After this past election, Democrats are struggling to understand what hit them. Imagine the crew of an overloaded truck bottomed out at a railroad crossing, standing by with hands on hips thinking about how to get unstuck when the freight train slams into them. Frankly, they didn’t even see it approaching with Donald Trump at the throttle. Now they are trying to understand what happened.
Interestingly, some Democrats are saying the quiet stuff out loud. Most recently, The New York Times conducted an online conversation hosted by editorialist Frank Bruni. Progressive campaign consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio, Democratic communications strategist Lis Smith, and former Ohio representative Tim Ryan were participating. Together they discussed the party’s total failure this past November.
Smith was candid, exclaiming “The Democratic brand is in the toilet.” She highlighted that where Democrats did best was where they ran against their own party’s brand. She then acknowledged what was clear to most voters when blue collar workers flocked to Trump on the campaign trail. “Trump tore down the blue wall in the industrial Midwest, but he also expanded his vote the most in our bluest and most urban areas,” she said. Yep. And if you are just now recognizing that, your recognition hardware needs to be replaced.
Tim Ryan’s recognition machinery is not broken. He lost his 2021 Senate race to the now Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. He believes that the Democrat affinity for elitism made clear to blue collar workers, Blacks, Hispanics, and young people that that the party hierarchy looked down on them.
The truth is that common people could see with their own eyes that inflation was a continuing problem, recent improvements notwithstanding. They could see that US foreign policy was out of whack. It was clear that the border was unsecure and woke nonsense had gone haywire. And that allowing men to compete in women’s sports all but destroyed the opportunity for females to enter the winners circle. The average person got it. Democrat party minders didn’t. Ryan noted that the sign hanging in front of the Democratic National Committee in Washington DC should read, “Beware: Entering an Echo Chamber.”
Indeed, if Ryan had his way, he would move their headquarters to Youngstown, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Milwaukee.
“I am dead serious that it should not be in Washington or anywhere on the coasts. We need to send a bold signal that we are committed to reconnecting to people out in the real world.”
When moderator Bruni asked if Democrats needed to stop “mooning over Hollywood celebrities and tugging them en masse onto the stage.” Ryan agreed. But Smith got to the meat of the problem.
“We need to look to who succeeded and overperformed this cycle and why…Some of the top overperformers in House races couldn’t have had more disparate profiles…What they had in common was that they were willing to run against the party brand, they met voters where they are on their frustrations with the border and public safety issues, and they talked more about their vision for the future than how bad Donald Trump is.”
And that’s the point.
People want to know what you will do and could—in some cases—not care less about what you say. They want change. Change in inflation. Change on the border. Change in entangling wars. And change away from the noxious, anti-science, race-inciting rhetoric, as well as woke policies like the divisive DEI orthodoxy progressives would inject into our lives.
Given the realities in an America seeking a normal existence as opposed to a highly politicized one, Democrats would be wise to stop campaigning against Trump. For the majority of people in America, Trump represents the change they voted for. Yet not all Democrats appreciate this.
Take for example the recent comments of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state, a so-called independent-minded member of Congress. She boldly asserts of Republicans, “We’re going to hold them accountable for their votes and their actions.” In reality, that’s Democrat-code for their intent to oppose the Trump agenda. And that will do more to cement their losing fate in elections to come than anything else.
But there’s a lesson for Republicans here also. It’s time they cease their intramural squabbles—particularly in the Republican Conference in the House of Representative—and rally around Speaker Mike Johnson to begin the work of quickly, properly, and efficiently implementing the Trump agenda. They won’t do that by having lone wolf members obstructing efforts to form an effective majority to help President Trump. Doing otherwise would be exactly what Democrats want to run on in 2026, as they attempt to take back the House.
The Democrat lesson this cycle was listen to the people. The Republican lesson should be the same. Get busy to affect change, not pandemonium.
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