It’s Past Time for Democratic Leaders to Step Up
It’s great that Democrats are finding their voice after the blitzkrieg of Trump’s first weeks in office. That’s the semi-good news. The bad news is, what took them so long? They were like a football team getting together on Saturday morning and realizing they had a game the next day and figured they should maybe make a plan. After all, the Dems have had since November to get prepared, time they wasted and are still largely wasting.
Why did it take until January 10 for the House to set up a task force to reply to Trump?
Congressional Democrats in particular need to sharpen up. Sharpen your organization, sharpen your messaging, sharpen your attitude. You are no longer an august legislative debate society. You are guerilla warriors fighting for freedom. Act like it.
Building Blocks
Let’s start with attitude, much of which is conveyed by leadership. It is particularly discouraging to see former Obama staffers, among others, advising Democrats to take a laid-back approach. Wait for Trump to screw up, some say. You can’t swing at every pitch, others say. Some of this from people who helped to elect the first Black president. It’s disheartening and I’m not having any part of it.
Start with the baseball analogy. Yes, you can and should swing at every pitch. Because different pitches (harmful acts by Trump/Musk) piss off different people, letting something go is wasting an opportunity.
Congressional Democrats are perfectly positioned to act. They already have a committee system in which Senators and Representatives have developed expertise and credibility. So when the Treasury Department is attacked, mobilize members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee. Members of the Senate and House Commerce committees could respond when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decides to “investigate” CBS for routine editing but leave Fox alone.
The response would be across all platforms — news conference in the Capitol, every social media outlet you can think of, podcasts and broadcast TV and radio. It might take some negotiation to decides who does what, but this is one of those “check your egos at the door” moments.
By all means, project strength, conviction and commitment. The corollary: do not appear lame. Senate Democrats setting up an online “tipline” is by definition lame, and subject to MAGA abuse.
Unfortunately, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) does not project the vitality needed for a “wartime consigliere” (a Godfather reference). Reading remarks in a monotone over half glasses is not what people look for. It’s not his fault. Public speaking is not one of his strengths. Schumer may be a great legislative strategist and inside player, but this is primarily an outside game. Among those who should take his place are Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) or Brian Schatz (HI), who have shown great zeal in mixing it up.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) started off shell-shocked. There should be no more of his pablum about “finding common ground” with Republicans, who never appear interested in finding common ground with Democrats, except when they need help to neutralize their crazies. He introduced a 10-point plan to fight Republicans, based largely on legislative strategy, which is fine as far as it goes, which isn’t very far.
I am not sorry that Congressional Democrats are getting angry at people (i.e. constituents) calling their offices and telling them to get with the program. Maybe the message will get through.
Fear Factor
Let us posit that politics is a game of emotion, not of intellect. Republicans have known that for decades and pressed the advantage well, while Democrats never seem to have caught on. I cringed when Hillary Clinton talked about her multi-point plans. I was distraught when Kamala Harris referred people to her Web page and her Opportunity Economy.
Plans are some ephemeral vision of the future. They are something that may, or may not, exist at some point and may, or may not, affect anyone’s life.
No one cares about plans except journalists, and their attention is limited to a) why don’t you have them yet (as in a couple of days after Kamala began her campaign) and b) asking “how are you going to pay for them?” Those tasks checked off, they disappear from coverage to be replaced by the latest frivolity. No one has won a campaign based on a plan. They are a waste of resources and time. They are not real.
Fear is the most powerful emotion for a campaign. Fear beats hope every time. Yes, Barack Obama won on “hope” but he wasn’t campaigning against candidates who preyed on the fears of the voters like Richard Nixon, the George Bushes, and now Donald Trump.
Fear is real, even if the reasons for it are not. The way to beat it is to fight back. An example: in the Sept. 11 presidential debate, Trump made his claim that immigrants were “eating the pets” in Springfield, Ohio. Look at Harris’ reaction. She is smiling, almost laughing at Trump. Even though moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump, Harris should have been more forceful. She should have looked into the camera and should have sternly said: “Look what just happened here. On national television, Donald Trump told an outright lie. This is why he can’t be trusted with the presidency.” She should have brought the hammer down showing force and determination, giving Democrats something to cheer for and showing why it would be right to fear Trump back in office.
During the campaign, I saw lots of talking heads warning of the dangers of Trump. Talking heads, regardless of who’s doing the talking, are too abstract and easily ignored. What I didn’t see, but wanted to, were images of field hospitals in Central Park, refrigerator trucks loaded with coffins and clips of news reports with the ever-increasing Covid death toll interspersed with Trump clips of “It will just disappear or ,” or saying the pandemic will “be gone by April” and suggesting all sorts of quack medicines to combat the pandemic.
The professionals said these types of ads weren’t necessary because voters already knew Trump and had to be introduced to Kamala. With $1 billion in the bank, the campaign and PACs could have done both. But that would be ignoring the social media meme that kept popping up — the low prices of gas, food, etc. while Trump was president. Of course the prices were low — there was a pandemic going on. But the hazy memory of supposed good times was powerful for voters and yet nothing was done to knock it down. All those “positive” Democratic ads were wasted as Trump and Republicans continually attacked and ridiculed Kamala.
From Now On…
The Democratic strategy and mindset has to change, and make it clear that Republicans are wrecking the country, if not the world. Some ideas:
Tie every crappy Trump appointee to Republicans who supported them and don’t let go. The battle isn’t over when RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard get confirmed. It’s only starting.
Make messaging concrete, personal and meaningful. No one cares about “protecting Democracy.” They will care about how Trump is screwing them, particularly those who voted for him.
Confused about what Elon Musk and his goons are doing? Musk is stealing your social security number. Trump lets Musk gets richer on your money.
All those red state farmers are seeing their markets dry up. It’s not a question of “foreign policy” or “tariffs.” No, Trump is killing your business and he doesn’t care and never cared.
One piece of advice I’ve seen is never to discuss “foreign aid” as in the billions Trump has cut off from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Fair enough. Don’t attack him for abolishing the agency. More direct: Trump wants kids to starve. Trump doesn’t care if mothers get sick. Trump is giving the Chinese (or Russians) free rein around the world.
But Democrats don’t do that, you say. Agreed, but they should, starting yesterday. Forget about the whining of “you oppose Trump, but what are Democrats for?” No one cares. Concentrate on giving Democrats something to get behind, to cheer for, to be enthusiastic about.
They should constantly be reminding voters that Trump is spending all of his time seeking his revenge on those who investigated him and opposed him. How much time is he devoting to the higher prices that everyone was complaining about? None. All this while egg prices are at all time highs and are threatened by an avian flu epidemic in which the government seems to have little interest. I am sure by this time a Biden or Harris Administration would have organized an effort to get it under control. People need to be reminded that Trump and Musk don’t care about them — never have and never will.
Let’s say you are a Democratic officeholder or Democratic candidate, particularly in a purple or red area. Here are a couple of ways to drive home the message:
1. Ask who owns a small business or works for one. Someone replies they have a 25-year-old plumbing business that employs a dozen people and has four trucks. Great, you say. How about one day some 20-year-old comes in, fires all but five people and sells three of the trucks. The kid doesn’t know a compression fitting from a J-bend, but that doesn’t matter. That’s what’s happening right now with the unaccountable Musk Marauders, who do what they like while Trump is otherwise occupied taking over the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
2. Set up this scenario: The town is about to hire a police chief and there are two candidates. One has been in law enforcement for 15 years and been a deputy chief. The other played a cop in a high school play 30 years ago. Which would you choose? The town council went for the actor because that’s what the mayor wanted. Is that how things should be run? Who should be responsible for the screw ups that will follow? Discuss in terms of what will happen, why and that it’s happening for real right now.
Make sure people know what Democrats stand for. Remember all the times that Republicans tagged Dems with wanting to “defund the police”? It was never a Democratic position, only a slogan on a sign at a rally. No matter. It stuck.
Now who is defunding the police for real? Republicans, that’s who. Who is hollowing out the Federal Bureau of Investigation? Come to think of it, who pardoned those people who attacked the cops on January 6? And who didn’t object? Republicans. Who really backs the blue? Democrats, regardless of what the police unions claim.
The next few years aren’t going to be easy for Democrats. However, they will be immeasurably more miserable by adopting a passive approach of “let the Republicans screw up,” which Congressional Dems have been doing so far.
They need a concerted, focused, aggressive effort to create a Democratic identity, isolate Republicans and show who is for the American people and who isn’t. And if it takes putting some fear of Republicans into voters’ minds, so much the better.
