Democrats keep setting money on fire instead of trying to win elections

In June, the George Soros-aligned Texas Majority PAC announced that it would work with the Texas Democratic Party to spend millions to elect Democrats in that state.

The announcement comes less than a year after Colin Allred’s campaign spent nearly $100 million to lose to Ted Cruz by nearly 9 points. Before that it was Jaime Harrison getting destroyed in South Carolina and Amy McGrath getting obliterated in Kentucky.

Democrats lose races in spectacular fashion, but an entire legion of Democratic-aligned consultants, pollsters, campaign staffers and media buyers make a ton of money. Seems bad.

Democratic voters, from the big money donors to small donation individuals, love to feel like they are doing something – and donating to a campaign feels like the most “do something” move of all. But these investments are like individual pebbles of sand that simply wash out to the sea when the tide comes in. They don’t do anything long term and over the last 30-40 years, literally billions in donations have been effectively set on fire.

This isn’t to say that Democrats shouldn’t compete everywhere. Every race should have a Democratic option, even if it’s a long shot. But the party, and liberalism in general, is long past the point at which they should have been investing this money in something that would actually win these races: Media.

This is what Republicans did back in the sixties, seventies, and eighties. Faced with what they saw as a stifling “liberal consensus” across academia, the media, and politics, the right not only took over the GOP via the Goldwater revolution, but they also invested heavily in media pushing their message.

The right has funded newspapers, radio shows, magazines, websites and tv networks (most notably Fox News of course) meant to influence the public discourse. It has worked. While they haven’t flipped stalwart Democratic states, the right-wing media infrastructure has reinforced their strength in base states, weakened the Democratic hold in previously swing states and been a net boon for the party. Right wing media infrastructure works as a farm team as well, grooming personalities to become Republican candidates or to work their way up from local punditry to positions of national influence.

By comparison, liberalism has barely put anything in media. The scope of liberal-based media investment has been narrow, at best, far too safe, and has had minimal impact. There simply is no liberal equivalent to the right-wing noise machine, and as someone who has worked directly within this ecosystem, I can tell you clearly we do not get anything resembling the support we need.

The excuses do not hold water. Liberals are ultimately not very different from conservatives in that we need constant care, maintenance and activation and respond to emotion-based appeals for support. You can go back to the wave of support that turned Barack Obama into a president or the recent support for Zohan Mamdani if you believe all of liberalism is cold and clinical policy analysis.

And don’t invoke Air America. Air America was a poorly conceived and executed idea from many people who simply did not understand how media works. It was over 30 years ago and was just one of many projects that should have received funding and support. And even then, some of the voices on that network – Rachel Maddow and Sam Seder – have proven themselves to be durable left of center voices nonetheless.

Democrats should stop wasting billions of dollars on doomed campaigns that don’t lay the groundwork for future success. Through media investments liberals can affect on the ground conditions that make wins in red states more than a pipe dream. Instead of lining the pockets of consultants that don’t care if the party truly wins or loses as long as they can buy a new boat or extension to their mansion, do something useful.

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— Oliver

Follow me, Oliver Willis, on BlueSky @owillis.bsky.social

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