Is the Democratic party in trouble?
I’m seeing a lot of doom and gloom navel-gazing about the Democratic Party these days. I’m not a political pundit, but Josh Marshall is, and this ain’t his first rodeo. The weakness, in his eyes, lies with the party leadership and not with the party or its voters.
“A lot of the weirdness of press coverage of the current Democratic Party, its goals, its abilities and its future get resolved if you have a clear set of definitions about who and what the Democratic Party actually is. The more primaries, the better. Basically every poll you see with the public standing of the Democratic Party at an historic low is based on Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who are fed up with the party because they see it as ineffective and weak. That is about the elected leadership. And that anger and realization is a good thing, not a bad thing, because it shows that voters aren’t satisfied with the current party, the current elected leadership. They are, as they say, looking to go in another direction. And that’s great.”
Part of this, I believe, stems from a false equivalency between the two major parties. The GOP these days is fundamentally a Trump cult. Whatever Trump does at the moment is ipso facto GOP policy, and the tribal party marches in lockstep. That’s not how the Democratic Party works. The Democrats are willing to throw off the Procrustian image the media and would-be pundits would like to fit them for. See, e.g., Zohran Mamdani’s defeat of former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Voters in New Jersey and Virginia just chose two strong and electable candidates for governor.
Yes, the Democrats would benefit from better, younger, more intellectually versatile leadership. But meanwhile, Democratic voters aren’t slavishly following a cult leader and his priesthood, like the Republicans. If we can hold on to our Republic through the midterms, there’s reason for optimism.
Democratic voters are standing up
“A lot of the weirdness of press coverage of the current Democratic Party, its goals, its abilities and its future get resolved if you have a clear set of definitions about who and what the Democratic Party actually is. The more primaries, the better. Basically every poll you see with the public standing of the Democratic Party at an historic low is based on Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who are fed up with the party because they see it as ineffective and weak. That is about the elected leadership. And that anger and realization is a good thing, not a bad thing, because it shows that voters aren’t satisfied with the current party, the current elected leadership. They are, as they say, looking to go in another direction. And that’s great.”
Part of this, I believe, stems from a false equivalency between the two major parties. The GOP these days is fundamentally a Trump cult. Whatever Trump does at the moment is ipso facto GOP policy, and the tribal party marches in lockstep. That’s not how the Democratic Party works. The Democrats are willing to throw off the Procrustian image the media and would-be pundits would like to fit them for. See, e.g., Zohran Mamdani’s defeat of former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Voters in New Jersey and Virginia just chose two strong and electable candidates for governor.
Yes, the Democrats would benefit from better, younger, more intellectually versatile leadership. But meanwhile, Democratic voters aren’t slavishly following a cult leader and his priesthood, like the Republicans. If we can hold on to our Republic through the midterms, there’s reason for optimism.
Democratic voters are standing up
“Yes, the Democrats would benefit from better, younger, more intellectually versatile leadership.”
They have that, just not at the DNC. The crusty DNC leadership clings to the old order. Democrats should have cleaned house after the Biden disaster. They seem to be happy to just roll into a ball and hope MAGA is just a bad dream. The midterms will suffer from that lack of dynamic leadership.
Democrats need to deliver on their promises. They keep saying the wealthy need to pay their fair share. But when they controlled both houses and the presidency during Biden’s first 2 years they did nothing to make good on it. I don’t buy the fact that the Trump tax cuts were set to expire after the 2024 elections. The Democrats put in place green energy tax cuts (credits) that expire in 2032. But the Republicans are canceling them with the big beautiful bill. If the Republicans can cancel Democrat’s tax laws before they expire why couldn’t the Democrats cancel Republican’s tax laws before they expire?
@Mark,
“If the Republicans can cancel Democrat’s tax laws before they expire why couldn’t the Democrats cancel Republican’s tax laws before they expire?”
If the Republicans are successful, it will be because they got around the filibuster by cramming stuff into reconciliation, which only requires a majority vote. Hindsight is 20-20, as you so well demonstrate in your comments. So I’ll join you: the Democrat’s big mistake was not to have abolished the filibuster when they had the chance. That’s what they should do if and when they get a Senate majority. Not nibbling at the edges.
It’s going to take a lot more than a change of leadership to cure what ails the Democratic Party. The problem is systemic and cultural. Being largely a hierarchical organization, the leadership hand picks most non-incumbent candidates via the DCCC and the DSCC, after having been recruited, vetted and approved by big donors and major interest groups, such as AIPAC. Non-conforming voices are quickly weeded out. Loyalist incumbents get to stay as long as they like and rise in power in Congress. When DSCC/DCCC candidates do face primary challengers, such as popular grass roots insurgents, the money flows to loyalist incumbents and DSCC/DCCC chosen candidates. Incumbent congressmen who turn out to be non-conforming are quickly primaried by DCCC loyalists.
Zohan Mamdani’s case is atypical and illustrates what it takes to wrest power from entrenched, corrupt party leaders. His party, the Democratic Socialists, is a grass roots organization that has built strength over time in New York City. Besides walking the streets to meet voters, Mamdani recruited a volunteer organization to magnify his efforts. He received contributions from more than 18,000 individuals. He received significant amounts of public funding, something not common in the United States. And he faced a tainted candidate, Andrew Cuomo, who got rejected despite endorsement by major Democratic figures and funding by dark money organizations. He still faces villanization by Republicans and major Democratic donors, and marginalization by the Democratic establishment.
It’s not easy bringing change to the swamp…
Setting aside the obviously broad-brushed assessment of the GOP as a cult, the biggest problem for our party right now is money. There isn’t any. A few big donors bailed after the election, the loss of the union support did not help, and yes, poor leadership IS a problem, but without money all of the marketing efforts are screeching to a halt. The message is no longer being sent out. It is a vicious circle, because now support is dropping even further. The latest poll puts Democrat voter support of our party at just 19%! That in turn is causing even more big donors to pull out. And so on, and so on…
The question then is NOT one of FUTURE leadership, but one of CURRENT leadership. Can CURRENT party leadership manage something as basic as “rallying the troops” and establishing at least a semblance of party unity BEFORE midterms? If not, I do not see that they will have the opportunity to do so afterwards. Honestly, if they can not break the cycle we are on, the party will likely not even make it until midterms! It simply won’t have the financial resources necessary to operate. Already we are seeing voters fleeing to independent status, media networks pulling back on support, corporations rewriting policies to distance themselves, etc. and midterms are still over a year away! Faith in the party is vanishing even if we still cling to our ideologies, and without action on the part of the CURRENT leadership, and action soon, there will be no saving it. This is an historical moment of truth for our party. And it does not look at all promising!
Have to think about this before I answer you Tom.