What Democrats Must Figure Out

For the first week after the 2024 US Presidential election I turned off all news. I ignored the many podcasts I listen to regularly, I stayed away from political headlines and I took a breath. As a registered Democrat, is was hard to see so many obvious missteps made during the recent campaign. As an American, it was hard to understand how so many people could get behind a candidate who is as antithetical to core American values as any candidate could possibly be. But Ok, that happened, and now it’s time to pick up the pieces and prepare to move on.

There are plenty of reasons why Democrats lost, despite the impressive run by Vice President Kamala Harris. They aren’t good at messaging, and whoever was advising Harris either wasn’t paying attention or wasn’t getting through to her. They didn’t understand the media landscape, doing little more than dabbling in non-traditional social media and largely ignoring the fact that the campaign hinged on the culture wars and not substantive issues. Most of all, they were so busy reaching out to Nikki Haley Republicans that they lost much of their own base. That’s all water under the bridge, but a golden opportunity to recover is on the horizon.

Donald Trump is a disrupter, pure and simple. Much of his support came from people who hope that, crazy as he is, he manages to fix some things by accident. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for example, says as the nation’s leading health official he’s going to fix America’s broken food system, which currently exists primarily to feed us to the pharmaceutical industry. Likewise, Linda McMahon has vowed to help Trump dismantle the Department of Education which has seen America fall further and further behind in the global marketplace. Treasury Secretary appointee Scott Bessent says he will overhaul bank lending regulations and tackle inflation head-on.

That all sounds great, but is there any hope that they will actually do what’s in the best interest of the American people? RFK Jr. seems to be about as far away from the politics of his father and uncle as he could possibly be. A believer in conspiracy theories and an opponent of mandatory vaccines, he seems set to cause major problems, and not the good kind. McMahon talks a good game – America certainly does need education reform – but is most likely to funnel as much public school money to private schools and their wealthy donor class as she possibly can. Likewise, expect Bessent to usher in another round of tax cuts for the uber-rich that dig another $3 trillion hole in America’s already staggering national debt.

Bold prediction: In two years, when the mid-terms come around, the fallout from the Republican-owned White House, House of Representatives and Senate will be be a blue wave like we’ve never seen. It would help if Democrats would remember that they are supposed to be the party of the middle class, the party that fights for the environment, and the party that fights back against the corporate fascism that has become out primary system of government.

Bernie Sanders had this figured out in 2016, when he ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. He campaigned everywhere, not just swing states, he focused on the issues that are critical to average Americans and he shunned corporate money in favor of small donations ($18.50 average) to fuel his progressive campaign. His unprecedented success scared the hell out of Democratic Party leadership, and they ultimately sabotaged him to ensure Hillary Clinton’s victory in the primary….and loss in the general election. Now it’s time for Democrats to shut up and listen to what Sanders and his vast number of supporters have been trying to make clear.

First of all, you have to actually tackle and solve the biggest issues facing our country, its citizens and the environment. President Joe Biden did some of this, but not nearly enough, and his communication deficits stood in the way of him communicating the impressive accomplishments of his administration. They seemed to assume that Americans were smart enough to know, and that simply wasn’t the case. We have major issues to solve, they involve going against the will of the multi-national corporations that own most of our media spaces, and they haven’t changed in decades.

How about actually solving America’s ridiculously bad healthcare system? Obamacare (AKA The Affordable Care Act) was a start, but only a start. Without the public option, sometimes referred to as Medicare for all, Obamacare is a band-aid on a broken arm. How about fixing America’s tax system? The Ronald Reagan Administration did much to destroy America’s middle class, but perhaps nothing bigger than enabling millionaires to become billionaires at the expense of everyone else. Income inequality is Sanders’ biggest issue, and getting behind the effort to fight that would help Democrats reconnect with their base. Of course, that is tied directly to the next issue: the corporate takeover of government. Thanks to the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, the richest of the rich can essentially buy politicians and legislation that perpetuates the broken economic system that’s bringing down America.

The simple answer is, Democrats can sweep their way back into power if they actually propose solutions to the real problems the average American voter face on a daily basis. That absolutely must start with getting money out of politics. Until that is accomplished, you can forget solving the biggest of the problems, the ones that have Americans jumping back and forth between parties hoping whichever one is out of power will fix things. Until we have public funding of elections, the major problems will persist.