Democrats are trying to figure out how to connect with voters after their hard-left disposition cost them the 2024 elections. The problem is that the Democratic Party, as it is currently ideologically constructed, does not have a message focused on working and middle-class voters. Democrats are now instead using inauthentic stunts to endear themselves to voters.
The centrist Democratic think tank Third Way organized a summit of “moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders,” according to Politico, to figure out how to reach the voters with whom the party has fallen out of touch. The resulting “solutions” from this meeting include that Democrats should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery,” “ban far-left candidate questionnaires,” “own the failures of Democratic governance in large cities,” and “get out of elite circles and into real communities (e.g., tailgates, gun shows, local restaurants, churches).”
All of that sounds nice. But ultimately, it’s a collection of hollow, symbolic displays focused on changing how Democrats are perceived. Take, for example, the first solution: “Embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery.” The fact that this even needs to be said to Democrats is indicative of their problem. The Democratic Party currently rejects patriotism and traditional American imagery because it does not think America is anything special.
This has been on display since the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. Just last year, former President Joe Biden, when he was still the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, told black college students that they have to be “10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot” and that America doesn’t love black people. Democrats celebrated athletes protesting the national anthem and even recreated that protest at the U.S. Capitol.
This is the mindset that Democrats have cultivated. Democrats now tell pollsters they are far less proud to be an American when a Republican is president than Republicans do when Democrats have power. Even when Democrats come out and say that they do not believe the United States is a racist country, they turn around and undermine their insincere claim by talking about “systemic” racism when it comes to policing, the economy, or any other facet of life.
Democrats cannot truly embrace patriotism because they can’t run away from the race-obsessed worldview on which they have centered their ideology. And when they lose, prominent Democratic strategists such as David Axelrod say the country is too racist and sexist to elect a black woman. They aren’t serious about changing to appeal to voters, only in changing how those voters perceive them.
This is apparent in two ways. The first is the “ban far-left candidate questionnaires,” which is only included because former Vice President Kamala Harris embarrassed herself by telling the American Civil Liberties Union that she supported taxpayer-funded sex changes for transgender prisoners. That remark from 2019 was turned into an effective ad for the Trump campaign. Note that the solution is to ban those kinds of questionnaires so candidates like Harris can better hide from voters what far-left positions they support.
A similar perception-focused reform urges Democrats to “get out of elite circles and into real communities.” This is, in essence, the strategy used by the Harris campaign to promote her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN). Democrats tried to portray Walz as a man’s man who loved guns and football and camouflage clothes. The result was embarrassing stunts such as his hunting expedition, which made it look like Walz had never held a gun, or his Madden football video game match against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), which made it seem like he never watched football.
Now, try to picture prominent Democrats hitting some of the sites recommended. Can you imagine Harris or Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) ever going to a gun show or a tailgate and the result not being a cringeworthy display like Walz’s? Even the recommendation that Democrats should go to “local restaurants” is an admission that Democrats feel more comfortable on an Ivy League campus or at a celebrity fundraiser.
Then there is the problem of accountability, or owning “the failures of Democratic governance in large cities.” To do so would be to indict Democratic governance as a whole, as the mayors these cities cycle through are backed by the party establishment every go-around. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, fresh off of abandoning her city during destructive wildfires, was endorsed by a who’s who of Democratic Party Leaders: Biden, Harris, former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson was endorsed by multiple Democratic members of Congress who have no affiliations with Chicago, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). New York City Mayor Eric Adams was endorsed by several New York Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Jerry Nadler, and Gov. Kathy Hochul. Soft-on-crime Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón was endorsed by Harris in 2020.
For Democrats to “own” the failures of those failed governors and local leaders, they would have to admit that they have been foisting terrible candidates on voters for decades. This is before you even reach the terribly governed states, such as California. Does something such as “yeah, we have run this state or city terribly for 20-50 years, but we promise that we will get it right next time” seem like an authentic message that voters will accept?
All of this stems from the notion among Democrats that any electoral failure is a communication failure. Voters simply didn’t know what Democrats stood for, according to Democrats, because how could they ever lose if voters understood? The proposed fixes here are not policy fixes rolling back the party’s radical stances on sex changes for children and inmates or unfettered illegal immigration. They are messaging reforms, urging Democrats to paint themselves as people they are not to make them seem more relatable to voters.
DEMOCRATS ARE LOST IN A POLITICAL ABYSS
The Democratic Party is staffed by and nominates coastal elites and overeducated liberals who are out of step with the country. Those staffers and politicians support policies that favor their elitist, overeducated friends while lecturing the rest of the country about accepting massive numbers of unvetted illegal immigrants, not driving cars or eating meat, and letting men in women’s sports.
Until Democrats change the makeup of their party and the policies that flow from their out-of-touch leaders, the proposed authenticity reforms are like putting lipstick on a very unpopular, elitist pig.