You go to war with the Democratic Party you have, not the one you wish you had, but … I still want a new one! Over four million march all over the country, demanding resistance to the Trump regime, but god forbid Democrats in Congress follow suit! Instead, we literally get stupid arguments like “We gotta vote for Ben Carson because we need to win Trump voters.” Meanwhile, Trump voters are safely ensconced in a fake news bubble that no liberal argument will ever penetrate. So instead of voting for Carson to appeal to these people, why not fight for the people marching in the streets? Give them a reason to fight even harder!
None of this resistance matters if Democrats can’t make huge gains in 2018—retaking the House and winning governorships and state legislatures. So how do you motivate this resistance to rally behind you? YOU FUCKING FIGHT FOR THEM! Goddam this is so patently obvious, why do we have a party that insists on ignoring the obvious? The GOP didn’t take full control of government by appeasing Democrats, they did so by fueling their own tea party, giving their activists reason to fight even harder! And they did so by saying “NO” over and over again. Our side, instead, appears intent on demoralizing our troops, even people we should be depending on like Sens. Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren. Freakin’ oppose everything!
The DNC Chairman’s race remains hopeless—a bunch of people thinking they’re running for “chief party surrogate on cable TV,” as opposed to actually rebuilding a broken party. Again, if you think change is coming at the Democratic National Committee because one candidate supported this or that person in the primaries, you are destined for disappointment. There isn’t a single thing any of those candidates have said that would actually bring meaningful change.
And dear god, can our party talk human?
Shit, simplify things even more! “Trump’s team works for Russia.”
Man, this illegitimate Republican regime has come in with guns blazing, and we aren’t even bothering to break out the plastic spork. You see, the plastic wrap is a little hard to open, you gotta use your teeth … it’s complicated!
It’s a weird time—the energy in the streets is palpable, with a real movement underfoot. Remember, it wasn’t until August 2009 that the tea party got its footing, yet here we are, eight months earlier, already vastly exceeding the energy they generated at the apex of their movement. But none of this works without the inside game. Our team inside government needs to be fighting as hard as the people outside it.
Which brings us to the missing parallel to the tea party movement—they were VERY effective in using primaries to cleanse their party of their dead weight. We have never been effective at doing that ourselves. But if things go well, that opportunity might finally present itself.
Democrats in Congress better step up their game, or primaries are in store.