12 Issues To Help Rebuild Democrats
They Need to Appeal More Broadly; We're Here to Help Them Do It
If you are in the mood for a sad movie, I have something even better for you— just look through the Catalist Data from the last Presidential Election that came out last week. This statistical autopsy is outright gobsmacking. What you see time and time again is a Democratic Party underwhelming even their core constituencies. Republicans, and in particular Donald Trump (who drove turnout for them) thoroughly smacked them upside the head.
A few main points on the data:
Voters were more determined by education and economics than by demographic identity than in the past. Most analysts are calling it the death knell for the Obama Coalition, but I disagree; the consultant class has just been fixated at looking at the electorate in terms of identity politics since Obama, because as the first person of color to win the White House, he (exceptionally) drove turnout among those groups. Instead, what we saw was an African American and Hispanic population increasingly become integrated more into working class America, which was what everyone wants. In that vein, nobody should be surprised if they start voting like, you know, other working class Americans.
Democrats did a terrible job of appealing to working class Americans. Period. Looking at the numbers you can’t help but feel a little bit of disgust at how horrible they did. It’s that ugly. Considering this was what the Democratic Party used to stand for, this electoral debacle is basically on the same page as the movie “Cats”; something that on paper in the c-suites looks to be a winner (Huge stars! Huge Musical! Huge production!) but in practice was utterly unwatchable.
The Gender Gap was huge, not because of women (who lost traction among Dems) but because Men (of every racial demographic) increasingly leaning toward Republicans. This is not because of Joe Rogan or Trump Bros or anything of that vein; it’s because Democrats didn’t offer them anything appealing. In fact, many Dem positions directly antagonized male voters.
It remains to be seen whether any other candidate other than Trump can rack up the rural margins to the extent he did, but Democrats REALLY need to start competing in rural areas and districts around the country, and get out of the metropolitan areas and suburbs.
So Democrats HAVE to rebuild. And we at PurpleAmerica are here to help. The best way to improve the Democratic brand while building a larger tent is to demonstrate that the Democratic Party is the common sense RESPONSIBLE party, while also contrasting to the utterly irresponsible shenanigans of the Republicans and Trump specifically. Below is a list of 12 issues that Democrats should propose, work on or run on against Republicans, along with three they should completely avoid at all costs. These are great issues that draw huge contrasts with the Republican Party and the current administration, and have the added benefit of being broadly popular.
First, remove all language in the bylaws at the national, state and local levels that specify various racial, gender or LGBTQIA+ quota requirements for officer positions. You don’t want the best hispanic nonbinary woman to be in charge of your field operations, you want the best and most qualified person for the job, and if it happens to be a hispanic nonbinary woman, that’s a good thing. Everyone recognizes these requirements for what they are instead of what they intended; obstacles to people who want to help and contribute and are instead being turned away.
Raise taxes on the Uber-Wealthy. They’ll call it “class warfare” and it is, but the war has been going on for a really long time and the working class has been on the receiving end of it forever. Republicans will claim that the rich will just leave for overseas, at which point Democrats can question their patriotism. There is no downside to this position at all. Democrats need only grow a spine to do it with a bold tax proposal.
Undo the ruinous Trump Tax Cuts. At a cost of $4 trillion over 10 years, he’s on pace to double the deficit in that time. Moody’s downgraded US bonds making it more expensive to borrow the money to boot. So we’re paying more and getting less with Trump’s tax cuts. And they shouldn’t just undo the cuts this year if they pass, they should undo the ones from 2017 that grossly inflated the debt while increasing the economic inequity that exists.
Put the increased tax revenue toward deficit reduction. People across the spectrum recognize the debt bubble and are legitimately worried about it. These voters are the same middle of the country people populist Ross Perot banked his campaign on. Paying down the debt is also a triple whammy in that 1) you reduce interest payments, 2) you improve the economy as interest rates come down and economic stability rises and 3) you can use the increased savings for other things. These increased revenues can be specifically used to help pay down higher interest debentures that will further free up government money; it’s a golden cycle. During the ‘90s the economy boomed and we had a surplus from doing this. We can and should again.
Ethics Reform. Trump is a walking, talking ethics nightmare. The only way he gets away with it is that Republicans are petrified about doing anything about it. Make them exceptionally uncomfortable in that regard. Put together a reasonable Ethics Reform package that an overwhelming majority of Americans can agree with and campaign HARD against those Republicans who oppose it. Start with closing the loopholes related to Trump’s memecoin, his Truth Social stock and with all Congressional members’ insider trading. Oh, and bring up every criminal Trump’s pardoned and iterate every single one of their crimes.
Admininstrative Mismanagement. OK, this one is a little more abstract but it’ll make sense once I describe it. Trump and Elon Musk spent the first six months of Trump’s term utterly gutting and turning inside out every segment of our government, firing smart, competent officials and eliminating many of the safeguards that keep our government functioning. ANYTHING that goes wrong in government management needs to be amplified and laid at the doorstep of Trump/DOGE/Musk. Hurricane preparation inadequate?—Blame DOGE. Uranium missing from the stockpile?—Blame DOGE. Social Security checks are going to be 2 days late—ALL DOGE’S FAULT. Taxpayer data lost due to a data breach?—Blame DOGE. EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING that goes wrong in government, Democrats have to be screaming bloody murder into the microphones and pointing fingers squarely at Trump, Musk and DOGE. If you don’t think this issue can be a winner, ask GWB how stripping funding for FEMA helped him when Hurrican Katrina rolled around.
Get Control of Your Out of Control Activists— A Sister Souljah Moment is Long Overdue. There is a false idea that party activism is an unquestioned good. It’s not. When you alienate more people than your activism brings in, it’s toxic and counterproductive to your goals. The way the public views it, leadership silence is complicity. The party needs to start condemning out of control activists that go too far in the harshest possible terms. They need to look like they are the ones in charge rather than the inmates running the asylum. They can start by taking a more vocal role in condemning the man who shot two Israel Embassy workers while shouting “Free Palestine.”
Be the voice of Meritocracy. Meritocracy has been a dirty word in Democratic circles for awhile now, ever since they shifted the focus to identity politics and college education (regardless of the job you get out of it). The thing is, average Americans are motivated by the idea of meritocracy—that they can succeed and increase their standard of living through hard work, determination and effort. It’s a foundational belief in America. Republicans love to say the same things, but demonstrate the exact opposite of it. To them, being born on third base is a sign of success and merit, but to everyone else it is unearned. As Republican policies, and Trump himself, routinely demonstrate, they are catering more and more to a sheltered upper class fearful of losing status, while those struggling in the lower class see no upward movement. Here’s an opportunity to once again reclaim that mantle.
Drape yourself in the Stars and Stripes. Middle Americans love their country. Democratic rhetoric often says the exact opposite and far too frequently expresses shame. Dems need to get back on the side of the patriotism. They need to take back what America stands for. They need to find their inner Reagan and play up the nationalist sentiments that the Gipper fostered. Too many Democrats see those themes as mutually exclusive, but they aren’t. Community, support of others, enjoying hot dogs, apple pie rock n’ roll and fireworks. Embrace all the symbols and features of Americana and be proud of it.
Following on that, support veterans. Trump is trashing higher education funding and gutting veterans benefits. There is an easy way to turn this to Dems’ advantage; support increased Veterans’ Benefits and expand/reform the GI Bill to better encourage service and reducing student loan debt. Young enlisteds and students have been insular groups since the 1960s, and here is a perfect opportunity to bring these groups closer together, foster empathy and build strong youth voters for the coming decades. Increasing veteran health benefits would further encourage young people coming out of high school to consider our Armed Forces as a career path.
Hawk it up. This is the first period since 9/11 that the United States is not at war. Think about that. 24 years. Democrats have always been more of the peace party but a new Cold age is setting in against Russia and China. As Republicans turn inward, isolationist, and think more about retreating from the world, this leaves a huge vacuum for Democrats to step into as the strong, engaging superpower everyone knows America is capable of being. In fact, Republicans, long the epitome of the “stronger” party are now acting cowardly; make them choke on that position.
Pummel Republicans on their MAGA Complicitness. Trump would not be able to do any of the exceptionally unpopular things he’s doing without the full cooperation of House and Senate Republicans. Their groveling to Trump out of pure fear for their livelihoods is a huge weakness; make them own EVERYTHING Trump has done. Pardons for J6 Insurrectionists?— Your Congressman approved of that. DOGE and Elon Musk?— Your GOP Congressman OKed that. Trump’s Memecoin— Your GOP Congressman is fine with Corruption. Shipping US Citizens to foreign jails without due process?— Your GOP Congressman defended it. No Habeas Corpus?— Your GOP Congressman voted for the incompetent boobs at the top of Homeland Security and the FBI. Drug Cartels?— Trump Pardoned the biggest drug criminal of the 21st Century and your Congressman never said a peep about it. And so on. EVERYTHING is their fault; make voters realize that.
And the three issues you want to avoid?
Quit putting LGBTQIA+ issues front and center. You want to know why that anti-Kamala “They/Them” ad was so effective? It’s because to a lot of Americans it exemplified exactly the priorities the Democrats have promoted over the last 10 years. People were struggling with inflation and Democrats were meanwhile focused on and defending Trans athletes, puberty blockers, more complexing gender definititions, and pronoun policing. Watching Democratic legislators tie themselves in knots over trying to define women was embarrassing. There’s a reason that Busch Lite sales plummeted after the whole Dylan Mulvaney debacle, and it wasn’t entirely about male rednecks upset at Anheuser-Busch. Consultants should have took note, but instead they railed against it all as homophobic. In the past, these issues were generally off putting to men, and continue to be as demonstrated by Democrats’ continued collapse among them across all racial lines. However, these issues are increasingly turn-offs for women too. Not to mention, taking the time to defend these issues in this area allows Republicans a huge opportunity to smear Democrats with the most outrageous and flamoyant aspects in that regard, making all Dems look ridiculous. Republicans PRAY Democrats bring these issues up or defend them, and Democrats have to become a lot more disciplined in not taking the bait.
Affordable Housing and Urban Transportation. These are big, important issues for urban areas, and a big cornerstone of the whole “Abundance” movement. Talking about these issues will make you sound erudite, sophisticated and big picture minded; or in other words, exactly like the condescending types of people working class voters revile. But you really want to know why they shouldn’t be talked about? First, Democrats already OWN most urban voting areas; appealing to them even more garners them exactly zero additional votes. Second, it antagonizes rural voters that you are neglecting by focusing on urban issues. Third, do you know how many people actually vote based on affordable housing and urban transportation? Practically none. These are wonkish policy and administrative issues that nobody jumps up and down about. Lastly, do you know what pushing these issues does? Opens up opportunities for Republicans to criticize Democrats regarding the costs associated with another big, huge Democratic spending spree and perpetuate the notion that Democrats are too smart for their own good.
Palestine. This issue is a political non-winner for them right now. Supporters too often take far too radical, extremist positions, which often leads to violence. They troll too often in anti-Semitic rhetoric that all too easily antagonizes otherwise Democratic supporters. To be sure, what Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel are doing right now is excessive in response to what started the Gaza incursion, and it is rightful to be critical of the diaspora and suffering because of it. However, until Palestinians both in the Middle East and abroad can learn to conduct themselves in liberal democratic fashion, within the system, tone down the violence and heated rhetoric, elect leaders that don’t advocate terrorism and purge violent criminals from their ranks, they’re going to be difficult to associate any successful political parties with. Rashida Tlaib and Columbia protesters can shout at the windmills all they like, but what they are doing is actually hurting Democrats politically, not helping.
PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day
The issues that will be at the forefront of the next Presidential cycle are still likely unknown, regardless of what most people say. Don’t believe me? Here are the biggest issues of the past 5 Presidential Cycles:
2024— Inflation, which peaked in early 2023.
2020— COVID, which began in March, 2020.
2016— Immigration/Border Wall— Which was made an issue entirely by Trump in 2015
2012—Obamacare— which came into being in 2010.
2008— Iraq War— Which started in 2003. Note though that Obama had won the Democratic Nomination specifically because he did not vote for the Iraq War Resolution as other Dems had. Of course, he wasn’t in the Senate in 2003 when the vote took place.
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
The groundwork has to be laid now, and the platform is how you do it.
I’m a lifelong Dem who voted almost straight R for the first time because of the trans issue infecting all the ASD kids I know. It’s horrific insanity to tell kids they can be born in the wrong body.
I agree that these reforms would almost certainly put Democrats in a better place. I personally disagree with some of them — I don’t think billionaires should be exorbitantly taxed, but think they should pay their fair share — but you don’t need to win this terminally online Substacker over. You gotta win back Middle America and the working class. Which does mean embracing ideological diversity — and being willing to hear the far left kick and scream as you pull the party to the center.