What do we mean?

Recently, there’ve been a lot of conversations about why Democrats are in trouble.

And in trouble we are. Regardless of how many times someone responds, “but the midterms!” we do have a significant challenge facing us but it’s not the things that most critics are pointing to.

Yes, Democratic campaigns spend way too much on broadcast media that are far past their pull-by date.

Yes, we have to commission multi-million dollar polling projects to figure out how to talk to the people we went to high school with.

And yes, our “message,” if you can call it that, sucks.

But before fixing any of that can make a difference, I think we have to address a much more basic problem: What do we mean?

On the other side, it’s pretty clear what they mean. When they’re not owning the libs and sharing brain-dead memes with their cousins, the MAGA horde understands exactly what Trump and his minions mean all the damn time.

And the MAGA ideal of an all-white theocracy where they can all get rich trading crypto while raising their own food, home-schooling their children, and cheering on Trump’s private army unites them in a way that Democrats just can’t match right now.

It's more than a “message,” it’s a world view. It wraps all of their fears, hopes, and desires into one nice, little belligerent package. Republicans have constructed this meaning together so that they now exist in a climate-controlled, hermetically sealed environment which is impermeable to any logic, sense, or rational thought.

Now, I loathe the MAGA way of thinking and I’m pretty sure that unless the rest of us figure out a way to derail it, America is screwed, but you gotta admit it’s pretty damn impressive. Trump and his Wormtongue-worthy advisors have concocted an entire philosophy of life and packaged it up for mass consumption in every Ultimate Fighting arena and KKK meeting in the land.

And while they’ve been doing that, we’ve been talking about…apprenticeships.

My favorite example of the lack of meaning in Democratic politics is our decades-long reliance on apprenticeships to form the basis of many a campaign economic plan.

Now, of course, apprenticeships are a terrific pathway to good-paying jobs and a good life. Many people gain valuable skills, earn great money, and support their families because of what they learn as apprentices.

But by themselves, apprenticeships should be just one part of an overall plan to help more Americans get good jobs they can live on. Unfortunately, Democrats have still failed to offer a glimpse of this overall plan. Many still won’t even utter the word “Union” despite record levels of support.

Which is weird since unions are hugely popular right now and are still the best way for people to get treated better at work and make more money. This union phobia also ignores the fact that union members vastly outnumber membership in groups driving the national dialogue right now. Unions have 16 million members while the NRA has 4 million members, Turning Point USA 650,000, and the dreaded Federalist Society just 90,000. But still, the certified smart people keep talking about the “decline of unions.”

Some decline.

This same approach — publicizing scattered proposals shorn of any larger ideal — governs everything that Democrats talk about these days. Instead of a unified approach to a better life, we offer voters discrete proposals that “test well” but are disconnected from any larger picture of what it’s like to live, work, and worry in the US of A.

Lower class sizes.

Cheaper prescription drugs.

And on and on.

It’s a laundry list instead of a dream.

Nothing wrong with the ideas, but without any greater ideological scaffolding, they crumble in the face of the first strong wind.

The other side gives voters a story where they can neatly understand their entire lives with heroes and villains and simple solutions.

To which we respond…have to get back to you on that one.

No matter how much effort we devote to getting more efficient at buying digital ads, or knocking on doors, or encouraging people to turn in their ballots, it won’t matter because why should it? What overarching idea are we giving people to solve the problems they confront at home, at work, in the ER?

What kind of world do we want to live in? That’s the question that we keep failing to answer while Putin’s Puppy and his accomplices gleefully rush in to fill the void. Every loudmouth who ever irritated his dormmates is now a political philosopher for MAGA. They stir up fear, anger, rage, and call it a trend, a movement, a revolution.

Somebody needs to start coming up with a compelling way to show voters how the core American values that Democrats embrace — equality, opportunity, fairness — can be more than vapid soundbites. More than a way to practice performative politics. More than fancy words that test well in a poll.

Want to give it a try?

2,763 is designed to encourage candid discussions about how we let that dumbass win twice and how we can prevent similarly terrible things from happening in the future. I’d love to know what you think, if you disagree, and if there are other hard questions that you think should be on the table. Everything is fair game, because, well, it needs to be at this point.