The last two weeks have seen significant events occurring within the Democratic Party. Chuck Schumer has caught consistent flack for chickening out in the continuing resolution vote, Bernie Sanders and AOC have been lighting a fire advocating the working class, Democrats have both been holding their own town halls and guest hosting them in Republican districts since Republicans are scared to face their constituents and of course the ever present “the sky is falling” rhetoric and incessant soliciting of funds. I read a very interesting article by Jason Crow (representative of Colorado and former paratrooper) in the New York Times Sunday that I think all Democrats and yes all Americans should read. It’s about rebuilding trust with the voters, starting with being authentic, honest and getting personal. Too often the Democratic Party jumps immediately to policy wonk mode, which causes the majority of people to tune out before they even hear what you have to say. Additionally, many Americans see Democrats as the party of the coastal elites, because the power base of the party has so long been centered in California and New York. Hate to break it to the party, but most Americans don’t relate to either state.
This is where town halls, grassroots campaigns and re-introducing Americans to what the party stands for are important. I am not a Democrat- I am actually a lifelong registered Republican who hasn’t voted for them anytime in the last 10-15 years, but today I consider myself an Independent, meaning I vote for who I think the best candidates are. The complete transformation of the Republican Party from Conservative to Trump Syncophants means none of the best candidates are there. Unfortunately with only two real parties in this country (will the Libertarian and Green parties please stop wasting our time) this pushes me toward Democratic candidates but I struggle with them. They are too busy worrying about identity politics and trying to die on every ideological hill there is. Right now they have the perfect opportunity to rebrand themselves as the Republican Party has clearly become the party of cruelty that cares only about billionaires. But in order to rebrand you have to be able to connect with the 99+% of the country that aren’t billionaires. That means you have to listen to their concerns, explain the realities the party faces (Republicans control all the levels of power) and offer real solutions to problems, not just continue saying- give us money, we’re not Republicans! Most importantly, you need to understand there are no quick answers. Maybe the courts will help constrain the mad bronze man in the short term, but the only way to repair the damage is to gain control of Congress, in particular the House, since the Senate map is stacked against you.
You need fresh blood. Everyone in the Democratic Party over the age of 80 needs to retire. I have the utmost respect for Nancy Pelosi, she showed more leadership as Speaker than any of the last 4 Republicans in that role, but it is time for her generation to step aside. You need to be the party of energy, that is what killed you in the last election, Joe Biden is an honorable man, but looked ready to keel over half the time compared to Trump. Given the insane idiocy of the DEI purge being driven by Republicans, be the party that looks like America, not just by sex or race but most of America isn’t over 80 years old either. Millenials and Gen Z voters are rapidly becoming the biggest voting blocks but are you really relating to them? Learn how to use social media effectively, build a media system that advocates for the truth instead of conceding in frivolous lawsuits by Donald Trump. Be the party of the people, that is who is getting hurt by the all out assault on government. But you need to be the party of change. Historically the Democratic Party believes the government is the answer to everything. Just spend more money. Well we don’t have more money. We are running a ridiculous deficit, and Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid are headed over the edge of a fiscal cliff. We are being challenged by Russia and China on opposite sides of the world with different tactics and have to be getting the best bang for the buck on defense. Concentrate on what government NEEDS to do, not what it COULD do in a world of unlimited funds.
DOGE wants to look for waste and fraud (snicker – it’s really a ideological/culture war dressed up as efficiency) but the concept is valid. Want to know where to start? The Pentagon. Not only are they one of the largest expenses in the budget, but name another Department or for that matter private enterprise that has a procurement function based on cost plus. Stop being swayed by big ticket weapons systems and the district by district job count. Get the members of Congress that have been in the front lines like Jason Crow to help you design the Defense Department of the future. Make contractors honor contracts and while DOGE wants to “claw back” Social Security overpayments, why don’t we do that on weapons overruns?
Stop saying you’re “not going to touch Social Security and Medicare”. Sure you are. Either you touch it and fix it, or else it will “fix” itself, meaning benefits WILL be cut across the board. Take the lead on showing how to fix it, and that doesn’t include increasing benefits. That’s stupid when you can’t sustain the benefits that exist now. Some benefits will have to be cut. I will have a white paper posted shortly on here regarding my suggestions to fix it but for god’s sake, you’re Congress. Isn’t this what we’re paying you to do? Don’t write a 4000 page law to do so. That’s part of the problem, the laws are too complex, not understood by anyone and still don’t handle the details.
Health Care has been and will continue to be where you can run rings around the Republicans as they have no plan. Not even a concept of a plan. The reality- every country that has a health care system better than ours is based on a government run system. That doesn’t mean that’s the only answer, but it does indicate this is an area where government has a clear role, especially because the government doesn’t have to make a profit on it, unlike private health care. Government should always have the most leverage on health care costs because they should have the biggest member base.
Climate change is another obvious winner. Republicans are going to regress on this issue with their undying allegiance to the Oil and Gas industry and the people most impacted by this are the millennials and Gen Z’ers. They will inherit a vastly more plotted country once we decimate the EPA. Even among young Republicans, they hate where their party is headed. A place for common ground. It’s the scale of problem that only government can lead on, like the Atomic bomb or the Space program. The great irony here is the solutions are wildly favorable to red states even more than blue states, and especially to key constituencies like farmers and blue collar craftsmen. Check out my white paper coming shortly on a real way of reaching American Energy Independence.
Immigration has been your biggest weakness. My guess is more than 90% of the country agrees that we shouldn’t let people into the country illegally. America was built on the backs of immigrants, all of are immigrants after all, but almost all of those builders came in legally. Ironically, the other thing is I believe the majority of people believe we need immigrants, we just need to have a real system for maintaining security, processing asylum cases and meeting specific needs for skilled labor. They also believe that certain groups already here deserve some path to citizenship like dreamers. Meanwhile the whole Fentanyl thing is a ruse. Yes it is a critical problem that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in this country. Yes, China and Mexico are the primary sources of the drug. But pretending like we have no responsibility for it (after all we are the demand piece of the equation) and worse yet can’t solve it with or without their help is idiotic. Want to stop the flow? Data clearly shows the vast majority is smuggled in through legal checkpoints by American citizens entranced by the opportunity to make vast sums of hard cash. Equip every checkpoint with the right mix of chemical sensor machines and drug sniffing dogs and inspect every single vehicle that crosses into the U.S. Will that grind cross border trade to a crawl? Yes it will unless you staff it properly, and even if it does, so what? Do we want to solve this problem or talk about it? Is it more important to protect profits or lives?
Your real issue is messaging. While democracy is clearly under attack, that will not win elections for you. The last election was won by a convicted felon who was clearly threatening democracy, but people voted for him because they thought he was better on the economy, immigration and foreign policy/national security. He has already torched his standing on two out of three of those issues, you should be beating that to death every day. But at the end of the day it its really about government. What can government do for the people that makes their life better? Not run their lives with a thousand and one rules or regulations but truly improve their quality of life while staying out of their way. Government can’t and shouldn’t do everything and you have to jettison that mentality. However, it is the only organization that can do some things, mostly by leading or setting direction as opposed to actual execution, and you need to explain in very simple terms what those are, then design it to excel at those (and only those). Don’t try to be pseudo Republicans, like Jared Golden’s stupid tariff play or the Laken Riley act, lean into why you are different. Americans don’t trust the government, even more so after Trump gets done with it, you have to show them why they should.