There is no shortage of speculation, in the aftermath of the most consequential election of our time, about what Democrats should do, or ought to do, or aren't doing, or won't do. I've read plenty of speculation, but I think I'm capable of making my own observations without the assistance of a journalist pundit who is missing some critical thinking skills and analytical thinking ability.
My first step, and it's one I highly recommend to anyone else in this country who understands exactly what we are about to face in a second Trump Presidency, is to read through Timothy Snyder's book, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century. That's an important piece of information which will guarantee the ability to define exactly what is occurring in order to form reasonable, effective resistance.
The Democratic Party Has No Choice But Full Unity and Commitment
We are not a party "in tatters", "in need of an overhaul", or "in disarray".
Fixing blame for why we lost the White House will lead to the loss of time and valuable resources. The political ignorance of the American electorate was underestimated. The loss of a genuinely free press, and the amount of time the media spent giving face time and coverage to virtually everything Trump did or said, from the moment he left the White House was a critical factor. I've challenged readers to do some research and find any 24 hour period in the past four years when there was not at least one Trump news item on any of the major networks, or on the cable news programs. And I've challenged them to find research indicating how much more time Trump got during the Biden Administration than President Biden got.
I'd bet that there wasn't one single day that went by without Trump getting some news coverage for something, and that he got more than four times as much as Biden did. Trump waged a four year campaign for re-election, against an eventual Democratic nominee who waged a campaign for about 70 days. Trump had full media saturation, Harris never did, even with over a billion dollars for the campaign. And even with all of that, he still didn't get half the popular vote, and his electoral college victory is as narrow as Biden's was in 2020 and as his was in 2016, separated from defeat by a fraction of a percentage of votes in just three states. Somehow, over 80 million Americans who registered to vote never made it to the polls.
If we consider the causes that motivated the Democratic party in this election as priorities, then blame for the loss is a dead issue. Gone are the days in American politics when the opposition party that lost an election shook hands, congratulated the winner and pledged bi-partisan support for whatever it was that could be supported. We Democrats set up the parameters for this election, rightly so. We called it "the most consequential election of our time," and we declared that Trump "was an existential threat to Democracy."
Well, was it? Was he?
If we act like it wasn't either of those things, then we have no credibility. We're liars, just like they are. It was all a political game and it's back to business as usual and politics as usual and hope we can do better in 2026. It will be very tempting for those Democrats who are now still in office as a minority party to try and protect what they have through self-interest, to try to hang on to their perks and privileges rather than take the kind of risks that are necessary to unify this party, fight Trump's real threat to this constitutional democracy, and find a way to defeat creeping facsism once and for all.
Real leaders will step up and take risks, rather than try to hover and protect their piece of what's left. Real leaders will take the risks that will bring genuine unity, and will motivate followers to get up off their rear ends, inform themselves about what is going on and fight for their constitutionally protected liberty.
So we need leaders who are not afraid to act like this was the most consequential election of our time, and that Trump is an existential threat to constitutional democracy. And we need to start acting like that now, before he ever takes a second oath of office that he will ignore.
Leadership Among Democrats Can No Longer Be About "What's in it for Me?"
The Democratic Party can no longer afford business as usual, pandering to the status quo and protecting an elitist group of "next in line" potential leaders, waiting their turn, paying their dues or whatever political catch phrases describe that futility these days. Would our nominee have had a better chance at winning the White House if the party leadership around the President had gently, but firmly talked him out of running again, when many of them had already seen what the rest of us saw in his first debate performance? And what does it say about leadership that saw the potential of a loss, with Biden on the ticket, and knew how consequential this election was, but wouldn't step out of the accepted protocol to be part of a necessary change that, had it happened a year before the election, might have provided a much different outcome?
The single most effective house speaker of the post-World War 2 era was Nancy Pelosi. The very mention of her name among conservatives drew their vitriolic, caustic criticism, because she was also highly effective. She new how to manipulate that criticism to the advantage of whatever she wanted to get through the House of Representatives. She was fearless. I will never forget the image of her, sitting behind Trump during one of his State of the Union addresses, seeing her disgust and disapproval in her facial expressions, her remaining seated when the Vice-President stood to applaud, and then, when the speech was over, ripping it into shreds while the cameras were still on. She violated every protocol of a house speaker at a State of the Union address, in order to send a message, and she rebuffed her critics.
That took courage.
We need Democratic party leadership, inside and outside of Congress, who have it.
There are some real people out there that we need to consider. Over the past six years, it's the kind of leadership we in Illinois have come to expect from our governor, J. D. Pritzker, who goes toe to toe with conservatives, willing to take chances even with the threats of lawsuits and retaliation. His leadership in Illinois during the pandemic not only saved lives and spared one of the country's most populous states and cities from the kind of disaster that occurred elsewhere, he made decisions he knew would not be popular, but which turned out to be right in order to protect the people of the state.
David Hogg has been one of the most courageous and effective gun control advocates we've seen, ever. The gun lobby is one of the most intimidating, threatening, dangerous groups in the country, and he's faced them down and refused to buckle under their pressure. Here he is, running for a leadership position in the DNC. As a high school student, when that young man went to a microphone to speak, it was obvious he had his facts together and he sure knew more about civics and the constitution than some of the members of Congress.
There are a lot of others who are in this group of courageous, potential party leaders who have faced down opposition and continued to do the right thing--Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison, and yes, I'll put Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in that group too. The Democratic party needs to move forward, and it needs leaders who will push it that way, not spend time on protocol and traditional politics, both of which are dead and should have been buried thirty years ago.
We tried to turn Joe Biden's decision to step down and endorse Kamala as the Democratic nominee into a courageous act of consideration for the American people, above his own desires. We didn't really have the media coverage or the internal messaging to make that universally known. But that's the example of the kind of selfless courage that the Democratic party must have in order to survive these next two years, and to put together a campaign that will win control of Congress back during the mid-term elections.
Selfless courage.
Do Not Obey in Advance
This is the first principle in Snyder's book, and it is foundational. He calls it "anticipatory obedience." Democrats claim that Trump is an existential threat to democracy. That's a claim based on exactly what we saw from him during his first term in office. He laid it out, though he is an inept bumbler who has difficulty getting ideas into actions. He finally did leave the White House, but not before inciting an insurrection against the Capitol building and Congress, which, under the fourteenth amendment, should have made him ineligible to even run for the Presidency again. And then, he took hundreds of classified documents illegally, risking the nation's security and defying its authority to take them back.
The irresolute manner in which this was handled was anticipatory obedience. Congress laid out an investigation and all of the evidence necessary to prove he incited an insurrection, but the Justice Department fumbled the handoff and was irresolute in taking it to the next level in a quick, effective manner. We still have not been given a satisfactory answer for this monumental failure that completely undermines the Democratic party's belief that Trump really is an existential threat to the American constitutional democracy.
If he is, then how is it that we could not get him prosecuted, even though we had the better part of four years to carry it out?
We need leaders who not only won't stand for this kind of irresolute fumbling and bumbling, but will take the initiative to get the ball rolling and follow through to the finish.
Do This First, and Then Ask Me For My Support
Over the years, I can't keep track of how much money I've given to Democratic party campaigns and Democratic candidates. I've made hundreds of phone calls and knocked on hundreds of doors in six states. I started this blog, originally to use as a means of putting into writing political thoughts to put in social media posts. I'm willing to invest time and energy, my personal presence and labor, my ideas, whatever it takes to help Democratic candidates win elections and now, to resist what's coming down the road.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were willing to risk the loss of their congressional seats, and whatever went with that, to stand for a principle and protect American democracy. I find little in their political perspective with which I can agree, but I also find them to be examples of the kind of courage Democratic party leadership needs to fight a battle that's already started. The least I can do is to be supportive of the American Democracy.
In a few months, I'll have plenty of time. I'll be happy to give myself to the Democratic party, if the party is willing to demonstrate the kind of courage it needs to save the country from tyranny.
Just ask.
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