An open letter to the Democratic Party,

It’s officially way past time to get your act in gear. From Trump’s win last November to recent special elections, you have been the party of “not Trump!” I’m sure this is very satisfying at some visceral level, and you probably see a lot of people around you who agree. But that’s obviously not enough to win – and you seem to be missing the obvious.

Three suggestions for how to move forward:

  1. It is important to be the party of “not Trump.” It is certainly worth it to continue to point out that the man and those surrounding him are clinically unfit to govern and need to be replaced. Preaching to the choir on this can certainly help mobilize some voters who may be on the fence. But it isn’t enough.
  2. In addition, you need to have POLICIES. You need to present an alternative to the GOP, not just to Trump’s insanity. This shouldn’t really be that hard — the GOP was the “party of no” for so long, that they really don’t seem to have any constructive policy suggestions at all. You can focus on things like:
    • Tax policy – do Americans REALLY want to give huge tax breaks to the rich, in exchange for losing public programs? Use Kansas as the example here of how trickle-down doesn’t work, and focus on the positives that these programs bring
    • Health care – the GOP is setting themselves up for a BIG loss on this one, but you need to step in and provide the alternative. Make it clear that Medicaid expansion was, and continues to be, a good thing. Make it clear that the ACA provided health care to a LOT of people who didn’t have it before, especially in GOP states and districts. Make it clear that pre-existing conditions are a part of insurance, not something that can be cut. And perhaps even start laying the groundwork for single payer health care, medicare for all, or whatever we want to call it. Every other country in the industrialized world has less expensive and more efficient health care than us, with 100% coverage. Let’s not get the uninsured “down to under 10%” — let’s actually insure everyone. There’s a big audience out there for this if you bill it correctly and fight the insurance lobby.
    • Infrastructure – public spending can do a LOT of good for jobs and for the economy. GOP infrastructure discussions tend toward more privatization, and hoping the private sector creates jobs. This has proven to NOT be the most efficient or best way to help the most people, it is rather another way to transfer money to corporations.
    • Guns – how about we start showing commercials of people out hunting safely, talking about things like safety classes, gun locks, no need for an assault rifle to kill a deer, and a wide variety of safety regulations? Instead of just attacking “gun rights,” find ways to take the fight to the NRA using language that people in heavily gun owning states will understand.
    • And don’t forget, “it’s the economy, stupid.” This is really the only message you need, although many of the others will fit into this nicely. Trump won by finding economically depressed voters who had little hope for the future, telling them that he noticed their existence, and making a bunch of completely hollow promises. If the Dems want to win, they need to appeal to this audience, and show policies that can ACTUALLY help the economy.
  3. Which leads to my final suggestion: get out beyond the base and appeal to new groups, or maybe to old groups who should be supporting Dems, but don’t anymore.
    • Give young people a reason to get to the polls — not just a negative one.
    • Start appealing to blue collar, mostly white workers in former industrial areas – find ways to help them, don’t ignore them. These are people who should have NOTHING in common with the GOP economically, but when they only hear from one party, they tend to believe what they hear.
    • Mobilize middle class, especially white women in areas near cities in red states. Give them something to be excited about economically and in other policy areas.

For all of these things, the Dems need to REACH beyond their recent base and give people something to SUPPORT, not just something to hate. Hillary lost for a lot of reasons, but there were a few important ones that were within her (and her advisors) control: among those, they counted on the fact that women would vote for her because she was a woman, and that traditional economic groups would vote for her b/c of their class. They were wrong in both areas — not completely, but wrong enough in enough places that it helped to cost them the election, and gave us Trump. They didn’t reach out enough, and they absolutely didn’t talk about the economy anywhere near enough in areas where it was the only thing that mattered.

As a final note, I’m not a Democrat and haven’t been for a long time. In part this is because the Dems have screwed up in areas like those above. I’m way too progressive/radical for the Dem party on most issues.

But while I have very liberal ideals, I am also very pragmatic when it comes to politics. And that pragmatism tells me that not only does Trump have to go, but that a combined GOP House and Senate can do an INCREDIBLE amount of damage to things that I care about. Human rights. Human equality. Economic inequality. Tax policy. Health care policy. Judges. And a list of others. So I would like the Dems to succeed – I hope they will push back to the left while doing so, but right now we need a stop gap before things go way too far in a VERY bad direction — and one that will last for decades to come.