It’s the dawn of a new resistance, one much different from 2017.
After the 2016 election, we were stunned as a nation. Donald Trump had lost the popular vote by millions yet won the White House because of the broken and nonsensical Electoral College system. The public felt bamboozled, not knowing what they voted for. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton got a heap of blame: She was an “unlikable,” unpopular, and polarizing figure.
Through the shock, we organized and took to the streets. The Women’s March turned out nearly half a million protesters in Washington, D.C.—and millions more around the country—the day after Trump’s ill-attended inauguration. Progressives rallied to defend Muslim Americans, and lawyers rushed to airports after Trump instituted an unconstitutional a Muslim travel ban. Myriad new resistance groups rose to take the battle to Trump and his administration.
Nothing like that has happened this time. It’s been more of a collective shrug.
That doesn’t mean we lack empathy for affected populations, but we live in a democracy, and those voters made their choice. We will ask them to make a different choice in the next two election cycles (and beyond), but for now, what do they expect us to do? Go to the mat and fight for union members who voted for Trump, Muslims who voted for Trump, and rural conservatives who voted for Trump?
Nah, I’m good. It’s time Trump voters get a dose of accountability for their choices. There are no Democrats to bail them out this time. There are no guardrails. If people want to fuck around, great! Now they get to find out.
Yes, I know our own people will feel the pain of a Trump administration, and I don’t want to ignore that reality. But our people voted the correct way. Trump voters voted to harm themselves.
The harsh reality is that Democratic voters will be less affected by Trump’s policies. Yes, it’s generalizing, but Democrats are generally more educated, earn higher incomes, and live in places with strong local Democratic government, infrastructure, and support.
There are 20 states and D.C. above the national average in per capita GDP. Vice President Kamala Harris won 14 of them. Of the 31 states below the national per capita GDP average, Trump won 25.
So when the Trump administration and his Republican allies talk about cutting funding for rural schools, it isn’t predominantly liberal voters who will suffer the consequences. When they talk about cutting the safety net for the poor, it will be Trump voters—the least educated, lowest-earning among us—who will bear the brunt. When Trump talks about inflation-fueling tariffs and mass deportations, it will be Republicans who will suffer most. Indeed, according to exit polls, those saying that inflation caused “severe hardship” to their families voted for Trump 76-23.
We tried to warn them. We really did! But this time, Trump didn’t bamboozle them. They lived through his first presidency. They heard what he said, and while Trump lied about Harris, he did not lie about his plans. His voters decided they wanted more of that, and that’s what democracy is.
So, what’s in store for Daily Kos? We do what we do in democracies: We work to win the next election. We fight for the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms, and we set ourselves up to retake the White House in 2028. It’ll be here faster than any of us want to admit.
We do that by working this crucial information battleground. We cover the inevitable outrages coming from this administration and its congressional allies and note when their policies hurt Americans. We lift up Democrats doing good work and champion our leaders of tomorrow.
And we will keep asking Trump voters, “Is this what you voted for?” Yes, that kind of coverage has a great deal of schadenfreude, but it also serves a bigger purpose. People need to see the consequences of their vote if we are ever going to convince them to reassess. So hopefully, we can do less “Ha ha, suck it, you losers!” and more “It’s okay if you didn’t know, but now you do, so let’s make different ballot box choices next time.”
And that’s where Daily Kos comes in. Over the past year, we have built a new core of amazing journalists to cover these stories, and I’ll be introducing you to them in the coming weeks. I hope to have the time to write more as well, and I’ll also be working with colleagues in the broader political world to build and support progressive media and content creators.
This year, we will refresh the home page and start building a new Daily Kos platform for the future. We will lean heavily on the community to help guide that process.
Decades ago, we built a bespoke platform when that was pretty much the only option. But now there are several great platforms we can build on top of, lightening the responsibilities of maintenance (like security upgrades). Our tech team spends so much time just keeping up with that sort of rote work that they have no time for new or updated features.
Last year, we sunset our activism department, allowing us to focus on engaging you with more news, information, and community connections. Those of you on our email list might have already noticed decreased emails, and that trend will only continue in the months ahead as we refine our delivery schedules and processes.
Related, instead of using our email list to try to generate activism for other organizations, it’ll become a vehicle for a new raft of newsletters highlighting our content and your interests. It’s a great way for both site addicts and more casual readers to get exactly the kinds of stories and information they most enjoy.
And we have a nifty new dashboard rolling out so people can subscribe to the emails they want to receive, while cutting out the stuff they don’t. I know, I know—we should’ve had that already. I’m just happy we’re finally getting to these user-friendly features.
We need to generate revenue and will lean on you to help support our efforts. In the before-times, as recently as three years ago, we were about a third reader-supported. Today, we are fast approaching 80%. And that creates a beautiful incentive structure. Our audience is no longer the product to sell to advertisers, list-building partners, and campaigns. Instead, the audience is now the customer, and every single decision we make has to answer one straightforward question: “How does this serve our community?”
You have already seen the benefits of that incentive realignment—less emails and fewer ads. We will continue to streamline the site even further and work on ways to deliver even more value to our subscribers.
And to those of you who have already subscribed, thank you thank you thank you. I am so excited to validate your faith and trust in me and Daily Kos, and will be working hard to deliver the content and community experience you deserve. To those who haven’t yet? Now is a great time to start!
I plan to host regular “Ask Me Anything” events for those who want to, uh, ask me anything. Some will be on the site, and some might even be on Zoom. We will be experimenting with ways to better connect with all of you.
It was a tough two years behind the scenes as we restructured and realigned the company to better survive this media apocalypse. But we’ve done that. We have a lean, mean organization hungry to fulfill our mission. And we’re going to depend on you to not just help us financially, but also evangelize our message and work to win over voters who either voted to hurt themselves or didn’t vote at all.
For example, Facebook has removed restrictions on political content due to conservative pressure, but that doesn’t have to just help them. Our reach on Facebook is already up 90% this month, and page views are up 15%. And we can now embed Bluesky posts, which makes me as happy as it makes you.
We have all seen influencers’ and social media's impact on the political landscape, and we are working to build partnerships to amplify progressive voices across channels toward even greater reach. There are many ways to spread the work we are doing here. You can do your part by sharing our stories with your networks on social media.
It’s hard work, but I don’t trust anyone to do it more than I trust you, the Daily Kos community.
We are blessed to have you at our side. Let’s do this.
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