We're six months into "The Empire Strikes Back" and everything is going pretty much as advertised. ICE is deporting just about anyone with a Spanish accent and olive skin complexion; DOGE is going through the federal workforce with a machete; law firms, universities and media outlets are folding like cheap tents (just the other day CBS announced it was cancelling its flagship Late Show with Stephen Colbert); the GOP is rubber-stamping anything the emperor demands; political opponents are being threatened with all the subtlety of a Soprano's episode; and, while all this is going on, the Supreme Court seems perfectly willing to sit back and watch 250 years of representative democracy get flushed down the toilet.
If anyone is surprised by what is happening, they've been in a coma for the last ten years. The Founding Fathers may not have envisioned the country ending like this, but then they were learned men who had an abiding faith in their fellow countrymen; a faith that, in retrospect, seems badly misplaced now. And to think, we're only halfway through the first quarter of this football game. Just wait until halftime.
But as an old friend of mine is fond of saying, "Now what?" Crying over spilled milk isn't going to do anyone any good. And getting angry at the mess on the kitchen table, the way my father used to do when I was a kid, only makes things worse.
Since last November, Democrats have gone through the full gambit of emotions: denial, delusion, rationalization, anger and now, it appears, doubling down. They still haven't fully grasped the gravity of the situation that they and the nation are in. They sound like the reluctant alcoholic who insists he doesn't need a 12-Step program. If only the cops and his family would stop busting his balls, everything would be alright. Just take a look below:
1. "Trump didn't win a majority of the vote."
2. "Trump is historically unpopular."
3. "We're going to win back the House, maybe even the Senate, in the midterms."
4. "A true progressive would've beaten Trump in 2024."
Wanna know the difference between a crack addict and a Democrat? A crack addict has no illusions of a better tomorrow.
Once more, for the kids in the back of the classroom:
1. Trump is only the second Republican since George H. W. Bush in 1988 to win both the Electoral College and the popular vote. Nowhere in the rule book does it say a candidate must win the majority of the vote. Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 with only 43 percent of the vote, so there.
2. Trump has never been particularly popular. In his first term, he was the only president going all the way back to Truman to never hit 50 percent in the Gallup poll.
3. The latest Generic Ballot shows Dems at plus 2.5. In 2018, when they took the House, they were plus 8.4. The consensus is that Dems will need to be around plus 5 to have any shot at flipping the chamber. As for the Senate, it would take a herculean effort just to pick up two seats, never mind the four it would take to win the majority.
4. A "true progressive" like, say, Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren likely would've lost by a larger margin than Kamala Harris.
It is time for Democrats to have a come to Jesus moment. They need to realize that they had a hand in getting Trump back into the White House. And I'm not just talking about Joe Biden's indefensible decision to run for a second term when it was painfully obvious he was fading. I'm talking about the Party's positions on issues that a good chunk of the American electorate rejects. Let's go through them.
The Border:
Yes, it's been a thorn in the side of every president going back to Reagan, but Biden virtually ignored every warning sign, even from members of his own party, out of fear of alienating his base. Democrats pinning their hopes on a bipartisan bill that, admittedly, would've solved 90 percent of the problem - and that Trump torpedoed, mind you - was the political equivalent of waiting until the two-minute warning to mount a comeback. Voters rightly saw through it. Trump had the opening he needed to brand Democrats as weak on border security, and he pounced on it.
Crime:
Statistically, crime is down across the country, even in Democratic cities, but progressives insistence on defunding the police and the plethora of cashless bail laws that have sprung up mainly in blue states, have rubbed voters the wrong way. Once more, Trump had the opening he needed to brand Democrats as soft on crime, and he pounced on it.
DEI:
Don't get me wrong: diversity, equity and inclusion are essential elements of any healthy society. But over the last few years, DEI as a movement has taken on a life of its own. It became more obsessed with shaming the white majority than improving the nation as a whole. It was no surprise, therefore, that Harris, and Democrats in general, did very poorly in the exurbs and rural parts of the country in the last election. Trump made the elimination of DEI hires a central part of his platform, and so far, he appears to be delivering on his promise.
Political Correctness:
We've all seen the meme: "Blazing Saddles could never be made today." Seemed rather innocuous at the time. To be honest, I didn't think much about it. Clearly I was wrong. Millions of voters were fed up with being corrected for simply laughing at off-color jokes that only a few years ago would've been no big deal. If it's true that conservatives want to cancel anyone who doesn't think America is squeaky clean; progressives are equally guilty of attempting to whitewash any and all behavior they deem as offensive to their worldview. It's like one group of people lives in Dodge, while the other group lives in Oz. What I wouldn't give to send both these groups out to sea in a leaky life raft.
The purge of the Blue Dog Democrats:
It's hard to believe, I know, but in 2009, Democrats actually held Senate seats in states like Nebraska, North Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Louisiana, Indiana, Montana, Florida, West Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio. Today, every one of those states is firmly held by the GOP. The Blue Dog Democrats who held those seats, and the people who voted for them, were driven out of the Party because they were no longer welcomed in it. According to an ANES study done after the 2016 election, "just over 13 percent of Trump's voters had backed Obama in 2012." Astonishing. In less than a decade, the party of FDR, LBJ and Clinton had completely abandoned two thirds of the country to concentrate primarily on an ever shrinking percentage of the electorate. And you thought Republicans had a difficult time with math? Trump, ever the opportunist, could scarcely believe his good fortune.
Growing antisemitism among progressives:
The protests that sprang up on college campuses over the war in Gaza quickly turned to threats of violence against Jewish students and faculty. Instead of condemning these threats, Democrats and the Biden Administration were, once again, more concerned about their progressive base than they were about the safety of one of their oldest and most trusted constituencies. And, just like all the other issues, Trump made hay on Democrats incompetence.
The bureaucratic state and out of control spending:
The onslaught that Elon Musk's DOGE has unleashed on the federal workforce will be felt for years to come. But if we're being totally honest, Democrats were mainly responsible for this onslaught. As of November, 2024, the number of federal employees on the payroll was just over 3 million, with 2.3 million full timers. It is inconceivable that all of these employees were essential. By not dealing with the enormous growth of the bureaucratic state, Democrats left the door wide open for a much more drastic, and draconian method of dealing with it.
Any one of these issues, taken separately, would've been bad enough, but lumped together, they set in motion a political tsunami that not only swept Democrats out of power, it led directly to the Party's worst approval numbers since the days of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.
So what, if anything, can Democrats do to rebuild their battered image?
For starters, stop throwing good money after bad. Like any business that's failing, the Party needs to cut its losses before it goes completely bankrupt. Here are some suggestions:
1. Stop treating white people like they're the enemy. Non-Hispanic whites represent 57 percent of the U.S. population. Maybe if Democrats showed a little more love towards them, they wouldn't have to run the table with every other demographic. Speaking of which,
2. Not all demographics are monolithic. Of all the blunders Democrats committed over the last few years, none was worse than assuming Hispanics would, en masse, welcome the "influx" of migrants across the Southern border. Turns out it was just the opposite. Many Hispanics resented these migrants and considered them a threat to their economic way of life.
3. Learn how to walk and chew gum at the same time. Democrats need to understand that you can feel bad for what is happening in Central and South America, while acknowledging that the United States can't be the depository for every displaced migrant. We simply don't have the capacity to handle that many people. Securing the border should've been a priority; instead it was an afterthought.
4. Rediscover their blue-collar roots. Trump's tariffs will undoubtedly fail, but Democrats shouldn't just assume that means his plan is unpopular. Trump, like Ross Perot before him, correctly identified what was happening in the manufacturing sector and seized upon the angst felt by so many blue-collar workers who felt abandoned by both sides of the political aisle. While the global economy depressed their wages and gutted their communities, they looked for someone, anyone, who could give them reason for hope. So they turned to a carpet bagger. This was once the most reliable voting bloc for the Democratic Party; now most of them are Trumpers.
5. Screw Political Correctness. When we look at Trump, we see a crude, racist, corrupt, bumbling fool with no moral compass. But his supporters see something entirely different. They see someone who isn't afraid to speak his mind or do what he thinks is best regardless of how it is perceived. The fact that he has no filter or qualms about offending people is what endears him to many voters. No politician in American history has so upended the political landscape the way Trump has. Instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, Democrats would do well to borrow a page or two from his playbook.
6. Stop lecturing voters and start listening to them. With very few exceptions, Democrats today sound like college professors lecturing their students. Talk about arrogance. As someone who's spent 25 years in sales, I've learned that successful salespeople all have one thing in common: they listen twice as much as they talk. Perhaps it's time Democrats adopted this philosophy. How are they supposed to know what the voters want if they're too busy yapping?
7. Open up the ranks to everyone. What's the use of having a big tent if everyone under it looks and sounds the same? Ben Nelson wasn't a bad senator, he just wasn't a liberal. So when he didn't get behind a public option in 2009, progressives skewered him. Now he's gone, along with Claire McCaskill, Mark Pryor, Mary Landrieu, Bill Nelson, Heidi Heitkamp and Jon Tester. The AOCs have taken charge and driven the bus into the ditch. Enough is enough. The Democratic Party needs to put up a sign that reads: Help Wanted, all applicants accepted.
8. Get out of Washington. Whoever decides to run in 2028 needs to be someone that doesn't have any connection to the biggest toxic waste dump in the country, and, no, I'm not talking about New Jersey. Washington is ground zero for everything that is wrong with American politics. Democrats need to find someone outside the Beltway, someone who hails from a state where both parties have to work together to find common ground. Pennsylvania comes to mind. More than just a few people thought Harris should've chosen Josh Shapiro as her running mate. He might be their best option in '28.
9. Enough with the moral high ground. For years Democrats have said, "When they go low, we go high." And for their efforts they lost two of the last three presidential elections. It's time they accepted a harsh truth: the only thing in politics that matters is winning. How you get there is irrelevant. Of all Trump's triumphs, perhaps his greatest was his ability to transform millions of registered voters into the most transactional electorate in American history. Our ability to show empathy ends at our front door. We keep saying this isn't who we are, but in reality this is exactly who we are. We have become a nation of zero sum citizens, just like our commander in chief. You wanna beat Trump; you have to play by his rules.
10. Don't be afraid of the Joe Rogans. That Harris didn't do a lot of interviews was obvious; that she made it a point to steer clear of interviewers who might not agree with her stances was emblematic of a flawed strategy that Democrats must abandon, and fast. Elections are won on the margins. That means you have to occasionally go into the lion's den to get your message out. The best way to do that is by appearing on podcasts, some of which are hosted by people who could potentially be hostile. Who cares? Suck it up and go for it. If you can't take the heat, don't run for the office.
11. Reach out to the Trumpers. Let's face it: we all know people who voted for Trump; family, friends, coworkers, fellow church members. Guess what? They're not going anywhere. The fact is there's no pathway back to power for Democrats that doesn't include some overture to this group. Think about it: if 13 percent of Obama voters can switch sides and vote for Trump, they can certainly switch back. But only if Democrats give them a reason to do so. We can't do that by calling them "deplorable" like Hillary did in 2016. Sure, the majority of them may never quit the man, but those that are amenable are worth fighting for. In my experience as a salesman, I've learned there are three types of potential customers: those who will buy from you no matter what; those that will never buy from you even if it was free; and those that need to be persuaded to buy from you. National elections always come down to how well a party does with that third group. In two of the last three elections, Democrats forgot that.
By no means is this an exhaustive list, but you get the point. Democrats need to reinvent themselves and become a party that reaches out to all potential voters; they need to be inclusive, instead of exclusive; and they need to accept the fact that what works in New York, Chicago and San Francisco doesn't necessarily work in suburban Pennsylvania or rural Iowa.
Trump, like the snake oil salesman he is, peddled his tonic to a frustrated and weary pubic. Democrats can either choose to blame him for the poison that spewed out of that bottle, or they can look in the mirror and admit that had they done a better job being stewards of this nation, Trump would still be in that hideous tower of his in Manhattan. In the end, no one sells something that someone isn't willing to buy.
The good news is that Democrats will get another chance to govern again. That's because for all his bloviating and posturing, Trump really doesn't have a clue how to govern; he never did. And Republicans are far too busy giving him a reach around to even make the attempt.
One thing is certain: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is THE definition of insanity. And we've had enough of that the last few years, haven't we?
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