Sometimes it takes a while to put things in perspective. Elections for example. What happened back in 2024? After Nov. 5, Democrats who didn’t expect to be losers struggled to explain to themselves why Kamala Harris lost to a repugnant narcissist: Biden didn’t step aside soon enough, Dems somehow (with most of four years to do it) didn’t get the message out about Biden’s legislation pushing the economy, voters faced with the price of eggs didn’t think inflation was coming down, she was female, she was black, once was soft on crime, Dems had lost touch with the working class… Or maybe all of the above.
Yes, all of the above, and something more. The other side had a story. Things aren’t going well, and times are not as good as they used to be. You’re not making the money you deserve, Democrats are giving it to illegal aliens, the ones taking your jobs, replacing white Christians, destroying the country with abortion, same-sex marriage and, oh yeah, letting “transgender” people, whatever they are, play on girls’ sports teams. The Republicans’ story had one idea or another (including, notably, lies repeated over and over) to appeal to nearly everyone, all part of the same story. A story easy to join. And they did. Voters, the ones that showed up (turnout was lower than 2020), moved right.
The Democrats did not, and it looks like still do not, have that kind of convincing story, one that will reach voters in their daily lives, one that embraces the hopes of a variety of people, one folks can say yes to. Democrats have lots to offer but it’s in pieces, something for this group or that group, good things, high-value things: equity, fairness, health care, things a majority of voters support, like abortion. But those things did not claim a majority of voters in 2024. They didn’t come together to form a story to which people could attach their lives.
What’s next? Well, there’s always James Carville’s advice: sit back and watch the Trump administration fly apart and it may be so bad people will vote for Dems in 2026, or maybe 2028 just to restore calm, a sense of security.
If what people want from government can be captured in a single word, this might be it: security. Still, what’s the story?
Hard to figure out right now. And over time, no matter what Democrats offer, they are at a disadvantage. Much of what happened in 2024 was driven by social media, often misleading or outright lies spread by real people or legions of bots. “It’s the algorithms, stupid,” which really move people through the net to sites that raise blood pressure, stimulate anger, and discovery that here’s a group that shares your views.
This is what “doing your own research” can turn up. The social media algorithms are not taking you toward love and fellow feeling. Thus, the Democrats’ disadvantage. If you’re talking about what good things the candidates stand for, will vote for, will do, none of that gets carried very far on social media.
The challenge ahead for the Democratic Party then is twofold: develop a story that competes with MAGA and find a way to make social media carry the story effectively, massively, in order to compete with what Republicans (who claim falsely that social media is biased against them) already have out there.
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This is so true! Thank you for saying it.
They should just use the “story” developed here. Olympia’s policies have been utterly successful at neutralizing GOP power where it counts in Washington, both the elected offices in the Puget Sound region and control in Olympia. It can’t be emphasized enough how complete the Democratic Party’s control is over the three branches of this state’s government. Our secret sauce? High regressive taxes, non-existent corporate income taxes and personal income taxes, and state control of critical development and economic growth policies — all of it framed by the social equity “story” that the national Democratic Party seems afraid to rely on.
Democrats, particularly progressive Democrats, are in a tough spot. They have yet to realize that, albeit by a slim majority, Americans no longer agree with them. Locked in their siloed prayer circles they haven’t figured that they can’t continue to embrace, or just shrug off, some of the positions of their most progressive wing, i.e. open borders, defund the police, drug crime isn’t really a crime and the battle for sexual identity is equivalent to the civil rights battles of the ‘60s.
And crowded into enclaves on the coasts, Democrats have yet to acknowledge to themselves that this is what losing an election looks like. Just being more progressive by excoriating Chuck Schumer or Gavin Newsome is not going to win back formerly reliably competitive states like Iowa, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.
And Democrats have yet to realize that their fabled ‘working class’ is not their father’s or grandparent’s working class. Today’s workers are younger, more diverse and more entrepreneurial. Particularly since the pandemic they are more apt to work for small businesses or have side hustles. This is why Hispanic voters, in particularly, no longer vote in lockstep with party establishment.
Democrats shouldn’t be distracted by MAGA craziness, they just need to work to regain the trust of middle American voters.
Thanks Dick. We have an urgent vivid and true horror story right now that must be addressed before considering good stories for future elections, if any. The Musk-Trump regime is determined to demolish our government, our economy, our alliances, our civil rights, as it erases our history and threatens to jail or execute any perceived enemies, including federal judges, and all this destruction with the complicity of a lawless Republican Party. Untold thousands of people have already been hurt by the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the new authoritarian administration headed by two unhinged demagogues. Please register your horror and outrage with Congress. I wish I was younger and wiser and had better ideas to address this national emergency. The grassroots must mobilize while the Democratic Party awakens to this crisis. We defeated fascism 80:years ago and now are called to fight it again on our own soil.
I consider myself a progressive, even though I disagree with most so-called ‘progressive democrats.’ I think they don’t really understand the progressive history of the early 20th century, have misrepresented it and haven’t told a good story — or any story, for that matter — about what progressive policies really are and would mean for most of us in this country. To let those who have distorted the word ‘progressive’ and turned it into a negative idea and dominate what passes for a discussion about progressive politics leaves me discouraged. I wonder what has happened to going out into the country and talking with, not at, people in small towns, rural areas, suburbs and even city neighborhoods, to listen and learn about their concerns, their situations and even their hopes for their lives, their families, their communities and this country. Jayapal made a visit to her district last week, even though it’s a safe one. My central WA relatives have told me that our U.S. Senators don’t appear where they live; of course, they’re Republican voters (because they’re ‘Republicans,’ they tell me, whatever that means because that’s all they say) but I think their statement means something. That they bother to make it is important, I think.
Democrats need a platform. I suggest updating FDR’s four freedoms. :
Freedom is living in a safe place
Freedom is having health care
Freedom is having education
Freedom is fair elections
Spot on Dick. Not only do Democrats lack a concise compelling message, they also lack leadership. What Carville suggests amounts to spitting in the wind. People need to believe they can make a difference and contribute to change. So far there are many competing ideas on how to do so, but again no convincing call to action to unite the resistance.
I do worry that the more we live in the realm of politics and the horse race of a two party system, the more miserable we are. No story or message or elected official is going to save us; we’re here because we normalized dismissing whole swaths of our electorate, and we will stay here until we get right with our values.