How The Democrats Can Win Again

Detroit, Michigan is a symbol as much as it’s a city. Motown reminds us how fast things can fall from grace. Fittingly, Kamala Harris was giving a speech in Detroit when she perfectly illustrated everything wrong with modern Democrats. 

It was a packed house at Huntington Place, a convention center in Downtown Detroit where thousands attended to get an in person glimpse at who they believed could be the next President of the United States. 

Kamala’s candidacy was in its infancy. Joe Biden was abruptly pulled out of the race after an abysmal debate performance against Donald Trump. The Democrats were already in hot water as the nation dealt with escalating inflation, growing fears over a potential direct conflict with Russia, and moral outrage over the Biden administration’s unwavering military support of Israel as it faced allegations of genocide. 

As Harris spoke, a pro-Palestinian protester interrupted the VP, chanting “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide!” As security pulled the protester from the crowd, Kamala curtly responded “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking,” to thunderous applause. 

Despite the positive reaction from the crowd, it was at that moment I realized Kamala Harris was not going to be the next President of the United States.

I’ve been a registered Democrat my entire adult life. The Democratic Party of yesteryear was a party that stood against war, corporate greed and the suppression of speech – at least publicly. The Democratic Party of today, the one that would applaud Kamala Harris for ridiculing an anti-war protester, is completely unrecognizable from the party I remember. 

How did we transition from vocal repudiations of the war in Iraq, to vocally supporting an escalating conflict with Russia? How did we go from the pro-union party of workers to the party of identity-based superficialities in lieu of substantive policy positions? How did we lose the plot so fucking badly? 

The Democrats have, in the view of the American public, transitioned from the party of workers to the party of hypocrites. However, this can be changed as long as the Democratic Party is willing to make a needed pivot.

If you talk to people over the age of 30, they likely remember how the American Left viewed the Bush Administration. George W. Bush was a useful idiot and Dick Cheney was a sociopathic businessman who was willing to commit war crimes to help Halliburton rob the Middle East blind. Now George W. Bush is a quirky painter who is a favorite on daytime television, and Dick Cheney isn’t reviled, but a revered ally whose endorsement is coveted as a symbol of bipartisan cooperation. It’s enough to make you want to puke.

It’s not only that the party is suddenly pro-war, but they’ve become anti-worker. Bernie Sanders showed in 2016 and 2020 that there was a nationwide appetite for class consciousness – instead of embracing Sanders’ message of class solidarity, the party establishment actively sabotaged Sanders, not once, but twice. The betrayal of the working class goes deeper than electoral politics, and bleeds into the real world. 

Back in 2022, railroad workers were on the verge of a strike because they didn’t receive a single day of paid sick leave. President Biden, a self-proclaimed “friend of labor,” signed a bill to block the strike without conceding to any of their demands.  Biden later reversed course, and conceded to some worker demands after public scrutiny.

While the Democrats can’t seem to help workers, they certainly are comfortable condescending to them. Freedom of speech has a strong legacy on the left. If you visit City Lights Books in North Beach, you’ll see their walls covered with posters celebrating the history of their small, but mighty bookstore as a bastion of free speech and workers standing up against right wing repression. 

Blue collar work sucks, and as a coping mechanism, workers talk shit.  Some of the jokes are fucked up, but they are rarely rooted in genuine hatred. It’s fun to sometimes say something shitty to relieve the burden of existing in a dead end job. It’s not meant to be taken seriously. There’s genuine nuance here that the mainstream Democratic Party fails to recognize. So instead of seeing something as clearly intended to be humorous, they paint it as an indication that the people who say these things are at the root of a problem that desperately needs to be corrected. The proponents of politically correct speech say that it’s a form of harm reduction meant to protect the marginalized among us. The mainstream Democratic Party has embraced this movement and coupled it with identity politics. This strategy could have some semblance of legitimacy if the Democratic Party didn’t abandon marginalized communities the moment supporting them became politically inconvenient.

Progressive politics are based on a coalition of people from all walks of life advocating for the mutual right to the necessities of life regardless of race, sexuality, national origin, gender or religion. And that’s fucking awesome when it’s real, it’s fucking infuriating when it’s fake. The situation in Gaza, and the Democratic Party’s hesitancy to fully and completely denounce it has essentially robbed the party of any and all credibility. 

In the modern Democratic Party cultural zeitgeist, making a joke about Muslims or Arabs or any other group would be unacceptable, but bombing unarmed Muslims and Arabs locked in an open air prison is not only acceptable, but actively funded to the tune of billions of dollars, despite objections from constituents. 

In order for the Democratic Party to win, it needs to ditch condescension and hypocrisy in favor of becoming a party of the people. 

Donald Trump shouldn’t be benefitting in the polls as a free speech, antiwar candidate on the Republican ticket when it was the Republican Party that got us into many of America’s quagmires in the Middle East and tried to limit criticism of bad policy in the first place.

If Democrats want to win, they have to renounce war. The Democrats need to be a party that campaigns on a willingness to negotiate with China, Russia, and Iran. We need to let the culture war die, and pass legislation to ensure everyone is protected equally under the law. Comedians are allowed to be edgy as long as the rights of women, people of color, and the LGBGQIA community are ensured. Symbolism needs to be replaced with substance. Biden’s brain fog and Kamala word salad weren’t exactly inspiring. 

And that takes us back to Kamala’s zinger in Michigan. The Democrats have been under the assumption that their job is to speak. But it’s not. It’s their job to listen.

At least if they want to win.

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