What Have Democrats Done Wrong? Anything at All?

One thing I am curious about as we deal with what Democrats should next is that as far as I can tell, liberals think they’ve done nothing wrong at all in their politics. I see that at Bluesky all the time, where from what I can tell, people think the Democratic coalition is too big and we should be more exclusive in who we consider a good Democrat. And I see it here too. You can most certainly think that the story I linked to earlier was stupid–I mean, I said as much myself. But I am struck at the lack of self-reflection in the online liberal world. It feels like there’s a lot of whining out there and not a lot of thinking through issues.

One other point here. Inevitably, someone will say, and there’s a good point here, that Harris barely lost and she lost by less than other leaders governing in the post-pandemic moment. That’s true, yes. But two caveats. First, it’s significant that she lost to Donald Fucking Trump from Americans who had already experienced what a Trump presidency looked like and made that choice over her. Second, it’s not just that Harris lost but that the Democratic Party brand has the lowest approval ratings of any political party in American polling history. Friends, that’s really horrible and that is what we should be concerned about here. People do see Democrats as not caring about them, as forcing cultural change upon them from above (let’s definitely tell Spanish speakers how they should address gender in their own language, that’s total electoral gold!), and as the party of the elites. You simply can’t win that way. And no, it’s not the goddamn mainstream media. This is just endless whining that is not actually that important here. No one watches the mainstream media or reads the New York Times. What they say on ABC is just not that important. The media might indeed suck, but to blame it just shows the myopia of those saying it. The right-wing propaganda networks are important, yes.

Whatever changes, it has to be something. And I’d like LGM readers and commenters to be honest about this and figure out what those changes have to look like. Because when everyone hates you–and basically everyone hates Democrats right now–you don’t win, not at the levels we need to in order to defeat fascism. I mean, all that depends on this is the future of democracy.