Saving the Democrats From Themselves

This is a make or break moment for the Democratic Party, as well as democracy, and it's time we were honest about what we expect from them

This article is free for educational and organizing purposes, but Dispatches From A Collapsing State depends on your support. If my work has meant something to you, has helped you, or resonated with you, please become a paid subscriber to keep this project going

---

My feelings around the 2024 Presidential Election shifted dramatically during the Democratic National Convention. I was there in Chicago and in my coverage I described myself as “torn” by what I witnessed. During the day I was embedded with protesters against the atrocities in Gaza and then, by night, I was watching this slickly produced pep rally. Outside the convention center I watched the uncomfortable and often disrespectful treatment of the protesters by those heading inside. There was a sense, and this was throughout the 2024 campaign, that people didn’t want their good time interrupted.

Now, in this moment of constant crisis, that stretch from July to November, from Joe Biden bowing out of the race and Kamala Harris taking his place, feels so odd. I described the moment of elation following Biden’s announcement, how it led to a manic celebration in which some felt like her election was a foregone conclusion and we might finally leave the Trump and MAGA Era behind us. And, for a few weeks there, the messaging and tone felt promising.

In Chicago, it became apparent very quickly that the party’s inability and unwillingness to stop enabling Israel’s cruelties would not only pose a political problem but also lead to escalating tragedy. Then, even in the presentation, it was clear that Harris and her team had made the decision to court Republicans and big business, bragging they would work with Goldman Sachs and other finance firms, promised to create an even larger and deadlier army, and chained themselves to the repellent political corpses of monsters like Dick and Liz Cheney.

The architects of this strategy told us they couldn’t win. They blamed gay and trans people, “the groups” that demanded the Democratic Party assist them, and anyone but themselves. And, over time, the ties between the strategist class and their corporate donors and employers deepened and deepened, creating a schism within the party between those who want to move further to the Right and those who recognize change is overdue.

We now stand in the middle of a raging crisis the party has helped create through its complicity, corruption, and disastrous decisions. Every single day we see new evidence that party leadership cannot meet this moment. They failed to win power and they now fail to supply actual resistance. The numbers make it clear. The party has a 33% favorable rating and are enjoying historically low approval. Honestly, I’d say they’ve earned that and more.

I get asked a lot where I think the Democratic Party needs to go. And I wanted to expand on that, but also make it clear that I don’t see this as purely a political question. What the party does now will affect the rest of our lives. If the Democrats continue down this present path, it will enable further fascism and suffering. And, it needs said, that if the status quo of the party wins out, and if they continue warring with their supporters and the vast majority of Americans, we’ll need to look elsewhere for representation.

As voters and supporters of democracy, it’s time we make it clear what we expect from the party if they are to continue enjoying our support. And, as we begin to key up for the 2026 Election, which, god knows if we can expect it to be free and fair, there are some baseline positions we should demand from anyone expecting our vote. To be clear, these are baseline minimums. And any candidate who quibbles with this would be communicating something very large that should tell us everything we need to know. Because political parties are centralized power and influence, you could expect any party leader to buck against these ideas, regardless of how apparent they are, because they represent what this current crop of Democrats fear more than fascism: necessary change versus maintaining a status quo that enriches and empowers them.

1. No Collaboration

This shouldn’t be controversial. Donald Trump and MAGA are existential threats. Their attacks on the rule of law, trampling of the Constitution, fervent hatred, systemic violence, and open corruption are unabashedly wrong on every level. If you want to be trusted with power, you must not only fight Trump but demonstrate that you have shown the moral and ethical judgment not to have cooperated with him and his political movement.

What we have seen so far from Gavin Newsom and others like Gretchen Whitmer, John Fetterman, and so many of the figures who have talked about “working with Trump where we can” have revealed themselves for what they are: opportunists and appeasers. Fetterman is a totally lost cause, but Newsom and Whitmer deserve a special level of scrutiny for enabling this regime and, especially in Newsom’s case, using their platforms to normalize Right Wing extremists and insidious ideology.

In case I need to make it clear, I will never support Newsom or Whitmer or Fetterman. They’ve revealed themselves and I cannot forget that as the people I love and care about are being betrayed.

Simply put, what we are experiencing is a moral test. This isn’t just the lead up to something awful, we’re knee-deep in it, and those with power will be judged for how they met the moment. There is no rationalizing any of this. If someone works with Trump, launders his actions, or sanitizes poisonous hatred, they should not be trusted with power.

What’s more, for everyone who tells you this is just pragmatic leadership, that doesn’t check out either. No one wants this. Not Republicans, not Democrats, no one but the moderate “center” that continually moves to the Right as capitalism requires more and more authoritarianism. This helped doom Harris in 2024 and it will continue to lose as Democrats embrace Trumpist framing of the issues. It is ethically and morally wrong, and a political loser to boot.

2. Addressing Mistakes

Another aspect that sunk Harris’s bid was a lack of distance from Biden and his policies. Democrats have been reluctant to break from their elders and this has become a large problem as the consequences of past leadership and past decisions continue to mount. It is time to be transparent about what we can all already see with our own eyes.

The lack of public trust in the parties is earned and continuing to insist upon a fake version of the past will only make that distrust worse. The Democratic Party can reestablish a semblance of trust by beginning to wrestle with its own mistakes, including Biden’s tragic enabling of the genocide in Gaza, the inadquacies of the Obama Presidency, and the fact that Bill Clinton cemented the rise of Neoliberal Globalism, a project that is now transforming into full-blown fascism after decades of suffering.

Relatedly, Democrats have continually found themselves on the wrong side of history. No one who voted for the Iraq War and construction of the surveillance state should be in a position of leadership. They’ve shown a complete lack of judgment, as have members who created the modern economy that shoveled historic wealth into the pockets of the tech oligarchs presently attacking our democracy. Those were choices and, given their power, they revealed themselves.

What is happening now, with the attacks on “the groups,” is a simulation of this reckoning. Democrats desperate to maintain the status quo are pretending to “learn” from their support of vulnerable groups, but they didn’t actually support them and made it clear they were more than willing to abandon them when they believed the wind had changed. This is meant to 1. attract Republicans voters and 2. reassure corporate and wealth class donors their money is safe with them. It has nothing to do with working with the base or advocating for their interests. It is self-serving and will only serve to worsen things.

But there are larger positions to atone for. The Democrats, in their modern tenure, have co-presided over a disastrous America in which god knows how many people have died prematurely, suffered unnecessarily, and endured unthinkable exploitation. This has taken place in the United States and around the world. They have failed to establish healthcare as an innate human right. They have failed to maintain the progress of the 20th century and build upon it. They have refused to hold corporations accountable as they have unleashed hell with crimes like the opioid epidemic or big tech’s assault on our privacy and mental well-being.

Healing begins with recognition. And it is past time the party wrestles with its obvious and painful mistakes.

3. Stop Telling Us Everything is Fine

One of the most daunting and challenging things about the modern Democratic Party is a continued dedication to countering Trump’s project for changing America by insisting things really aren’t that bad and it’s a “fever dream” Republicans would eventually “wake up” from. We’ve heard this nonsense for years now, from Obama rationalizing that building authoritarianism would eventually give way or Biden predicting an “epiphany” after the 2020 Election or, my god, Nancy Pelosi constantly talking about how America needs a “healthy” Republican Party.

It’s been in one pandering and delusional speech after another. Biden telling us “there’s nothing wrong with America.” With every one of these performances the divide between the party and the people grows much, much wider, crystalizing what we have sense for a long time now: the Democratic Party has become a party of managers.

This is exactly what we feel in the workplace as conditions worsen and become more arduous and some middle-manager tells us to look on the bright side. It feels like gaslighting because it is. We’re supposed to trust the process, but the process is obfuscation. It’s a fairytale told to us so that the managers and the wealth they represent can continue to do what they want to do and avoid the discomfort of confrontation.

Relatedly, the people being oppressed, exploited, and hunted in the streets cannot be told that things are going to be fine. They need representation that will fight for them and follow through on their responsibility to protect them and their rights. We have not seen this in a long, long time, and so it was inevitable that we would reach this point of crisis and suffering.

What we expect is to be treated as adults who are respected. Stop worrying about producing viral memes and all these embarrassing pursuits. Don’t give us early-aughts-style speeches that are attempting to recapture the positive Obama “there is not a liberal America and a conservative America” energy. There is a desperate, pressing need to recognize the very real problems we are facing. Be blunt. Be forthcoming. No more spin, no more managing. Give us recognition and give us direction.

4. Give Us A Vision of the Future

For years now I have been talking about how the Democratic Party has become the de facto conservative party of the United States while the GOP raced into fascism. This is part of a larger cycle that always occurs when authoritarianism takes hold. The Overton Window shifts and the liberals and moderates fall into a defensive position in which they are left promising to maintain what’s left of a status quo that is quickly crumbling. This accelerates the fascist push because the new conservatism of the liberals and moderates is already positioned to fail.

It is not enough to protect what remains of our rights, protections, and privileges. They have been essentially hollowed and cored. The gains of the 20th century were assaulted by a decades’ long, coordinated attack by the wealth class, creating our present conditions. The laws and amendments remain in name alone. Continuing to pretend there’s anything to save is insulting. We have to reestablish these things and simultaneously expand them beyond where they were. And why? Because we deserve it and it is the right thing to do.

There’s next to nothing being offered in terms of a vision of the future, leaving a massive vacuum that is being filled by hate-filled ideologues offering a white ethnostate and little but targeted pain against political enemies. Say what you want, but it’s an idea of where we should go as the American Empire crumbles. Most of it is a lie to hide the machinations of the people who caused this problem in the first place, but in an argument about what to do going forward as the ship sinks, it works better for some than half-hearted promises that things will be fine.

We need large solutions that would have seemed previously radical. This ranges in everything from actually taxing corporations to fund social programs to finally taking on the minoritarian Supreme Court. We need aggressive reform in the shape of getting rid of Citizens United, banning elected officials from insider trading, and we have put off changing our economy so that it is fairer, more humane, and actually functionable rather than this vulture system of smash-and-grab profit seeking. We need big ideas that will inspire us and reinvigorate faith in the power of democracy. This feels impossible now because of years of grift and corruption, but we have seen that pendulum swing before and we must swing it again.

What must happen now is that a new crop of leaders needs to emerge who are steadfastly dedicated to authoring a new direction in opposition to authoritarian self-destruction that proposes large-scale reform and change that would materially improve the lives of the American people. No more talk of means-testing. No more talk of light reform that is destined to get nixed. An ambitious plan that relies on the will and support of the people is the only way forward. This is hardly a time for timidity.

In my role at the American Institute For Change, I released a white paper this year titled “The Need For Change” which gets deeper into this subject. You can read that white paper here: The Need For Change: Acknowledging the Broken Status Quo and Working Toward a Better Future for All

5. Break the Democratic / Corporate Pipeline

Anyone who works within politics understands, at some level, where the Democrats have faltered, even if they themselves don’t want to admit it. The relationship between the party and affiliated corporations has corroded its ability to forward necessary reform and strained any desire to actual represent its base. This doesn’t just work in regards to donations and corporate partnership, it is firmly intertwined due to the consistent revolving door between Democratic strategists, staffers, and politicians and these corporations. They predictably shift back-and-forth between campaigns and staffs and then joining a corporate board or taking a position in communications or strategy for some behemoth like Meta or Uber. The decisions they make regarding policy and campaign promises are affected predictably.

Some would balk at this suggestion saying it’s just the way the game is played. They cheer as Democratic candidates take donations from the same corporations and individuals who are funding the fascist movement. And, yet, within days of Harris taking the nomination, she saw her war chest balloon with nearly $200 million dollars of individual donations, telling us without a doubt that it is possible, even in present circumstances, to tilt back to the base and away from the wealth class.

This problem is at the root of the complex and overbearing systems of problems we are facing. It’s what keeps the party from even considering the proposals that came before it because it isn’t just campaigning, it is the lifeblood of the Democratic Party’s apparatus and those piloting the campaigns, finding the candidates, and authoring the strategy and positions of the party are equally or more indebted to the corporations that pay them, often, much more than the party pays them for their services. What we have seen take place over the last thirty years is a symbiotic relationship that positions politics less as a place to go and make the world better than an environment to prove you’re capable of serving the interests of corporations and then whipsawing back and forth between cashing the big checks and then reentering public service in order to shift the laws in those benefactors’ favor.

An argument I hear all the time in strategy sessions and private conversations is that there is a shallow pool of political talent, and so you have to rely on the same old faces. Your James Carville’s, if you will. They keep losing, they keep peddling the same bullshit, and all they end up offering is more and more conservative and right-leaning policies that lubricate their transition from the party to their corporate employers. And this is so far from the truth. There is an unbelievable amount of un-utilized talent. Creative people. Brilliant people. People with passion. Many of them have been kept on the sidelines, working in nonprofits that get continually vilified by the Democratic apparatchik. Some would have gone into politics if it wasn’t so vile.

A change in the party’s direction would unlock the people necessary to win and to reshape the world. By revitalizing trust you would see a new bloc of voters who have given up on politics. This can happen within the Democratic Party if the monitors of the status quo are unseated, or it can happen outside the party, like we’re seeing in Great Britain, where those tired of the Labour Party are defecting and starting the process of forming a new party dedicated to their interests.

In order to get what we need and what we deserve, we need to be ready to follow that lead and create something else in opposition to this party. Otherwise, we will continue to accept scraps and accept their weaponized delusion. The party could change. It could heal. It could become an active counterbalance to fascism and eventually lead us to a better future, but these demands, as wild as they may seem in this present moment, are only the beginnings of what must occur to make that happen. We have to be willing to ask for more, to expect more, in order to get it.