I think the key is that all of this is true for elections and election season. However, we have a problem. We used to be able to take for granted a background belief in liberalism. We had two liberal parties. We didn't need to talk about liberalism, and could appeal to it, because everyone believed in it, and those who didn't (the Dukes, Buchananites, Perotistas) either shut up or were isolated.
Now, we have an illiberal party, and it has a lot of support. People have lost their instinctive belief in liberalism. You tell them, that party launched a coup and wants a dictator. They say "eggs are $4." It doesn't move them.
So we need to campaign successfully, but we (liberals writ large, not the party) also need to once again make liberalism matter, and make people care about it. No, that's not the silly "educational campaign" Libertarians waste their money on. It's not about education, it's about a less intellectual appeal, but we still need to appeal to them in a different, less transactional way than we did before. Because before, we could be content in knowing that, when we lose, we get to try again. That's not a given anymore. We now need a permanent Democratic majority, not one that, at best, turns on turnout on a given day.
Democrats cannot just be LBJ anymore. We now need to be MLK, too. But that doesn't mean the party mechanism should.
Your writing is so spot on. The number of Democratic meetings, hundreds, that I have listened to self-righteous opinionated fucktards who desire attention and affirmation but have no concept of how to win an election is oh so many. Most in the rooms have never written a check or made a phone call for a candidate. They leave the meeting satisfied they have contributed because they attended. Trump is a master of marketing. Those of us who disagree with him can learn much from him. The worst thing a Democrat can do is try to educate the voter during an election season, the best that the can be done is WIN.
I have gotten yelled at so much about this on Twitter, but somehow the left got it through its head that politics is when activists make demands on elected and electeds convince the people, which is so ass backwards!
Activists convince people and then electeds chase votes. It's not pretty or fun, but it's what we have to do.
It seems worth learning the lessons of the gay rights movement here. Over roughly the period 1995-2015, gay rights activists were enormously successful in moving public opinion. Democratic leadership deliberately lagged that opinion shift, with a few exceptions in outlier locales like SF. This lagging strategy was very successful in making lasting policy changes; it would have been much worse in practice for gay rights had national Democrats tried to lead the opinion shift instead.
Yet somehow, around 2015, the party as an institution completely forgot what they (should have) just learned and flipped to trying to lead public opinion on other culture war loaded issues. Why?
I’m unsure how well voters can process the difference between the liberal or progressive party and the activists. Defund wasn’t really done by electeds. Same with a lot of things. Stuff that isn’t implemented still gets people mad.
Two I’m unsure how to think about the effects of the take itself. Like if democrats step back from supporting trans people and republicans actively hate them what becomes of the people experiencing much more isolation and hate absent any support? It’s not completely harmless to be sure.
I am not taking issue with what Democrats do in this post. I'm taking issue with what they say. Defund is a great example. They talked shit about police (very unpopular with swing voters) while increasing their funding. Don't do that.
I'm not asking Dems to stop writing and passing feminist and pro-trans legislation. I'm asking them to stop saying and doing purely symbolic things that don't have any measurable positive impact (like the ERA bullshit) and alienate persuadable voters.
I genuinely don’t know what happens to trans people who are already really vulnerable when the political left abandons them in public statements but there’s no similar step back from haters?
I remember this kind of isolation and it’s really bad. In some sense that sense of being outside the normal human being window was far more devastating than anti-gay laws.
I don't know if I'm agreeing or disgreeing, but:
I think the key is that all of this is true for elections and election season. However, we have a problem. We used to be able to take for granted a background belief in liberalism. We had two liberal parties. We didn't need to talk about liberalism, and could appeal to it, because everyone believed in it, and those who didn't (the Dukes, Buchananites, Perotistas) either shut up or were isolated.
Now, we have an illiberal party, and it has a lot of support. People have lost their instinctive belief in liberalism. You tell them, that party launched a coup and wants a dictator. They say "eggs are $4." It doesn't move them.
So we need to campaign successfully, but we (liberals writ large, not the party) also need to once again make liberalism matter, and make people care about it. No, that's not the silly "educational campaign" Libertarians waste their money on. It's not about education, it's about a less intellectual appeal, but we still need to appeal to them in a different, less transactional way than we did before. Because before, we could be content in knowing that, when we lose, we get to try again. That's not a given anymore. We now need a permanent Democratic majority, not one that, at best, turns on turnout on a given day.
Democrats cannot just be LBJ anymore. We now need to be MLK, too. But that doesn't mean the party mechanism should.
Agree 100%
Your writing is so spot on. The number of Democratic meetings, hundreds, that I have listened to self-righteous opinionated fucktards who desire attention and affirmation but have no concept of how to win an election is oh so many. Most in the rooms have never written a check or made a phone call for a candidate. They leave the meeting satisfied they have contributed because they attended. Trump is a master of marketing. Those of us who disagree with him can learn much from him. The worst thing a Democrat can do is try to educate the voter during an election season, the best that the can be done is WIN.
I have gotten yelled at so much about this on Twitter, but somehow the left got it through its head that politics is when activists make demands on elected and electeds convince the people, which is so ass backwards!
Activists convince people and then electeds chase votes. It's not pretty or fun, but it's what we have to do.
Exactly
It seems worth learning the lessons of the gay rights movement here. Over roughly the period 1995-2015, gay rights activists were enormously successful in moving public opinion. Democratic leadership deliberately lagged that opinion shift, with a few exceptions in outlier locales like SF. This lagging strategy was very successful in making lasting policy changes; it would have been much worse in practice for gay rights had national Democrats tried to lead the opinion shift instead.
Yet somehow, around 2015, the party as an institution completely forgot what they (should have) just learned and flipped to trying to lead public opinion on other culture war loaded issues. Why?
Great point! Thank you.
100% agreed. If you already know they will implement your good policies, change the subject!
I’m unsure how well voters can process the difference between the liberal or progressive party and the activists. Defund wasn’t really done by electeds. Same with a lot of things. Stuff that isn’t implemented still gets people mad.
Two I’m unsure how to think about the effects of the take itself. Like if democrats step back from supporting trans people and republicans actively hate them what becomes of the people experiencing much more isolation and hate absent any support? It’s not completely harmless to be sure.
I am not taking issue with what Democrats do in this post. I'm taking issue with what they say. Defund is a great example. They talked shit about police (very unpopular with swing voters) while increasing their funding. Don't do that.
I'm not asking Dems to stop writing and passing feminist and pro-trans legislation. I'm asking them to stop saying and doing purely symbolic things that don't have any measurable positive impact (like the ERA bullshit) and alienate persuadable voters.
I genuinely don’t know what happens to trans people who are already really vulnerable when the political left abandons them in public statements but there’s no similar step back from haters?
I remember this kind of isolation and it’s really bad. In some sense that sense of being outside the normal human being window was far more devastating than anti-gay laws.