thoughts appreciated. Thanks.
Yes. It seemed like from early on they were taking over all domestic policy.
I do think you are right, that more moderate Democrats have succeeded in losing their voice to the noisy, clumsy and unacceptable Democratic radical Left wing. Until the party can refind its footing, or the GOP screws up big time, Democrats will remain a minority party for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for the link.
I've been waiting for the Catalist results since, well, November. I saw their bar graph analysis but I like the raw numbers of the crosstabs.
I also have to say I'm not at all surprised. I've been looking at the 2020 crosstabs for four years now and the trend was unmistakable. The only surprise is that Kamala Harris did as well as she did. It could have been much worse if she had been running against a different "new right" type candidate.
Let's put this segregated divisional data analysis behind us, and face the reality that Americans, are looking for answers that Democrats have not been able to deliver. The party itself has evolved beyond its ability to bring together a diverse yet cohesive constituency. My point is that the party must rise above identity politics, identify its basic core values and apply those to a their message to America. I see most Republicans backing a very vulnerable and chaotic Trump agenda that is beginning to show cracks and that is not going to be acceptable outside the MAGA bubble. I feel a sense of threat and insecurity percolating up through middle-class America as well as the business community, and if they can be allied might be able to being about a reinvigorated Democratic Party that has some teeth.
I think part of the problem for Democrats is this tendency toward groupism analytics to support their political strategy. The Republicans have nailed the post-civil rights era strategy for focusing on only economic class. Democrats are still stuck on stupid chasing racial, gender and education attainment class. Democrats create the mythology of these things still existing while the voters live in the reality of a completely integrated and diverse society where nobody really gives a shit if you wear a skirt, have darker skin or graduated with a degree in victim studies. They do care that the top 10% keeps looting the country to an empty shell.
Democratic Plan B: Form circular firing squad, decimate party. Republican plan: Laugh heartily, screw up governing. Public's plan: Hide until it's all over.