What Can Democrats Work On Right Now?

Is it "abundance?" Is it masculinity? Is it moving to the center? While in the wilderness, ya gotta do something.

That pull-quote in the image here is from this Thomas Edsall rundown of the current Democratic position and messaging. If you generally follow politics, a lot of it is stuff you will already know. (I’d also argue maybe none of us should “generally follow politics.”)

This is a good pull-quote because it acknowledges the obvious right at the beginning: someone will rise up against Don Jr. or Vance in ’28, and in the midterms before it — and whether that’s AOC, Jasmine Crockett (likely unelectable), Vivian Musk (I jest), Gavin Newsom, Mayor Pete, etc… there will eventually be a figure, and people will get behind that figure in the name of power and reversing some of the worst Trump stuff. That’s not really the issue. It’s an issue in the sense of, well, a figure needs to emerge. But eventually one will, and hopefully it’s one who is electable.

Beyond the idea of “the guy” in a 2008 Obama sense, the Democrats have bigger functional problems as discussed in the same pull-quote. I think most logical people understand what needs to be done, but I will endeavor to list out a few here as well:

Toss out the furthest-left stuff

This was a hill some tried to die on, especially in the Democratic consultant gold rush of post-George Floyd. It was the wrong hill.

Don’t just try to be “a more normal Republican”