The Call Came From Inside the House!

I've taken the last two-plus months to think about the results of the election and how we got here.  Not only because I had to process how such a bad outcome could've happened but also to make sure I didn't just start throwing out accusations in a knee-jerk fashion.  Having taken the time to observe, evaluate, read up on, and analyze the outcome, there are three culprits that the Democratic Party needs to address:

1) You are BADLY getting destroyed on the messaging front, all but buried under Conservative-owned and Conservative-obedient media.

2) Billionaires realize the Republicans are trying to give them all the money and they like it.  Billionaires are not the Democrat's friends.

3) Moderate Democrats are the most effective anti-Democratic Party campaign the Republicans could ever imagine.

I will address the first two items in future posts, but I want to spend time on the easiest problem for the Democrats to get back under control, stopping the moderate Democrats from killing our chances.

Right after the election, a handful of moderate Democrats who won started screaming "If you Far left Progressives would've sat down and shut up, and the party would've taken our lead, becoming more moderate, the Democrats would've won!"

This is not only a delusional lie, but moderate Democrats know this is a lie and are frantically yelling this to cover up their part in Trump part 2.  Not only did Harris/Walz and most of the state Democratic parties run moderate campaigns, but they also ran some of the most moderate campaigns in Democratic election history...AND THEY GOT BEAT!

Harris/Walz came off of the Convention on a FREAKING ROLL! They resonated with the masses, pushing forward an effective Democratic message, and Tim Walz's popularity pushed the country toward a Democratic win.  Then, the moderates got involved.  

The moderates toned down the campaign's biggest weapon (Walz) because they didn't want the party of new populism, but rather a Democratic Party that was Republican Lite. They forced Harris to abandon any party platform messaging that seemed liberal or progressive, and they had her focus almost solely on campaigning with Republicans.  They did so because they are convinced of a strategy that has already been proven wrong in multiple elections:  If you act like a Republican, maybe enough moderate Republicans will abandon their party and we'll win.

This is a LAUGHABLE, MULTIPLE TIMES DISPROVEN theory.  It ignores traditional Democrats and progressive elements of the party who get turned off by the Republican Lite stance, deciding to sit the election out. It also ignores a simple fact of politics; why would I vote for a 'Lite' version of something when I can just vote for the original version.

In 2010, 2016, and now in 2024, moderate Republicans GLEEFULLY ran away from the Democratic Party, attacking their own party with a fierceness and ferocity Republicans only dream of, and screwed over the country in a pathetic attempt to win over 20 voters who were never going to vote for them in the first place. 

The moderate Democrats, who are stunningly eager to attack their own party, have become easy to manipulate. It starts with a wealthy donor walking through the door and saying "I have a few thousand dollars to help you out, but we need to have a discussion about those liberals!"

You see, the far-right news media of America (mostly owned by the SAME billionaires) searches out the most liberal of causes and then finds the most extremist person in the crowd (a person who is usually not even a Democrat!!!), and they paint the entire Democratic Party as that one far-left extremist.  It's a laughable smear campaign, but because Moderate Democrats are ALWAYS looking to throw their own Party under the bus, especially the progressive side of the party (who they despise), they validate the lie and make attacking their own party the focal point of their campaign. 

Compare that to Republicans.  They actually have Nazis in their party, proud card-carrying members! People ask the non-Nazi GOP about the Nazi issue, and Republicans say, "There isn't an issue.  That's not real," and the questions end! Even though their Nazi problem is an actual real problem, they knock down the dissent before it can fester.  Moderate Democrats fan the flames, proudly looking to paint themselves individually as an outsider.  

In Minnesota, our top state race was Senator Amy Klobuchar's seat, but because the Republican candidate was a freaking nightmare, her race was never in question. The race that became the focus of statewide media attention was the MN-02 race, where moderate Angie Craig was trying to hold onto her seat. Her entire campaign was FAR MORE Republican than it was ever Democrat.  She bashed Biden (REPEATEDLY AND EAGERLY!).  She adopted Republican platform talking points. She ran ads that basically boiled down to "I hate the Democratic Party FAR more than Republicans. Vote for the me, the anti-Democrat Democrat!"

She won her race, but it cost the DFL across the rest of the state.  She made the Democratic Party toxic and helped cost the Minnesota DFL control of the Minnesota House with her rhetoric. And most egregiously, she pushed her anti-Democrat Democrat campaign as she took Democratic money and used Democratic volunteers. 

Craig aside, many Moderate Democrats don't even see how badly they're getting manipulated.  They get a paltry check from a billionaire, ignoring that the same billionaire is spending 200 million trying to get Republicans elected. 

How do you solve this? Democratic Parties first need to have a come-to-Jesus moment with the moderates.  Are they in the party because they are like Walz, a moderate who supports the party platform, or are they in the party because they're former moderate Republicans and they know they wouldn't survive a primary in the GOP? If a Democratic candidate, regardless of where they are on the political spectrum, can't PROUDLY support 80% of the Democratic platform, then they shouldn't be allowed to run as a Democrat.  Political parties can demand some basic loyalty, something the Democrats desperately need to remember.

And if a Democratic candidate starts focusing their campaign around an anti-Democrat narrative, the party needs to step in and remove money and volunteers.  Democrats can no longer embrace the serial killer calling from within their own house! 

The years the Democratic Party has done best is when they have embraced a true middle-of-the-party political platform.  Sure there might be one or two moderate platform points and one or two progressive platform points, but the platform always works best when we embrace the main issues that make Democrats Democrats.  

Moderate Democrats, stop.  You're actively hurting this country with your selfishness. If you want to be a Republican, then GO, be a Republican! We'll respond accordingly. At least you'll stop torpedoing the party from within.

The real power to stop this lies with the Democratic Party.  They need to embrace a basic standard: Democrat means Democratic priorities first!