Democrats, Don’t Fall for the Allure of Left-Wing Populism
We didn’t abandon the working class. We turned off the middle.
IN THE DAYS AFTER SUCH a monumental defeat, Democrats must confront a hard truth: Voters of all kinds rejected us in all different ways and places. It might be comforting to conclude they did so because of one-time dynamics, like deep doubts about President Biden’s age, the Gaza war, inflation, a global anti-incumbent mood, and the insanely compressed timeline facing the Harris campaign.
But one key factor that contributed to this loss will recur if not candidly confronted: The Democratic party is seen by far too many voters as having drifted far too left. The Trump campaign’s primary aim was to exploit the perception that Kamala Harris and Democrats were out of the mainstream. It worked.
The backlash to Democrat’s leftward shift was fierce. Of America’s 3,244 counties, more than 2,500 moved to the right. Some of the biggest red shifts occurred in the bluest places: New York State, where the Democrats’ 23-point margin from 2020 was cut in half, or Atlantic County, New Jersey, which flipped from a seven-point Democratic victory to a four-point Trump win. Consider Starr County, Texas, which in 2016 was a big blue dot that Hillary Clinton carried by 60 points; Trump won it by 16 points. This new map paints a clear portrait of a country moving away from left wing politics.
So, what does all this mean for a possibility of a comeback? A few signposts are already clear.
First, we must resist the temptation to battle Trump’s right-wing populism with the weaker sauce of left-wing populist socialism. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has offered the same prescription for every political ailment since he entered public life in the 1970s, blamed the loss on the Democrats having “abandoned the working class.” This is both false—President Biden delivered a lot for working people, from ushering in new manufacturing jobs to saving union pensions—and it evades the far left’s role in moving the Democratic brand dangerously left. Even a partial list of the proposals put forward is long: the absurd rhetoric and policy on crime (“defund the police”), huge government takeovers ($33 trillion Medicare-for-All), restrictions on energy development (the Green New Deal), immigration (open borders and accept all comers), and perhaps most tone deaf of all, a promise of sweeping college debt cancellation on which they could never deliver.
As for Sanders’s recommendation that Democrats regain their footing by going after American “oligarchy,” there’s no question concentrated elite power can be pernicious. But as a political matter, you have to squint pretty hard to see 2024 as a mandate to bring low the titans of industry. After all, a majority voted for the (alleged) billionaire who was very publicly supported by the richest man in the world. Hard as it may be to swallow, a lot of voters like Elon Musk. As Sen. John Fetterman noted, for many he’s more Tony Stark than Richie Rich.
Second, Democrats must not fall for what political commentator Ruy Teixeira has dubbed the “Fox News Fallacy.” Sure, Fox often gins up pseudo-scandals. But that doesn’t mean everything they harp on is bogus. The southern border really was out of control for several years under Biden. It’s much better now, but his executive actions to get there came much too late. And while crime is down, Americans are still leery about urban chaos. That may be, in part, because the right wing echo-chamber tells them to be. But it doesn’t make it less politically consequential. Just ask the soon-to-be-former mayors of San Francisco and Oakland.
Third, it’s time to retire the totemic Democratic belief that demography is destiny. According to the exit polls, nearly half of Latino voters flocked to Trump. He doubled his share of young black men and increased his performance among non-college voters from 51 percent in 2020 to 55 percent this year. The idea that a majority-minority “rising Democratic electorate” would lift us to victory has been shattered. Critical non-white demographic groups must no longer be viewed as Democratic base voters but as up for grabs.
Fourth, we must acknowledge that voters’ association of “woke” attitudes hurt Democrats badly. Of course, Democrats should continue to embrace racial justice, freedom, and equality and to protect the vulnerable. But if voters believe we are moralizing scolds trapped in faculty lounge pieties and out of touch with their lives and values, they won’t back us.
Finally, to dump Trumpism, we need to look to places where right-wing authoritarians have been rejected. Those victories have not come from the likes of Sanders or his far-left movement. Instead, it’s been achieved by centrists like Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who ousted the right-wing Law and Justice Party last year; or by the coalition of center-left parties that beat Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, a Trump acolyte, in 2022; or through the decision of French left-wing parties to join with the more moderate President Emanuel Macron to help beat back the far-right Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
Harris understood all of this. But her 100-day pivot to the middle could not reasonably be expected to overcome almost a decade of far-left damage to the Democratic brand. Nor was it enough to erase memories of her leftward turn during her 2019 presidential primary run.
The task ahead is daunting. We must put a check on Trump, make gains in 2026, and eject MAGA from power in 2028. His second term is certain to be filled with incompetence, venality, and chaos. That means Democrats can once again be seen as the party of sanity and common sense. To get there, we must squarely confront the problems with our brand and champion leaders who can move us towards a new, working-class-oriented center.
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