2024 Election Takeaways (Plus Paid Subscription Options Now Available):
The Democratic Party Needs to Shed Their Clinton-Esque Corporate Centrism For Good & Embrace Old-School Progressive Populism To Win The Country Again.
Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, Project 2025, Build Back Better, the progressive movement, the true story about former 2024 VP contender Gina Raimondo, and much more.
Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States, and will do so in an election that is not even close. It is not easy to say this as a concerned citizen for the country, but as a nation, we must move forward with the results and acknowledge the other side for a hard fought campaign. The people have spoken and made their ultimate decision.
For those concerned citizens all across the nation, and those watching around the world, I won’t tell you that everything will be alright. What I do say is to not fall into despair. Do not quit. The nation needs you at this very moment.
You have every reason to be worried about the future of this country. A lot is still at stake even now. We all know that you are not playing with the same benefits that the other side has. But rest assured, the only way this great republic and experiment falls is if we concede the fight. We have come too far as a great nation to let that happen.
Money and intelligence are distant cousins. An elected office or public position is not much different from being a public advocate and civic servant. Your work is important, and it may now be the last line of defense for our American democracy.
The work begins now, and it ain’t over till it’s over.
As I think about Trump’s reelection, I am reminded of the late Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci. 45% of Providence voters (my family included) supported Cianci’s 2014 comeback bid to City Hall, even after two convictions and two resignations. People may wonder why one would ever put trust in a convicted criminal like Cianci.
As I think about it now, the same can be asked about Donald Trump. If people are so desperate to feel heard in any way, what did they have to lose by choosing a supposed change maker? I don’t agree with their assessment, but I see their point however risky it very well is.
The answer is simple: Unlike the Republican Party, the Democratic Party failed to offer a clear and concise vision of their own as to how to address the people all over America who feel forgotten and left behind for far too long. And I say the parties intentionally because the problem is more systemic—way beyond Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
There are two parts to it. First, the Democratic Party has forgotten its people. It has forgotten places like Rural America, the Industrial Midwest, the Black Belt South, Appalachia, the Rio Grande Valley, and elsewhere. It has taken for granted the support of the Farm-Labor coalitions, as well as small businesses, and the African American & Hispanic American communities, instead of working around the clock for their support. And they haven’t shown up in many of these places in a very long time.
As a rural strategist friend of mine once told me recently, one of the biggest mistakes the Harris campaign made in 2024 was insulating Governor Tim Walz from the press and campaign trail at first. Instead, they should have had Walz all over at farmers’ markets, at county fairs, small town media outlets, and other local gatherings in rural communities. That did not happen. At all.
If you look at the 2008 electoral landscape compared to the 2024 landscape today, you will see the meaning of competing everywhere for every vote. That was the essence of Howard Dean’s 50-State Strategy, which started from the get-go after the disastrous 2004 election cycle. That was the essence of the DNC Rural Councils & Policy Desks established under his leadership, and that was transferred to the 2008 Obama-Biden presidential campaign. When Democrats take voting blocs for granted and fail to understand their cultures and their ways of life, outcomes like 2016 and 2024 will come up over and over again.
One example with political correctness will illustrate the point. Take it from Congressman Ruben Gallego, who called out the pointlessness of debating what to call Hispanics & Latinos (“Latinos,” “Latinx,” or “BIPOC”?). Or the useless outrage over statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Voting blocs don’t want to be appeased with the most polite words and rhetoric. It is simple: voters prefer actions over words. They want to get bold action with results. They want a fighter for them. They are fed up with politics as usual, whether they are white, Black, or Latino.
That, and robust redistricting litigation, would have been time much better spent instead of party insiders targeting congressional progressives and AIPAC critics. Maybe those primary cycle decisions cost us the election now.
Think about how angry people have to be, like Latino men & women, young blacks, union rank-and-file, and even non-college educated women to buck Democrats, and in some cases, vote Republican for the first time ever. Imagine people who voted previously for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were tired of being not listened to enough. For what it’s worth, we need to listen to them.
Maybe even more importantly, voters want to know that they are being heard again. They deserve it. People know, Democratic or Republican, that our government does not work for them. It works for the special interests, and it leaves everyone left behind straggling for crumbs.
That is something Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren understood, even if people contest their solutions to the issues at hand. Unfortunately, the corporate wing of the Democratic Party has lost its roots and has fallen out of touch with the despair and helplessness that people all across this country feel today. It has become too accustomed to the comforts of the coastal elites, forgetting the voices that mattered the most, like the Teamsters and the Firefighters union. Instead, we prioritized Shark Tank co-hosts who recently donated to Massachusetts Republicans, a former DNC Chair who propped up Hillary Clinton back in 2016, and a Commerce Secretary who is in bed with venture capital and business executives.
Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema tell you all you need to know about corporate centrism.
Think about how many times the 2024 campaign talked about record income & racial inequality, the minimum wage, universal healthcare, a robust public education system for everyone, the climate crisis, student debt assistance, vocational training and workforce development, union solidarity, consumer safety & antitrust, fair trade values, industrial policy, agricultural policy, the opioid & fentanyl crises, and the like. The vagueness of the campaign vision unquestionably drove the resurgence of Trump to power, much like what happened in 2016. Were Congressional Republicans called out regularly for their obstruction of the Build Back Better Agenda and the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris Administration? Nope, they weren’t.
Threading the needle satisfies no one, especially when placating to corporate special interests as the Party of the Clintons have done for more than THREE decades, through NAFTA, PNTR, and TPP, Wall Street deregulation, welfare reform, bankruptcy reform, tough-on-crime bills, and more. Democrats, unlike Republicans, have incurred regular electoral losses on a massive scale because of this agenda.
The move to the center needs to stop here and now with a new, populist direction. The Third Way needs to go away. Because it sure as hell is not the progressives running the show since 1992.
Winning votes will not come, and cannot come, at the cost of working families and the middle class. It will only come when we call out the corporate oligarchy and the DC elite establishment willing to stick with them and double down on their interests.
So now for the pep talk. The fate of democracy is now in your hands. I know it seems hard to live in Donald Trump’s America. The challenges seem insurmountable. But as Charles Howard’s Seabiscuit knows very well, you can either pack up and call it quits or keep fighting for your values. Inch by inch, and in every nook & cranny. Because the truth is our nation was built on the little guy, the little guy that has been underestimated at each and every turn. With our help, and by building on the great work and policies of President Biden, the little guy can win again.
But we need to get on message, and fast.
And so be warned. If, or maybe when, the DC trifecta tanks the American economy and divides our nation further, our time to offer a new contract for and to America will come, which will mean much more than just being anti-Trump.
Stay tuned for more autopsy takes on the 2024 elections for my party.