Many decades ago, when I was starting out in the advertising industry in Manhattan, I heard an interesting talk by a marketing executive from L.L. Bean, who summed up their advertising strategy in a single, short sentence: “We sell the illusion of leisure.” Those who want to successfully influence us, regardless whether they are selling wool socks or political philosophy, will always want to distill their message into a pithy phrase that resonates in our minds.
This inability to distill their ideas into a tag line helps to explain at least some portion of the difficulty now facing Democrats. Whether you love it or hate it, a decade of “Make America Great Again” stamped on hats, tee shirts, websites, and banners has provided a readily recognizable marketing umbrella for Republican policies such as cutting taxes, deporting illegal immigrants, strengthening national defense, promoting public safety, reducing governmental regulation, and supporting business development. Messaging does matter, and the importance of clarity and consistency cannot be overstated.
Democrats are, of course, also hobbled by the sheer unpopularity of many of their policy priorities, but it does not help that they consistently push a message that emphasizes fear instead of ideas. Whatever the issue facing our nation, the Democrat position can be summarized in this single, short sentence: “Trump will kill us all.” Although this does a good job winding up that segment of their constituency that is easily riled, it is neither programmatic nor practicable.
Worse still, these Chicken Little pronouncements of imminent doom have had a pesky tendency to prove false. Despite a muscular and militarily-aggressive foreign policy during both of his terms in office, President Trump has not come close to starting a world war. Although Democrats assured Americans that Trump’s recent tariff policies would crash the economy, the exact opposite seems to be true. Having wailed that reducing the size and scope of government would be the end of our nation, Democrats have been chagrined to discover that canceling contracts and firing federal employees has caused barely a ripple in our daily lives—and is saving a lot of money, besides.
Effective leadership requires explanation and education leading to defined and sustained action, which can be tedious, tiring, and frustrating. This is far less fun than vigorously virtue signaling on TikTok, pointlessly obstructing popular legislation, or judge shopping for a Temporary Restraining Order that will later suffer a humiliating reversal, but this, unfortunately, defines the parameters of the Democratic Party today. The “illusion of relevance” that thrills pundits on MSNBC only serves to highlight the impotence of Democrats and enrages their increasingly frustrated followers.
Blind hatred can motivate, but it cannot govern.
Given that Donald Trump and his Republican allies are on an unprecedented run of legislative, judicial, military, and foreign policy victories that are leaving Democrats flailing in the dust, it seems a good time for Democrats to do something other than retreat to the questionable comforts of writing wrathful posts to one another on BlueSky.
The shaking rage that has enveloped Democrats since Donald Trump entered the political arena a decade ago has short circuited those parts of their brains that were once able to build a broad electoral coalition that was both patriotic and positive. A recent Gallup poll that revealed only 36% of Democrats are proud to be Americans demonstrates the depth of their estrangement from the average Americans whom they openly and vociferously disdain. If you want to lead a nation, you have to first stop hating it.
The path forward for Democrats seems to be murky. Given that anger at Donald Trump and his many second term successes (some are already calling him the most powerful President since FDR) are causing Democrats to race further to the fringe, it is not at all clear how the Party regains its foothold among the moderate voters they so desperately need.
As much as their voter base of Woke White Leftists might be thrilled by Democrat Governors obstructing immigration enforcement or avowed Socialists such as Zohran Mamdani vowing to punish the billionaires still in New York City if he is elected, most Americans are complacently pleased with capitalism and are happy to see hordes of illegals sent back to their own countries. Just as chess games are won by controlling the middle of the board, so is national political power gained by staying away from the ragged edges of issues that thrill only the most hardcore partisans.
It is an open question whether Democrats can ever find their way out of the ideological wilderness that turned so much of the electoral map Republican last year. Right now it feels like too much of their angry and vengeful energy is being expended to drive away anyone who ever salutes a flag, says a prayer, or comes home sweaty at the end of a workday—so it’s difficult to see how Democrats ever climb back into contention.