Dems Don't Have to Agree on Everything...
...Just
these things.
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One of the best qualities of the Democratic Party in
the United States is that not all Democrats are created the same.
Not only do I mean to celebrate the cultural diversity
of the party, but I also mean it to acknowledge and recognize the benefits of
the ideological diversity within the party. Both are attributes that starkly
contrast with the exclusionary, intolerant, white supremacist nature of today’s
GOP and with that party’s current willingness to fall meekly into line with the
extremist views and programs of its leader, President Trump.
Both attributes are also essential to be successful in
this year’s midterm elections. Midterms consist of hundreds of contests in
which local differences require candidates that reflect local sensibilities,
issues and political perspectives. If Democrats seek to achieve the best
possible outcomes in November, they must be able to present candidates who can
win in very different settings.
That stands to reason. It also presents the party with
real challenges. Because with diverse views come differences and among those
with differences, there are often real and sometimes long-standing tensions.
So-called “centrists” or “moderates” often view
themselves as the party’s “realists,” the only ones who can win over
independent voters and heal national divisions. They blame “the left” for past
failures and for promoting issues that they see as too easy for the GOP to use
to demonize Democrats.
Progressives often view “centrists” as too quick to
accept or validate the arguments of the GOP or even as GOP-lite champions of
the views of Wall Street and corporate America. They also see moderates as
having repeatedly abandoned what should be core principles of the party and key
constituencies within the party.
There are also different strategic viewpoints
associated with the two factions.
Moderates suggests the key to winning is to attract
voters who might have gone for the other side in recent years. Progressives
make the case that the majority and growing number of Americans are Democrats,
that younger voters skew heavily Democratic and that the goal therefore should
be to motivate and mobilize Democrats by promoting a platform that is more
ideologically distinct from the Republicans and MAGA and truer to both what
Democrats have historically stood for and to what the country needs.
Regular readers of this Substack know where I come out
on this.
I’m “Dark Woke”
I am a progressive. I am a liberal. I am, as my friend Jen Welch of the
“I’ve Had It” Podcast puts it not just woke but "dark woke."
I started out as a “New Democrat” back in the day (when
I was in the Clinton Administration) and felt that centrism was the “sensible”
way forward. This was because of prevailing frustrations with the missteps and
failings of some liberal candidates the Democrats had put forward during the
prior twenty years (from McGovern to Dukakis). It was also because there was a
sense that if indeed, it was “the economy, stupid” then Democrats needed to be
able to find ways to work with the business and financial community.
As Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International
Trade Policy and later for a while as Acting Under Secretary for International
Trade, I believed that opening up global markets was the rising tide that would
lift all boats and that if technology was driving ever greater globalization
then we had to find a way to “win” in that environment.
And, I’ll admit it, I’m still a believer that
protectionism and isolationism are bad. Once a globalist, always a globalist, I
guess.
But I also have seen in the three decades or so since I
was in the government that neo-liberal policies, what I now see as the
Reagan-lite economic agenda of those years, has led to growing and ultimately
grotesque economic inequality. That has in turn translated into ever more
extreme political inequality, the rise of the oligarchy in the US and what I
now believe (and have often written here) is the death of democracy in this
country. It has also led to job losses and deep human suffering. Catering to
Wall Street and CEOs at the expense of the needs of the many has been a serious
error of many in the Democratic center.
The “Washington consensus” policies of the past forty
years have brought us in many ways to the broken society we are today. So too
have the political and economic theologies that I described in a Substack last
week (“It’s the Billionaires, Stupid.”)
Decades of working around the world have shown me that
many other societies handle core social needs better—from healthcare to
education to retirement to fiscal responsibility to the environment to
balancing social and national security needs. Many correctly give more emphasis
to the needs of the community over those of individuals. Many get the balance
between the roles of government and the private sector better. (We will find
much to learn and to assist us in solving the great problems we face if only we
can be more open to accepting the idea that we are in dire need of such a
re-education.)
I am ashamed, frankly, it took me so long to come to
realize all this as fully as I have in the last decade or fifteen years. There
were plenty of voices that were making points like these that I heard but did
not embrace as fully as I should have…from guys like Joe Stiglitz and Robert
Reich during the Clinton years to the progressive voices of today. As a
supporter of Hillary Clinton, I viewed Bernie Sanders as a threat and was put
off by some of the online abrasiveness of his supporters (many of whom turned
out to be bots). My mistake. Bernie Sanders has been a truth-teller for
decades, a courageous guy whose relegation to the fringes of political debate
does not reflect well on Democrats or, frankly, on all Americans.
But, so be it. My motto is “if you’re not growing,
you’re dying.”
At least I woke up eventually.
I sure hope the country will do the same.
Today, I make no bones about it. I’m an AOC Democrat.
No political leader more regularly expresses views with which I wholeheartedly
agree than AOC. (And there are many others admire. Elizabeth Warren too, to
pick one more example, is in my book a vital voice and truth-teller and
somebody we would all be much better off listening to. I’m really just trying
to illustrate a point here.)
To the people who say AOC is too liberal to be a
national leader for the Democrats, I’d counter that she represents and
communicates the views of the current and emerging majority of
Democrats—coast-to-coast—as well as or better than anyone in the party.
But, that is a different discussion for a different
time. (So, please, spare me your takes on why a woman can’t win. Total BS. HRC
won the popular vote. Kamala Harris lost narrowly. I believe a better case can
be made that we have never been more ready for a woman president. But…)
My objective today is different.
Facing an Existential Threat
It is to say that if we want to defeat the existential
threats facing the United States—manifest by Trump and MAGA—we must, first, win
elections. (And, of course, before that, that will mean throughout the year
ahead fighting like hell for free and fair elections against an authoritarian
administration with no respect whatsoever for the rule of law, the right to
vote or the principle of one person one vote.)
And if we are going to do that, we must put forward the
candidates who can do that best, district by district, state by state, contest
by contest.
We will, therefore by necessity, as I mentioned above,
need to advance and fight for candidates with differing views.
However, there is also a trap in this and we must be
careful of it.
We cannot—must not—confuse being “big tent” Democrats
with being willing to sell out core principles. Nor must we let our desire to
win scare us away from being critical of and challenging publicly and in
primaries those who do not respect or adhere to or understand those principles.
The Non-Negotiables
So, here are the non-negotiables, the points on which
all Democrats must agree:
·
We will fight for what
we believe in.
Honestly, if I only get to pick one, this is it. We
need Dems who will fight. Not Dems who will say they will fight. Not Dems who
will mouth tough language. Dems who will walk the walk. Dems who voters believe
are ready to use every tool at their disposal and every ounce of energy within
them to fight for our rights, to fight for all Americans, to fight to restore
sanity and democracy to this country.
No more strongly worded letters. No more tough talk
followed by weak compromises. No more hand-wringing and if only-s.
Voters can tell who has spine. Voters can tell who is
up to battling an opponent that is ruthless and prefers to go scorched-earth on
everything.
We need more scorched-earth Democrats. But there are
also a lot of ways to be that kind of tough. (Take Bad Bunny’s Superbowl
Halftime Show. He chose warmth and music and exuberance and message of love and
togetherness to make it crystal clear that we are in a good vs. evil moment in
America. Trump howled. Trump bullied. Bad Bunny squashed him and his message
like a bug.)
This is not some crazy fantasy world. When they go low,
given that they are trying to destroy us and all we value, then we do whatever
it takes (within the law and the bounds of human decency) to win.
·
Winning means ending the
threat to our country, our values, our institutions.
It does not just mean winning an election. It means
gaining power and using it to holding criminals accountable. It means gaining
power and using it to right the wrongs that have taken place…not just during
the course of Trump’s terms but for the past forty years. Winning means
ensuring a better future for the country, for our children and grandchildren.
Not talking about it.
·
Structural changes and
big ideas must drive the agenda.
There’s a lot to fix in America right now. We can’t do
it all at once. First, we must undo that which is broken in our system. That
means expanding the Supreme Court. That means adding DC and Puerto Rico as
states. That means ending the filibuster. That means getting rid of the
electoral college. That means major campaign finance reform.
When it comes to big ideas—focus on what matters. Focus
on the biggest problems first. Commit to fighting for the best possible
outcome. Stop negotiating with ourselves. Here, there may be some debate. In my
view, the core issue we need to address, the biggest problem we face as a
country, is that our system is not just rigged politically, it is rigged
economically. Our tax system is grossly unfair—fix it by taxing those who can
afford to pay. Our healthcare system is itself in the ICU. We not only have to fix
the grotesque damage done by RFK, Jr. and his MAHA freakshow, we have to make
healthcare accessible and affordable to all—like every other developed country
in the world. We need to address immigration because of the harm being done
there. This means acknowledging our roots as a nation of immigrants and not
tiptoeing away from the issue. We need new laws. We need reform. Education too,
is key to creating opportunity…if it is available and affordable for all.
·
Going back to the “good
old days” is not the answer.
We need to invest in America’s future. Invest in the
country we want to become. We must not succumb to the temptation to simply undo
everything Trump has done by saying, we’ll go back to doing it the way Biden or
Obama did it. We don’t live in that world anymore. We have to create great,
secure lives for Americans in an age of new technologies (AI, biotech) and
competitors that are often ahead of us in key areas (notably China). Whatever
policy mix a candidate offers—it should be bold, it should be future oriented
and it should be concrete, full of ideas we can implement soon that will
produce visible, tangible results soon.
We need to be the party that focuses and wins by big
margins younger voters. (As I repeat ad nauseum here, 2028 will be the first
election in which the majority of voters will be born after 1990. That is an
immense opportunity for Democrats and the country.)
And finally…
·
Do not apologize for
being Democrats.
Just as Reagan-lite Dems were a victory for the right
in the 1990s, so too would MAGA-lite Dems be a victory for Trumpism in the
years ahead. But the consequences, as we now clearly know, would be much worse.
It is Very Clear What Democrats Stand For
I get infuriated when I hear we don’t know what Dems
are for. We have been for the same things for a hundred years. We are for
lifting up all Americans. We are for equal opportunity. We are for social
progress. We are for tolerance. Democrats are the ones who historically have
balanced the budget, created the most jobs, overseen growth, lifted our
standing in the world and focused on peace and shared prosperity rather than
conflict at home and abroad and for only the rich getting richer.
Do you want to debate the nuances of whether to
prioritize health or education? Fine. You want to debate which big structural
reforms to start with? Ok, as long as you recognize that structural reforms are
essential? You want to be a Democrat? Then you can’t throw any group under the
bus. You think more of an emphasis on immigration enforcement is needed in your
district? Ok. But make it clear that for us that is a far cry from what MAGA is
doing. We work within the law. We respect human rights. We actually celebrate
immigration and recognize it has made America great.
We will have differences. But we must also make sure
the world knows that we share inviolable principles beginning with a commitment
to democracy and the rule of law.
