Dems’ Angst Is a Waste of Time

Last week I wrote about how the Democrats need a new team of prominent pols who represent the party. I think I was right, but I also think I was dreaming.

The problem is that you can’t just designate party spokespeople and tell the press not to quote the others. And the thing about being a moderate is that moderation doesn’t generally come with a lot of sizzle. It’s the people who say outrageous and immoderate things that will always get the attention. That was always true, but it’s especially true in the age of social media.

So people like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Elizabeth Warren are always going to cast a shadow over the likes of Amy Klobuchar and Gretchen Whitmer. And even if they were to get equal press, it’s the more extreme view that will stick in the minds of voters and form an impression of the party.

The same goes for the party’s positions. For example, I think we should jettison the transgender stuff. Simply say that we’re against discrimination against anyone, that everyone should have an equal chance to succeed no matter who they are, and leave it at that. Social change rarely happens through government action anyway. It happens in the broader culture and then government eventually catches up. Same sex marriage is still outlawed in our state constitution. Even now, nobody can summon the legislative will to remove that archaic language. Same goes for the pre Civil War ban on abortion in state law.

But the Democratic Party is run, or at least shaped, by activist groups. There’s no way the party can drop the transgender issue because it’s so important to a core group of activists. If you tried to take it out of the party platform there would be a massive protest which would shape the public’s view of the party more firmly than if you just left it in.

My point is that the debate within the party about what to do next is a waste of time. It’s a waste of time because we simply won’t do the only thing that will work: move to the center and have the discipline not to go off the rails.

So, what we’ll do by default is let the other guys over reach and hope they pay the price. They very well might. Democrats should win the important Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April, keeping a liberal majority on the state court. With only three seats to pick up in the House in 2026 they should be able to take back the majority there simply because the party in the White House almost always loses seats in the off year election. (The Senate is probably out of reach.) In the Wisconsin Legislature the Democrats are likely to continue to narrow the Republican majorities, though taking back the majority in either house is probably going to be a stretch. If Gov. Tony Evers runs for a third time he’s more likely than not to win. We’ll see.

The best we can hope for is that the party will simply continue to oppose Trump and there will be enough buyer’s remorse among independents to swing things back in the Democrats’ direction. Let’s save a lot of time, effort and money wasted on Washington consultants and just take what the natural cycles of American politics will probably give us.

YSDA stands for:

Free speech.

The rule of law.

Reason.

Tolerance.

Pluralism.