Progressives Every Day: From Blue Wave to Blood Bath
So where do we go from here?
Welcome to the Wednesday evening edition of Progressives Everywhere!
And that’s about as much enthusiasm as I can muster right now…
There’s no way to sugarcoat what happened to down-ballot Democrats last night — setting aside Arizona, where there are still a few important races to be decided, the party will not flip a single state legislative chamber. In some states, they hardly made any gains at all, and in both Florida and North Carolina’s lower chambers, they actually suffered net losses. Even in New York, where we had visions of a supermajority that could overrule Andrew Cuomo, saw Democratic losses.
We’ve had an amazing year here at Progressives Everywhere, raising millions of dollars for down-ballot candidates and progressive causes. But after going into the big night with such high hopes and excitement about the future, we’re left sitting here, disappointed and wondering what went wrong.
Our candidate results page is a bright red bloodbath, and the fact that the candidates I didn’t choose performed just as poorly is very cold comfort.
(Now, to be clear, it wasn’t all bad news. We had a handful of candidates win, in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Michigan. And a lot of big criminal justice-related races went our way, including Progressives Everywhere-endorsed candidates for offices like Los Angeles District Attorney and Maricopa County Sheriff. )
Where Do We Go From Here?
First, let’s acknowledge there are certain things that Democrats couldn’t control. Racism and other bigotries have emerged as overtly powerful forces in American life once again. Disinformation has become a plague due to malignant actors who spread it and indifferent platforms that refuse to do anything about it. Voter suppression is very real. And clearly, the polls were a disaster once again.
All that said, Democrats are far from blameless. This should have been a blue wave; instead, we’re a few thousand absentee ballots away from a historic bloodbath. We need to take a close and very honest look at what went wrong.
There’s not going to be one obvious answer, nor will there be some easy quick fix. But at the core of the problem, I think, is that this is a political party still largely being run by the same people who ran it in the 1980s and ‘90s. Its strategy, messaging, and spending are all controlled by old DC pros who are obsessed with 30 second TV ads and ambiguous centrist policies at a time when digital media and partisan motivation are so crucial. It needs new blood, new ideas, new leadership.
Over the next few months, I’ll be doing interviews with lawmakers, activists, and other Democratic luminaries to bring you different opinions on how we go forward. I think it’s clear that the era of recruiting people right out of old Macy’s catalogs to run for national office needs to end. If not for COVID-19, Republicans would have full control of the entire government. It’s time to try something new: Giving people something to vote for, not just vote against.
Democrats need to run candidates that people can pick out of a line-up, candidates who act like they believe in something. When repeating “they’ll take away the protections for your pre-existing conditions in your expensive, crappy healthcare plan” over and over again is the sum total of your national strategy, you deserve to lose.
All the talk about needing a centrist, so that Republicans feel comfortable voting for a Democrat? At best delusional, at worst a cynical ploy to kneecap an ascendant progressive populist movement. Republicans voted for Trump more solidly this year (93%) than in 2016 (90%). In fact, every single demographic voted more for Trump than it did in 2016. And every single GOP Senate candidate did better than Trump.
The GOP also actually spoke to voters in person wherever possible. Safely, I should add, which made a huge difference in Texas and Florida.
Democrats need to start empowering grassroots activists. Volunteers in Florida were spending their own money on supplies during GOTV drives and polling place tabling. The fact that Arizona might go blue has little to do with any Democratic campaign; instead, a decade of grassroots organizing has shifted a once-solid red state.
In 2021, much of my focus is going to be on spotlighting and raising money for smart organizers and activists on the ground and within state and local parties, pushing them to be better. When we raise money for candidates in the off-year, it’ll be for candidates who are pushing for important structural changes.
For now, as we sit here and wait for more results from Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, here are some stories and tweets worth reading about Democrats’ new struggles with Latino voters, what happened in Florida.
For Latinos, combating disinformation about the election often starts at home
Florida Democrats call for new party leadership and strategy after yet another GOP rout
Click through this tweet for a very good thread by Jessica Cisneros, the young progressive who nearly unseated Rep. Henry Cuellar, the worst Democrat in the House:
Wait, before you go!
Progressives Everywhere is a one-person operation funded by readers like you (and whatever spare change I have in my pocket after paying rent). Together, we’ve raised over $5.2 million for truly progressive candidates and causes since 2018, helping to flip seats, restore voting rights, expand healthcare, and much more.
Right now, I don’t have a full-time job. I do this because I love it, but I have to balance it against all the freelance work I do each month. I’d love to do this as a full-time job (or at least make it one of my full-time gigs), but I’ve got a long way to go. And because the Democratic Party has such a long way to go, I’m devoting myself to the cause.
To help me out (more than you already have! thank you!), you can make a donation to Progressives Everywhere’s GoFundMe campaign — doing so will earn you a shout-out in an upcoming edition of the big newsletter!
"Where do we go from here?" Yes.