A Message for the Democratic Establishment

Today I would like to speak to the Democratic establishment. I know that none of them are likely to read this, and if by chance one of them did, they would ignore it. After all, I'm nobody. I wouldn't pay attention to me either. But I really have a need to get this off my chest.

For the past two days, my social media feeds have been dominated by discussion about whether or not there was a cover-up of former President Joe Biden's mental state. The few posts that filtered through that mess were about an upcoming Democratic National Committee election aimed at getting rid of David Hogg. Let me be clear. None of that matters. Our democracy is very much in danger. Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has deployed masked goons to kidnap people off the street and hide them away without charges in hellish detention centers. He has sent, and hopes to continue sending, individuals who have not been charged with a single crime to a foreign gulag from which they may never be released. Shadow President Elon Musk has embedded a cadre of loyalists throughout the government who have seized control of the government's most sensitive data. Who knows what he plans to do with that? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in the process of dismantling our healthcare system and destroying our ability to conduct medical research. We are essentially in a building engulfed in a four-alarm fire, and you folks are devoting your time to debating the fitness of a retired fire chief. If you are not interested in putting out the fire, move out of the way and make room for someone who is.

Former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris ran a campaign which was based on the message that Trump presents a unique threat to our democracy. So dangerous was Trump said to be, that Harris teamed up with Liz Cheney, not exactly a popular figure among the Democratic base. Harris and Cheney campaigned side-by-side, warning us that Trump would tear down our system of government. Guess what? They were right. Harris lost, and many of you seem to believe that a failure of a political message means that the message was wrong. Harris may have failed as a candidate, but her message was completely accurate. Trump is destroying our democracy. As far as I can tell, the best plan the Democratic establishment has to combat Trump is to replace David Hogg. It is going to take a lot more than that (and replacing Hogg is not even going to help).

I have come to the conclusion that the Democratic establishment is the American equivalent of the United Kingdom's Labour Party. Labour won the general election this past July, and Democratic leaders were apparently so impressed with that victory that they invited election specialists from Labour to the U.S. to offer them advice. Labour giving advice about how to win an election is like Russians providing advice about how to win a war: wait for winter. In the case of Labour, winter was a series of failed Tory governments. Once the Conservative Party had repeatedly demonstrated a complete lack of competence, British voters apparently decided that Labour couldn't possibly be worse. Labour, in the meantime, had spent the prior years purging itself of anyone actually devoted to traditional Labour principles. Corbynites were treated as if they were Trotskyists during the time of Stalin. Labour obsessed itself with trans issues and doing its best to imitate Tories. When Labour finally won, party leaders believed that it was their own achievement when, in fact, the Conservative Party had simply self-destructed. Keir Starmer almost immediately suffered the biggest drop in approval rating in the history of approval ratings. Things have only gotten worse for him since then.

Like Labour in the days of Conservative Party rule, the Democrats are currently spending their time pointing fingers at the left. The fault for their loss is laid at the feet of the trans community, those supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and immigrants. Both Labour and the Democrats are now convinced that hating trans people and immigrants is a winning policy. We now even have our own version of Keir Starmer, Republican Governor Gavin Newsom. Starmer and Newsom may even wear the same size of empty suit. Both seem to feel much more comfortable attacking those on the left of their party than they do their opponents on the right. Newsom and Starmer both have adopted anti-trans and anti-immigrant messaging. While Starmer adopts Reform's platform, Newsom is rapidly turning MAGA. As history has repeatedly shown, if voters are given the choice between an inauthentic "lite" version and the authentic real thing, they will choose the real thing. Both Starmer and Newsom, by attempting to imitate their extremist opponents, are actually strengthening them.

It is simply astonishing to me that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the current head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — meaning that it is her job to get more Democratic senators elected — has made her top priority the passage of a cryptocurrency bill that will make Trump's corruption even more profitable. Gillibrand has made clear that she puts the interests of wealthy campaign contributors ahead of democratic values. She is willing to directly contribute to Trump's profiteering, which includes selling access to the highest bidder. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of this moment.

In contrast, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launched their Fighting Oligarchy tour on February 21, 2025, in Omaha, Nebraska. They spoke to an overflow crowd of 2,500. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez talked about the divisions between the rich and the working class in the U.S. and the need for a grass-roots movement to confront oligarchy. They discussed the struggles of working people and offered a message of hope. The reaction of the Democratic establishment, or at least one Democratic senator, was to complain that Americans don't know the meaning of the term "oligarchy.” But the average voter's vocabulary may be stronger than some assume because on Tuesday, John Ewing Jr., the Democratic candidate for Mayor of Omaha, defeated the three-term Republican incumbent. The Republican, who had previously won by 30 points, suffered a loss of more than 10 points. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were apparently on to something when they chose to begin their tour in Omaha.

That 2,500 crowd in Omaha might seem small. However, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez would later speak to 34,000 in Denver, Colorado, 20,000 in Tucson, Arizona, and 36,000 in Los Angeles, California. They even drew large crowds in Republican states. For instance, the duo attracted 9,100 in Missoula, Montana, and 12,500 in Nampa, Idaho. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez spoke boldly, taking strong positions in support of their values. They argued in favor of a wealth tax, Medicare for All, and changes to campaign finance laws. Unlike the Democratic establishment, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez understand the importance of this moment. Leadership, not caution, is required.

In contrast to Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic establishment devotes most of its efforts to warning about what not to say and what not to do. They apparently spend sleepless nights worrying about commercials that Republicans might run. They are obsessed with goring Democratic sacred cows. As I said at the beginning of this rant, this moment calls for much more. You are not going to defeat Republicans by trying to act like them. Like Labour, you might get lucky and be the beneficiary of a party that destroys itself — just as the Republicans show signs of doing — but hoping for the other party to lose rather than trying to win yourself is a terrible strategy. Now is the time to return to our Democratic roots. The party of FDR, strong unions, the working class, and economic reforms aimed at closing the wealth gap. Stop attacking members of our own coalition. Stop living in fear. Understand the threat that we face and gird yourself to confront it. Simply put, if you are a Democratic leader and your priorities are not defeating Trump and saving our democracy, then you are the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. The best thing that you can do is make way for someone else.