How Should Democrats Fight?

If you're not fighting, you are losing

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To start off, I would like to make it clear that the Democratic Party does not engage in serious political fights. Not really. The party sometimes has debates with the right and wins or loses, sometimes resulting in the passage of legislation or nominations, but in a serious modern sense the party does not fight.

In fact, more often than not the Democrats roll over and play dead for the right and allow a gang of malcontents and unqualified ideologues run roughshod not just over our government, but across the public sphere. Sometimes Democrats show some signs of life, usually very close to an election, but the majority of the time the party sleepwalks through its existence.

This behavior has very real consequences. People are (understandably) cynical about politics and they simply do not believe most politicians when they make grandiose promises. That leads to apathy and gigantic swaths of the electorate simply do not show up at the polls. Sometimes things catch fire with a particularly inspirational leader, like President Barack Obama, or a crisis, like COVID-19, and a legitimate groundswell occurs. But unfortunately more often than not, the core voters that Democrats need to show up do not show up and as a result liberal and left causes suffer — and thousands of people die.

The right shows up to vote and it isn’t because they are offering anything truly populist that motivates millions. What they do far better than the left is fight. Most of it is a fight over really dumb things, harmful things, bigoted things — but they fight. The right is constantly engaged in great battle with any number of forces — the deep state, the media, the Democratic Party, the progressive/liberal movement — whatever. Yes, the substance of it is dumb and ultimately harmful, but the act of political combat is a marvelous motivator.

The right fights for things, they tell their base voters they’re fighting for those things, and they explain in no uncertain terms that Democrats are the obstacle to Wonderland and if they turn out to vote they will get what they always dreamed of. Of course, this isn’t true for most things and when it does go all the way (repealing Roe v. Wade) it triggers massive human suffering. But that’s a policy argument, not a tactical one.

The tactic works and liberals should steal it.

What is more aggravating is that these are good and easy fights to have. The right has an unpopular agenda fronted by cartoonish villains that would seem too broad for a cartoon or comic book. The orange skinned con man. The South African racist. The pale-skinned billionaire with a fetish for the blood of young people. It goes on and on and on. Picking a fight in this environment with these terrible people is not hard.

Democratic officials need to speak out and they need to constantly be speaking out. Congressional leaders have never had more ways to get beyond the filter of the media and speak directly to millions of voters for almost nothing. They all have social media accounts, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and a million others. It only takes time to grab a phone and shoot out a message - text, video, image - hitting on an issue.

They don’t and shouldn’t pick their shots. They should hit everything under the sun in the hopes that maybe one out of a thousand will hit. It doesn’t matter if the other 999 appeals fail if one catches fire.

And the message just needs to be simple and to the point. You aren’t trying to impress a college professor for a grade and a message does not increase in virality by the age level it is written for (in fact it is probably the opposite).

In addition to social media messages and press releases, Democrats need to just jump in front of a microphone. There are a million microphones set up at any given moment on Capitol Hill, along with a hornets nest of reporters looking for an easy story to serve up across their platforms. Use them.

Generate heat and light. Don’t just send out a message that is cotton candy soft. Use direct and blunt language and contrast what you stand for with the worst people on the other side. If you release a statement about your support for puppies, remind the world that the other side wants to kill puppies and has callously worked to block the passage of your puppy protection plan.

Most importantly, repeat these messages over and over and over. Too often Democrats send out a limp message into the void and when it predictably doesn’t gain traction, they proclaim, “See, it didn’t work.” This is weak crap and an excuse that Democrats have now used for decades.

Lean on partisan, alternative media to get your message out. And when the mainstream press ignores you, use that as yet another messaging opportunity. “I can’t believe ABC/CBS/NBC is censoring our support for protecting puppies, jump on my live stream as we talk about how the corporate media is weighing in on the side of puppy murdering psycopaths!”

None of this requires leaders to lie or distort reality. In fact, short and punchy and understandable messaging works best when it is backed up by the truth. Donald Trump’s short lies are effective political messaging, but they would be 10,000% more effective if he was telling the truth. He never will, so steal his style and use it in service of what is good and decent.

Fighting for good things tells the people who support your mindset the most that you aren’t rolling over and playing dead. Even when you lose, people have far more respect for someone who goes down swinging versus someone who holds fire until just the right moment. Democrats are guilty of waiting so long to let their powder dry that it is now an enormous, inert, useless caked mess.

Fight and keep fighting — not only will your core supporters become more engaged and likely to vote in favor of you and your agenda, but people love a winning bandwagon. People who may be cynical about it all will see conflict and see someone for once actually taking their side — and against villains out of central casting.

If you don’t want to fight, or to fight using modern techniques, then just get out of the way. Because more than ever America needs people completely invested in fighting. It’s the only option that is left.

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— Oliver

Follow me, Oliver Willis, on BlueSky @owillis.bsky.social, Threads @owillis1977

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