A New Approach for the Democratic Party

Getting back to the American way of life

I would summarize many of the problems faced by the Democratic Party like this:

Democrats treat people like data and data like stories.

In other words, Democrats act as if people are equivalent to data about people. If a poll or some research says, “75% of Americans think garden gnomes are good for America,” Democratic politicians and political operatives will act like three-quarters of the people they try to reach want more garden gnomes.

Of course, most people don’t give a rat’s ass about garden gnomes until some survey asks them about garden gnomes. Anytime the pro-gnome messaging fails, Democrats will assume they have reached too many folks in the anti-gnome cohort and will “recalibrate their targeting.”

Likewise, whenever there are useful, informative data, Democrats assume everyone will understand what the data mean. “The economy is booming,” they say, “just look at [select the appropriate economic indicators]!”

Instead of telling relatable stories that are backed by good data, Democrats present data and assume people can relate.

Correcting this will require a long-term change in how Democrats operate.

A 3-Step Contra-MAGA Platform

Today, the country’s most pressing political requirement is to end the appeasement of authoritarianism. I have argued before that this requires a contra-MAGA approach (presenting an alternative to Trumpist politics rather than simple opposition), and someone must build the infrastructure to develop, communicate, and execute that approach.

The most realistic mechanism for doing so is, of course, the Democratic Party.

Democrats aren’t the only mechanism, but if the Democratic Party fails to present a viable alternative to MAGA, and no new mechanism arises, we’re pretty much fucked.

Therefore, I will start with the Democrats, who need to make three fundamental changes to their operations in order to succeed.

Change 1: Build from the Bottom Up

Former President Bill Clinton recently said, “We have to learn to talk to people in ways that they can relate to.” Democrats, he said, need to “Just go out and talk to people because…we’re behind in the sense that a lot of the small-town and rural people are now highly sophisticated in how they get their information.”

I agree wholeheartedly.

Democrats need to rebuild their Party structure from the bottom up. Too many of the Party’s priorities and messaging have been based on nationalized politics, and the party has forgotten how to do retail politics.

The Party should begin investing heavily in tools and resources for county-level party operations that help locals identify the most important issues in their communities and communicate that information to the state and national parties.¹

If done properly, the Party could quickly develop a huge data set based not on polls but on actual conversations and policymaking happening in local school boards, at town councils, and on county commissions — data that could be used to develop messaging for campaigns at the local level while also identifying issues that resonate across the country.

Change 2: Own the Media

Democrats view social platforms and other alternative media as technology. Republicans treat them like culture.

True, the GOP allowed that culture to become a racist, misogynistic, antisemitic, authoritarian cesspool, but that didn’t have to be the case. Democrats can create a positive culture through these media if they approach it correctly.

First, Democrats need to embrace independent content creators and raise the profile of people (or brands) that are addressing the issues people care about in their local communities.

Second, Democrats need to reduce their dependence on mainstream media. National newspapers and networks will not accurately educate Americans about what Democrats stand for. Democrats should focus on communicating directly with the people through platforms rural and small-town Americans use, not just what works in cities.

Third, Democrats need to stop engaging in culture wars. Too often, Democrats have allowed themselves to get pushed into articulating positions that aren’t acceptable to most Americans.² The Party can celebrate diversity and fight for equal rights for all without demanding that everyone follow a checklist of culturally appropriate rules. More importantly, the Party needs to address high-level issues that matter to the majority of Americans instead of trying to build a coalition of single-issue voters across hundreds of issues.

Change 3: Give the People an Enemy

At the end of the Cold War, the Republican Party adopted the tactic of vilifying Democrats. Much of what we see in MAGA today — the name-calling, refusal to compromise or negotiate, and opposition to good policy just because Democrats support the policy — started with this tactic way back in the 1990s.

After a quarter-century of Republican political obstruction and dishonesty, plenty of Americans were steeped in anti-Democrat tribalism based on misinformation disseminated through FOX and local TV news. Donald Trump gave these people new enemies (mainly immigrants) and tied them directly to the old enemies, the Democrats.

The Democratic Party, on the other hand, regularly campaigns against enemies that are far less tangible or even comprehensible. Their enemies are climate change and income inequality, concepts that sound bad but are hard to understand and even harder to solve.³

Attempts to identify Donald Trump as America’s enemy fail simply because there are too many Americans who think of him as a savior. The enemy has to be “other,” not someone people have seen on TV for decades. It has to be someone or something that people know about but can’t necessarily relate to. And it has to be something that conservatives and liberals can unite against.

That doesn’t mean the Party should ignore climate change or income inequality. It means the Party needs to personify these problems into enemies people can blame.

There are lots of possible enemies that don’t require us to be racist or cruel. I have some ideas, which I’ll write about soon. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think.

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Please post your ideas for who Democrats should make the enemy or any other thoughts you have about this proposed path for the Democratic Party in the comments. Thank you.

1. This is actually how the Party used to operate. Every political precinct would caucus to identify the issues they thought were most important. Some of those people would then represent that precinct at a county caucus, then a state caucus, and finally, the national convention. The Party’s official platform would be based on the work started in those precincts, not on national polling or focus groups.

2. The most obvious example is the Trump campaign’s “She’s for They/Them” ads, which dominated the airwaves in the weeks before the election. The Left made that attack possible by suggesting that everyone should display pronouns simply because a very small number of Americans choose to use “they/them.” One can support and even fight for Trans rights without changing one’s email signatures and Zoom descriptions.

3. Climate change and income inequality are important problems that should be addressed, but talking about these issues using these terms doesn’t win elections.