A Toughlove Moment and The Way Forward

Liberals, You Need to Wake Up to the Current Reality; You Are Out of Power

Over the past week, I have been inundated with responses to my posts regarding how online Democrats and liberal activists have been talking about our current political moment. You can see my posts here, here and here. The response from liberals has been to hit back at me with as much B.S. commentary and flawed logic as they can regurgitate. My pieces were like trying to conduct an intervention when the alcoholic doesn’t want to believe they were alcoholic and they double down by saying “I’m not an alcoholic, but even if I am, so what?” Many had the gall to admit they didn’t even bother to read the articles to which they were commenting, which in itself is just plain dumb, and arguing out of ignorance. Some even tried to slander me by calling me a *god forbid* “centrist” or “moderate” as if objectivity and consideration were slurs, or that compromise wasn’t how government gets things done. To those who think anyone to the right of AOC is MAGA, I was the reason Democrats continue to lose.¹

Meanwhile, my engagements and subscriber counts were (and still are) going through the roof; I had struck a chord that resonated. At first I didn’t get this dissonance but over the course of the week, hearing from many of you, and receiving your support, I understood. There were more of us out there, and we were tired of being shouted down by the extremes. Most of the comment board attackers out there were diehard leftists who just mindlessly buy into whatever message Primetime MSNBC and The Nation promote, and for some inane reason took pride in the ratio of comments as if it were a scoreboard of some kind, even if they didn’t bother to know what they are commenting about. Meanwhile, the rest were sensbible, thoughtful readers, who got what I was saying, are tired of the loudest nitwits in the country having the microphone and want to talk them off the ledge. As more subscribed and shared, more people started to find a home at PurpleAmerica. You’re more than welcome here, thanks for supporting us here.

Progressives are Still Talking as if They Have Political Power; They Don’t

By far the loudest response came from the most progressive wing of the party. They still seem to think that, after being roundly kicked out of power, having lost the White House, The Senate, and still being in the minority in the House, that they have a say of what goes on in government. Normally, after losing that badly, a party will assess what went wrong and reassess what didn't work; not these clowns. They still think they can bulldoze right over anyone who disagrees with them on any issue in any way. What they still don’t seem to grasp is that they don’t have any power at the moment. They call what Elon Musk is doing a “coup” because it gives them a false sense of reassurance that THEIR power is being seized from them in some way. The reality is that you only have political power when you win elections. The Democrats HAVEN’T, at least not enough recently, in large part because these very vocal, obnoxiously absolutist, base appealing morons wallowing in their safe spaces, eager to commit political malpractice.

The current situation is that 1) Donald Trump is in charge of the Executive Branch of government, and appointed Elon to do what he is doing in breaking everything like a wrecking ball; 2) where what Elon is doing conflicts with Congressional authority, lawsuits are already being filed to stop or prevent further actions, which will be decided in the court system predominantly run by conservative Republicans, and 3) “Congress,” which many out there were screaming “but he’s overstepping Congressional Authority!” doesn’t care really because it’s currently run by the President’s own party. So to recap, a person appointed by a Republican President, operating on his behalf, will face scrutiny in a court system dominated by Republicans, and the plaintiffs are a body controlled by Republicans encouraging what Trump and Elon are doing. Coups don’t happen against yourself like this—this situation is the exact opposite, it’s a system in which no checks and balances exists because EVERYTHING is controlled by the same party. That’s not a coup, it’s uncontrolled governance due to an electoral mandate.² I don't like it either progressives, but when you can't win winnable elections, this is what results.

If the shoe were on the other foot, and Democrats had all the branches of government, and were ramming through unpopular items about, oh I don’t know, the Health Care system³, they wouldn’t bat an eye about it and would be saying the exact same thing I’m, saying now.⁴ But progressives are arguing against it now because they genuinely have no other argument they can make about it. Trying to give themselves the pretense of any kind of power is all they really can do. Such is what happens when you lose elections to the extent they have. Worse yet, they seem to be of the belief that if they just yell louder and in more absolute terms, that that reality will change for them. I have some bad news there.

In fact, it does the exact opposite. More people are turned off from the Democratic brand now than at anytime since the early 1980s. The Democratic Party’s approval is barely above 30%, (a 35% decrease of what it was last November) with a strong majority disapproving. This is what happens when you ask for ideological purity and more practical, objective, thoughtful people who lean your way are cast out as heretics, as progressives seem to want of centrists. A reminder, progressives were the ones who chose not to vote in Michigan over Palestine, calling Biden “Genocide Joe”⁵ and who applauded when moderate Representative from Alaska Mary Peltola lost to a Republican. They genuinely don’t understand that shrinking the tent results in less political power. They should be working, practically begging, for more moderate candidates to work with them and represent their party, particularly at a time when sensible Republicans are leaving their party due to MAGA; instead they are giving those very people the biggest incentive to go sprinting 180 degrees in the opposite direction to progressives’ detriment. Buying into this insane act of political hari kari and thinking it leads to governing power is crazy. Don’t believe me? Democratic voter registration is dropping like a rock; nobody wants to be associated with them.

The Democrats’ Voter Registration Blues

Whether progressives and liberals want to admit it or not, the way to gaining political power again comes from appealing to the middle, not the base to which they are a part. Sure, they love to wallow in their self-righteousness, but until they give actual voters a reason to look their way, they’re going to continue to ruin a national party that can’t win outside of metro areas and the coasts. The niche, segmented, identity politics of the last decade are over. It has to be. Otherwise, Dems are in for a bigger thumping in 2028 than in 2024, and I for one don’t want to see that happen. That’s the REAL problem with progressive absolutism— they don’t see people like me trying to guide them in the right direction as an ally, they think I’m some MAGA false flag operation because I don’t bow down and kowtow to the same bullshit metaphors and messaging that they do. Being practical and pragmatic is heretical to them; they’d rather flat out lose out of principle and drag down everyone else with them, and then whine about how unfair the world is.⁶

OK. So What Should Democrats Do?

It’s hard being out of power. You have to swallow a lot of pride. You can still play a resistant minority and still make some punches here and there, but taking an adverse stand for the sake of it on every issue makes you look like, well, the craziest of Republicans when they are in the minority. Let’s start with something easy: Democrats must resist the urge to characterize Trump or his policies as “fascist.” Believe me, I understand the urge (and even see the reasoning), but it drowns out everything you say after it. George W. Bush was characterized as a fascist after 9/11 in going to war in Iraq, passing the Patriot Act and with what happened at Gitmo. It didn’t work against him then either.⁷ But the main problem with using it is what Ruy Teixeira says here at The Liberal Patriot:

The F-bomb has another political disadvantage: It disparages everyone who voted for Trump by implication. It is my sad duty to remind the gathering legions of anti-fascist fighters: it didn’t work last time and it won’t work this time. “Trump, Trump, Trump, fascist, fascist, fascist, Trump, Trump, Trump, racist, racist, racist” has repeatedly failed to stem the populist tide... This time is not different.

The path to durable victory is what it was before: convincing voters you are a moderate and reasonable alternative to Trump.

If you’re going to beat Republicans in 2026 and gain the White House in 2028, you have to appear reasonable to a bunch of people who disagreed with you notably in 2024. Sure, the noose of what happens in government is solidly around the necks of Republicans right now, and they own all of it. However, hoping for something to go wildly wrong (it usually eventually does) doesn’t mean voters will swing away from them to Democrats; you need to offer an acceptable alternative. So far, you’re arguing with other Democrats and Moderates that they are not liberal enough; that’s not a good start.

The other thing Democrats really need to start doing is running everywhere, and appealing to people all across the country. The coasts and metro areas Democrats tend to dominate the discussion, but Dems fail to realize why to their detriment. Going back to 2010, when the Tea Party wave came in, it led to a horrendous amount of gerrymandering in a lot of states. The party lost its moderates because moderate areas were merged to conservative ones that afterward went Republican. Meanwhile, liberal Democratic areas became MORE Democratic, and those voices in the party became even more liberal because there were no consequences and numerous incentives to it within the party itself. But that also takes them further away from the overall political center of gravity. They lost the rudder of the party and have been lost at sea ever since. They need to get that back. The political center of gravity for Democrats HAS to be outside of the metro areas and coasts. More of an effort needs to be to take their interests into the platform of the party, and not try and astroturf the party’s platform onto them—they are wholly different voters than what Democrats currently are. With a broader spectrum of voices filtering into the party, the better the results will be for the party. Diversity has to be about more than just identity—it is intellectual, geographical, and ideological diversity as well. Democrats need a MUCH bigger tent than what they currently have.

As if to demonstrate what you absolutely cannot have happen again, recent DNC elections had to be halted because, well, here’s Jonathan Chait in the Atlantic.

Speaking to the Democratic National Committee, which met to select its new leadership this weekend, the outgoing chair, Jaime Harrison, attempted to explain a point about its rules concerning gender balance for its vice-chair race. “The rules specify that when we have a gender-nonbinary candidate or officer, the nonbinary individual is counted as neither male nor female, and the remaining six officers must be gender balanced,” Harrison announced.

As the explanation became increasingly intricate, Harrison’s elucidation grew more labored. “To ensure our process accounts for male, female, and nonbinary candidates, we conferred with our [Rules and Bylaws Committee] co-chair, our LGBT Caucus co-chair, and others to ensure that the process is inclusive and meets the gender-balance requirements in our rules,” he added. “To do this, our process will be slightly different than the one outlined to you earlier this week, but I hope you will see that in practice, it is simple and transparent.”

This is as insane in principle as it is in practice. Nobody wants to be a part of a party that manages themselves this way. Whatever happened to “the best person for the job?” Unfortunately, the DNC’s logic above has permeated all the way down to the local levels, and I know plenty of good, hard working campaign volunteers who were dissuaded from becoming party officers because they were the wrong gender, race or sexual orientation. Actively kicking people who believe in what you are doing out of your party like this sounds utterly counterproductive.

That’s enough to get started on. Really though, it’s time many out there have that come to Jesus moment where they realize their online conduct and rhetoric is not doing the party any favors, and is in fact giving people every reason not to lean or even look that way. Giving each other high fives over a dig on a comment board of someone you disagree with, thinking it changes anything, is doing the exact opposite of what you should be doing— instead, try being polite, trying to get others actively involved and working with you instead of against you.

So far, I see the same old shit that led to Harris losing, which is an auspicious start to a cycle that could swing heavily in their direction if they want it to. Be better than that.

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

Last week, someone tried arguing with me that citing Webster’s Dictionary doesn’t mean anything when defining something. Arguing against definitions and the actual dictionary REALLY demonstrates how stupid many naysayers were.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

To the Purple masses out there who are starting to get tired of me spending time on this topic (believe me when I say, I am too), I’ll be back later this week with something else to talk about.

—PurpleAmerica

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. That would be a huge no. A shrinking Democratic Party that wants nothing to do with moderation or compromise would be.

2. Another set of stupid responses were about whether what Trump had could be considered “a mandate.” Yes, he won the electoral college easily and had a plurality (close to a majority) of national votes. But to those who say that “getting to 50% isn’t a mandate to do what they are doing” you completely don’t know shit about governance. In a republic, officeholders are vested with ALL of the powers of the office, regardless of whether they win by 1 vote or 99% of the vote. Trump has a mandate—denying that just further demonstrates how ignorant you really are.

3. Say, in 2009.

4. I’ll add, in this scenario, Republicans would be screaming about how it is a coup and tyranny and all that crap, exactly like they did in 2009-2010.

5. Really? As if he had anything to do with what Netanyahu did in leveling Gaza, or anything that had occurred in Israel over the last decade.

6. One the more humorous things I heard a lot last week is that a number of people kept using the phrase “so this is the hill you’re going to die on? Semantics?” First off, no, I’m not dying on any hill. I’m demonstrating that taking a metaphor too literally makes you look stupid. They didn’t see the irony in it apparently. Not to mention, I already wrote about how much I genuinely hate the “die on a hill” phrase on a post labeled “Let’s not ‘Die on that Hill’ anymore.

7. And in truth, it was probably more applicable in that instance as well.