Give The People What They Want

America doesn't want lectures from Democrats.

There have been, and will continue to be, endless post-mortem analyses of the 2024 election. I will respect your time, dear reader, and leave such contemplation to others.

I intend to focus on how we move forward beyond the last Century and the first quarter of this one, to ensure the continuation of liberal democracy in the USA and beyond — crafting societies across the globe that are based on the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, including (but not limited to) life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Welcome to the 21st Century

One can’t look to the future, however, without understanding the past, so one of the premises on which I will base my positions is the Democratic Party's failure to recognize how politics and political communications have changed in the last 40 years.

Consider some of the changes in communications that happened in that span of time and how ineffective the Left was at countering or capitalizing on them:

• The rise of Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio in the 1980s, which the Left could never duplicate.

• The rise of conservative cable news (i.e. FOX News) in the late 1990s, which the Left never effectively replicated (more on this later).

• The rise of viral social media content, driven by dopamine-fueling algorithms that prioritize content that causes emotional reactions, which the Left only discovered in the last couple of years.

• The rise of “conspiracy content” on YouTube in the late 2000s and podcasts in the 2010s that ask the audience, “What is the government hiding from you?” The Left remains baffled by this.

The one common thread through these communication tactics is that they all appeal to the audience’s emotions.

The Left—and in particular the Democratic Party—generally ignored (and sometimes demeaned) the appeal to emotion that the Right and the Republican Party embraced. Instead, they appealed to Americans’ common sense and intelligence, which often worked enough for the Party to believe in that approach.

Unfortunately, they failed to recognize that the GOP’s emotional messaging was eroding the foundations of the Democratic Party. Over time, the Democrats’ appeal to intelligence began to resemble elitism, which only provided fuel to the Right’s emotional fire.

What does this all mean for the future?

Let Trump be Trump

First, I believe the Democratic Party should accept the lesson of this election and recognize that it needs to worry less about the next election (2026) and start seriously planning a long game.

I agree with Jonathan Last at The Bulwark. Democrats should not fight the GOP’s policy agenda. After all, most Americans voted in favor of that agenda. Give the People what They want.

Specifically, Democrats should not fight policies the GOP implements within the law, that is, Administrative and Legislative actions that are constitutional. Democrats should certainly fight like hell against any extra-constitutional actions, and they should do whatever is necessary to preserve the rule of law.

With respect to policy, however, many Democrats I know claim that voters made a mistake and don’t fully understand Trump’s agenda. They may be right, but by defaulting to the “we know better than the voters” position, they play directly into MAGA messaging.

So let Trump institute huge tariffs. Let him proceed with mass deportations. Let the GOP cut taxes for the wealthy and huge corporations. Give the People what They want.

Yes, these are terrible policies. Yes, many people will suffer. Some may die. It’s terrible, and I grieve. But if Democrats fight these things, the GOP will blame them for the failure of these policies while continuing to pursue the same policies. Democrats can’t allow that to happen.

They must “stand back and stand by,” so the failure of these policies is wholly owned by the Republican Party. When that failure is apparent, Democrats must rely on emotional messages to bring Americans back to reason.

They cannot expect that logical, rational arguments will achieve results. They must encourage Americans to be sad, angry, and frustrated.

Politics is emotion, and it’s time for Democrats to rebuild the Party based on how Americans feel, not how Democrats expect them to think.

Thanks, Obama

I’ll close with a specific observation that explains why Democrats need to be in tune with voters’ vibes, centered around two specific memes that were popular during the Obama Administration.

If you recall, Obama ran on messages of “hope” and “change.” Early in his first term, Republicans started sporting t-shirts and bumper stickers and sharing social media posts that said, “How’s that hope-y, change-y thing working out for you?”

They literally turned Obama’s messages against him.

How people were actually doing didn’t matter, what worked was the sarcasm. They made “hope” and “change” sound ridiculous, and anyone who felt they weren’t doing well was inclined to believe Obama was at fault.

This evolved, of course, into the “Thanks, Obama” meme of the second term. The GOP was using it as derogatory messaging, but Democrats — buoyed by the fact that he was reelected — thought it was funny and started using it ironically.

The Right never thought it was funny.

In fact, I still hear people in East Tennessee blame Obama for everything they see as modern social ills. They don’t like Kamala Harris’ positions on Trans people, but they blame Obama for Trans people. (I’m not kidding; I’ve literally heard people say, “It all started with Obama,” when the subject of Trans rights is mentioned.)

Is this what “fixed” looks like?

Democrats need to use similar tactics against Donald Trump.

As I said, let the GOP implement the policies it wants instead of fighting them at the policy level. And start churning out emotional messaging.

As soon as horror stories from the mass deportations start coming out (and they will), start putting out t-shirts and bumper stickers and social memes that say, “Is this what he meant by ‘fix it’?”

Democrats should point out every gaffe, every mistake, and every problem that arises — and they should do it by making Trump and the Republicans look ridiculous, not by wagging a finger at them or, God forbid, the voters who elected them.

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Next time I’ll talk about what else Democrats need to do to turn this mess around.

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