Regardless of how brilliant Democrats look on November 4th, we still have work to do.
Now that I’ve published several of these newsletters, it seems like a good time to take stock of what I’m trying to say here.
I can sum it up in one word: Innovate.
Because no matter how well we end up doing in the midterms, what Democrats are doing right now isn’t working often enough and with enough people. And in 2028, we’re facing a presidential election saddled with all the peculiarities of American national politics, including an Electoral College designed to protect parochial interests circa 1787.
So if we’re going to get back to core American values like decency and not murdering people in the street, we’re going to have to change a whole lot about how Democrats operate.
Because when it comes to innovation, Democrats still party like it’s 1988. If a Dukakis staffer stepped into a time machine and joined the staff of the 2024 Harris campaign, she would have done just fine.
Sure, we’ve tinkered around the edges but the broad contours of campaigns in 2026 ain’t a heck of a lot different than the 1980s.
We still spend craploads of money on broadcast TV (remember that?), still avoid saying anything to piss off anyone anywhere, and limit our campaigns to the smallest of windows at a time when many voters’ decisions have already been shaped by years of consistent GOP propaganda.
Why are Democratic campaigns stuck in the past? Lots of reasons.
Democratic politics at the highest levels is the ultimate cool kids club. I hire you, you hire her, and she hires me. In this world, innovation looks suspiciously like a threat to my revenue stream.
Democrats have become pathologically risk-averse. In the last century, we’ve gone from a movement where people lost their lives in picket lines and voter registration drives to an exclusive club that fetes power brokers at the most exclusive resorts on the planet.
The Borg also plays a big role. That’s how I refer to the machine of consultants and power brokers that constrains innovation in Democratic politics. Its operations are similar to the dark cube that wreaked havoc throughout the Star Trek universe. We’ve always done things a certain way, you know, and it’s working just fine. No change necessary; you must assimilate to the prevailing way of campaigning or perish.
But resistance doesn’t have to be futile.
How could things change? I’ve offered a bunch of suggestions in earlier issues of this newsletter…
Start seeing the forest and the trees at the same time. Effective technique when you don’t have anything meaningful to say doesn’t cut it.
Stop seeing campaigns as a series of ads and start seeing them as conversations in a larger dialogue about what we want this country to be.
Start communicating with people all the time. What can we do better than the other side to keep in front of our voters 365/24/7?
Talk about people’s daily lives. People are hurting right now, struggling to afford their car payment, their doctor’s visits, even filling up the tank. That’s what voters care about and that’s what we should talk about, in terms you’d hear at your kid’s soccer game or in line at the grocery store.
Give people something to do between elections. One result of Trump and MAGA turning literally everything in this country into an ideological battleground is that we now have a nation of people who are way too interested in politics. Let’s put them to work.
Fix research. Fewer people respond to polls than ever before and a whole host of deficiencies have meant that polling has lost touch with important changes in the American electorate. It’s time for a new research paradigm.
Improve the ways we spend donors’ dollars. Billions of dollars were spent in 2024 on the way to losing to the dumbest, crudest, most predatory, and most ridiculous person to ever gargle bleach. Money ain’t the problem; spending it better is.
Connect hiring decisions to results. We have the methodology to do a much better job at hiring the right people to work on Democratic campaigns. Do head-to-head tests of vendors in the various disciplines (TV, mail, digital, whatever) and hire only the firms that excel.
Replace lip service with cold, hard cash. If Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans and every other community of Americans is truly important, stop spending the bare minimum and start investing in the basics. Getting better data on these voters would be a good place to start.
These are the points I’ve tried to make so far. In upcoming newsletters, I’ll try to make some more.
If you’re concerned about the direction of the Democratic Party and agree that things need to change, then I’d humbly suggest that you say so out loud.
If you work in Democratic politics, say it louder.
The most powerful man in the world tears apart the building blocks of American life, starts a war that the American people don’t want, laughs it all off, and then moves on to his next 27 destructive acts.
Meanwhile, Democrats take a year and half to decide that a 3% contact rate on phone calls to voters during the Harris campaign demanded a wee bit of attention.
With a response rate like that, we definitely need to speed up the pace of innovation.
Before resistance becomes futile.
For good.