Democrats have a problem. They have not figured out what appeals to enough voters, as their approval rating as a political party sinks even lower than the GOP's, and even Trump's approval rating also begins to fall. Democrats are faced with the necessity of re-invention, re-focus, and figuring out even what to call themselves.
Returning to Democrats of old 2024 is a loser then and a loser now. What is true is that Democrats in 2024 were so entangled in pushing back on MAGA's cultural/racial issues, they missed what was at that moment on the mind of many, the unresolved economic impact of COVID, and who got the blame for high prices and inflation. Democrats may have presented data and facts, but buried them in other matters. Economic populism used to be in the purview of Democrats, and it took a back seat in the message Democrats promoted in their loss in 2024. MAGA grabbed it, ran on it, and won.
Perhaps the best approach is for Democrats to brand themselves as" the party for the (blank for now) people". So I asked my son-in-law, a skilled mechanic and veteran, close to retirement age, what he would call himself..Just "people"?" Common man"? Ordinary person? His response? "I never thought of myself as any of those. I'm just a tired old working man." That got a sardonic laugh from both of us.
Whatever Democrats come up with, it should reflect what most people call themselves or identify with. If filling in the blank is such a challenge, the answer may be just leaving the blank blank and putting the issue at hand in context. There is a clue of how to do it in Lincoln's Gettysburg address: it's for people, folks, and it is government of and by the people, too. Lincoln's phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is truly what Democrats need to repeat like a mantra. That's populism and democracy in a nutshell. Sure, Lincoln was Republican, but today's GOP has strayed so far from that, it is unrecognizable. They have become the party of, by, and for the rich and famous, and those looking good on television.
One I particularly like is a slogan that can motivate, proposed by the DNC vice chair, Malcom Kenyatta: making lives better. That could work and speaks to many issues and many demographics besides and including economic populism and government services. It is a big-tent one for people and public policy issues.
There are some other phrases emerging that have legs, but also some drawbacks. Trump has shown the ability to retool and revise daily in response to changing polls and the stock market. However, even if Trump backs down on his tariff fiasco and supply chains right themselves, inflation will linger, and corruption will still be an issue. The federal government will fail to provide the customer services people sorely need. Some of the issues have a time stamp, and others have some lasting advantages and weaknesses.
Below are some phrases in current use and their advantages and disadvantages.
Economic populists (as opposed to cultural populists?) If what Democrats believe, they are the real party for the working people, the middle class, the small business person, they certainly missed the boat getting that across in 2024. If risking to become a voice instead of an echo, should the Democrats use the term populism as the MAGA movement has? That is not a good campaign slogan: " Democrats are more populist than MAGA is ".
Generational changes are needed. Voices are beginning to be raised among new generations of potential leaders who see democracies as the fairest for all, and advocate economic populism that is of the kitchen table variety. The Democratic National Committee is useless as an influence on anything, as they have tied themselves up in knots over upstart younger voices. AOC is the brightest and direct voice of that new generation, and the constant beat she supports is that she includes "all" Americans, not just a few or even just the downtrodden. Pete Buttigieg's speech last week was more moderate, but also in that direction. Both bring generational change and a popular agenda of kitchen table economics that Democrats cannot ignore. They are also the best communicators of the Resistance and the Democratic Party. Take them seriously. I am.
The Democrats have a winning message in the damage DOGE and MAGA have done to social security, Medicaid, and food/nutrition programs for kids, as well as the cost of higher education, blamed on oligarch greed at every opportunity. Bernie Sanders (old in body, young at heart) and AOC are on the right track, putting the blame on them. However, they ignore the contribution business makes to the economy and the importance of that sector to the economic health of the country. It is short-sighted and a turn-off to many Never Trumper moderates. We need a strong economy across the board to generate taxes, the means to pay for the AOC and Sanders' policy proposals. There needs to be more balance between business and societal demands in order to get an even broader appeal for a regime change..
There is a middle ground. What Democrats offer is a moderating pitch to all in the business community. It is stability, a refuge from chaos, peaceful resolution of conflicts, the ability to innovate using science, and an independent justice/judicial system, pledged to support the rule of law based on the Constitution. That stability is actually priceless to American capitalism. Rule by fear and favor, corruption, and chaos harm business wherever they occur. That is an effective moderating message Democrats could use. It will gain even more traction if the Trump-induced recession materializes as predicted.
There are some good approaches that have promise. Getting traction is that Democrats are not for a King. No King is a good, but too kind, alternative to the word free of the baggage of fascism, which is the technical political science word describing what many MAGA are supporting. But anti-King describes only what Democrats are against, not for what they are for. The award for the best slogan of the non-partisan organizations, like 50501 and Indivisible, is the "hands off" protests, which galvanize the anger of those many kinds of people victimized by Musk's DOGE trashing and subverting of popular federal programs that serve people who need them. These are great attack approaches, but they do not answer the question: What are Democrats for, anyway?
How about a party for "all of us". That may be the better way to tag Democrats, but there are limits: it cannot be the party for everyone on every issue. It is not all things to all people, and cannot be.
Corruption is not a good thing for any of us. It is good for those who have the means to pay a corrupt politician off or pay for their re-election costs.. Hovering over all of this is the obvious and open corruption of the Trump regime that makes "transactions" with deals that benefit the Trump family as they trade on Trump's position and his name. It is also low-hanging fruit, ripe for the resistance to pick. Corruption should be an enemy of populism, but the GOP instead either looks the other way or enables it, almost as if admiring Trump for being just a good businessman. So far, Trump's base seems unmoved by corruption charges.
Racism is not for all of us. The MAGA movement has cultural and racist tendencies and a disdain for democracy. If Project 2025 is still held in esteem by the MAGA side, Make America White Christian again, embracing that one is a nonstarter for Democrats. Anti-diversity, anti-inclusiveness, and anti-equity are values that Democrats cannot embrace. Bottom line. Anti-DEI attempts to deny a fair shot to all but those they favor is throughout their Project 2025 agenda. Hint: they do not favor brown and black people, Muslims, gay people, or even women's rights. Their actions speak louder than even their words in the Heritage/Project 2025 documents. The writers of 2025 are now Trump appointees he put in control of the hiring, firing, and sabotaging of agencies that serve the human needs of those they do not favor.
Class warfare: Favoring the wealthy and oligarchs is not for all of us; it has never trickled down. The problem is that some of the economic goals espoused by MAGA are shared with Democratic traditions of supporting the working people and a low cost of living. MAGA has talked a good talk, but has so far failed to walk the walk...and instead, promotes policies that screw the budget conscious people, including passing tariff costs to them (Even 10% is an unnecessary price gouge). There is one that I hear frequently. Bernie, ever the democratic socialist, uses the term: working class. For sure, Democrats are not for billionaires and oligarchs or racists, but they need to be for more than just the working class to appeal to enough to win elections.
MAGA has made it harder for ordinary people to cope with day-to-day needs. The Trump regime has already de facto erased protections for consumers and the environment from exploitative and damaging business practices. They have defunded, crippled and removed the administrative civil serice ranks that provided the day to day services people demanded. People fought for those services through the legislative process and still pay for them through their taxes (and paid money for them via social security deductions to pay checks). The writers of 2025 are now Trump appointees he put in control of the hiring, firing, and sabotaging of agencies that serve human needs, and they are carrying out their agenda as you read this.
A case can be made that MAGA and the Trump regime are waging war on the "least of these" and the middle class. MAGA attacks on affordable health care, from limiting affordable access to Obamacare and Medicaid, are very unpopular, with the pain felt most in red states. Health care costs may be the single most important issue facing most Americans. If MAGA wins this, knocking 13K off of Medicaid, and making health care unaffordable, to harming social security and Medicare, expect your state and local taxes to try to pick up the pieces, which is why blue state Attorney Generals are among those resisting these cuts in the courts. There is no manna from heaven to fund these. It will still fall on taxpayers, whether federal, local, or state. The political pressure from "tired old working veterans" and others to do something will be intense. Here are the statistics of those on Medicaid in Colorado:
https://files.kff.org/attach.../fact-sheet-medicaid-state-CO
Democracy vs. Autocracy is often used as a contrast tool. It is a yawn for those unfamiliar with political science or abstract political thought. There is nothing wrong with the phrase. It is just boring. Sharpening up the verbiage is in order. Autocracy is the opposite of populism because it denies all people a voice in their governance and gives the power to one person. The MAGA pro-autocracy crowd is not populist in any sense other than they want their guy, and only their guy, to be a King. Dictatorships are OK if the dictator is "theirs". Trumpism might be replaced by someone who is an anathema to them, as a hard swing to the left reacts to their hard swing to the far and fascist right. Those Constitutional protections of their rights just may come in handy someday. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Patience, what goes around will come around. Just wait, we hear. Trump has dug his own grave. That one is a problematic gamble on a bad outcome of the Trump regime. Red flags must be raised now so that Trump will be blamed later. What is also true is that Trump has promised an economic populist agenda and, after being elected, he still promises a beautiful future. Still, he has failed to give us a realistic picture of how he will do it and whom it will benefit.. His loyal base is unmoved and is keeping the faith. He has succeeded in frightening off migrants, but how he has done it, trashing the rule of law, taking on the judiciary, ignoring court rulings and instituting cruel family separation, snatching suspects without warrants, sending them away to foreign harsh gulags even if they were not gang members, murders and rapists, etc. It is giving some with a conscience a pause. The appeal of anti-immigration has diminished a bit, and has become how to do it as well as what and why to do it. Democrats have still not come to grips with the fact that overwhelming public sentiment opposes unbridled and uncontrolled immigration. Nothing yet has stopped the Trump regime from its cruelty, racism, and attempted defiance of the Constitution and judicial rulings. How far the Trump regime may go to defy the courts is a drama in the making.. It may be something to watch, especially with Pope Leo's stance on the issue.
The resistance to the Trump economic policies is still in the "warning" mode: "Be careful what you wish", and we will be in the "I told you so" phase later. The full impact has not even begun. The rich and the billionaires may like what he is doing. Lower living costs are still in the promise oratory, but the execution failure is becoming even clearer. Interest rates are up in the air. US Completely Loses Perfect Credit Rating for First Time in Over a Century - Newsweek which could lead to higher interest rates and the Federal Reserve is on a wait-and-see hold.
There is a middle ground. What Democrats offer is a moderating pitch to all in the business community. It is stability, a refuge from chaos, peaceful resolution of conflicts, the ability to innovate using government-developed cutting-edge science, and an independent justice/judicial system, pledged to support the rule of law based on the Constitution. That stability is actually priceless to American capitalism. It is an effective moderating message Democrats could use. It will gain even more traction if the Trump-induced recession materializes as predicted. Trump's promises are empty when it comes to caring about the core economic populist promises, and some of his voters are losing patience with believing that he will ever deliver. That is the Achilles heel and ripe for Democrats to exploit when inflation does indeed rise, and the damage done by the tariff policies will actually be felt the most this summer. We are not there yet.
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