Nearly six months after losing both the White House and both chambers of Congress, Democrats’ continued refusal to conduct a thorough and honest assessment of why they lost has left the party adrift and without direction.
Indeed, as California Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Hill, Democrats will not find their way “back from the wilderness” unless they’re “willing to look inward at what led to the losses.”
Moreover, Newsom continued, Democrats are in such a state of disarray that, “I don’t know what the party is,” nor does he know “who is leading it, or where it wants to go.”
In many ways, Democrats’ profound identity crisis amid a glaring lack of national leadership has created not just a “void” as Newsom described, but a dangerous vacuum.
It has also hobbled any attempts to effectively oppose President Trump or Republicans at the precise time Democrats should be beginning to think about next year’s midterms.
Sensing Democrats’ leadership vacuum, Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have embarked on a high-profile “Fighting the Oligarchy” tour across the country.
Ironically, the two progressive lawmakers were spotted using a private plane to travel between stops on their tour, where they regularly demonize the wealthy, advocate for sky-high taxes on high earners, and rail against America’s capitalist roots.
Hypocrisy aside, if Sanders and AOC are leading the Democratic Party, Democrats’ electability will get worse before it gets better.
Unfortunately for those who, like me, believe America is better off with two viable political parties, the far-left’s takeover of the Democratic Party is political suicide for a party that needs to reconnect with mainstream voters.
Further, it proves that Democrats still do not understand why they lost in 2024, or why they’ll continue losing if the far-left is allowed to dominate the party.
Last November, just weeks after the election, I was asked on Fox News’ Ingraham Angle about the impact on Democrats should AOC become a party leader. In comments I still stand by, I said then that an AOC candidacy would “be a disaster for Democrats.”
Voters clearly rejected the far-left policies AOC loudly supports, and if Democrats want to win, they need to move to the center on cultural and fiscal issues – the opposite of AOC’s agenda.
To that end, Trump’s gains with the traditional Democratic base in the last election stemmed from working-class Americans feeling that the party had moved too far-left on key issues, particularly the economy, crime, and immigration.
At the same time, Democrats’ obsession with divisive social issues that few genuinely care about, such as transgender athletes in sports, made the party seem wildly out of touch with the majority of Americans who opposed the party’s far-left positions.
As a political professional with decades of experience, I struggle to see how a party led by AOC – or any other progressive – would do anything but exacerbate these problems and make the party even less electable.
True, Sanders and AOC do appeal to a very vocal and enthusiastic constituency, particularly young voters.
Nevertheless, that constituency is nowhere near a majority of all voters, nor does their social media presence match their consistently low turnout at the ballot box.
Most of all, however, it is highly unlikely that AOC would be able to expand her appeal to bring in the swing voters necessary to win a national election.
Demonstrating rare clarity among high-profile Democrats – and a willingness to challenge Newsom appears to be the lone high-profile Democrat willing to acknowledge this.
In the aforementioned Hill interview, he applauded Sanders’ and AOC’s enthusiasm and “willingness to step into the void,” but also pointed out, “I don’t know that an electoral victory from a prism of 2028 lies there.”
It is quite difficult to imagine AOC’s support for open borders and fringe social issues endearing herself to working-class voters in purple rust-belt states.
Similarly, it’s hard to see suburban voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Arizona responding well to her desire to massively increase taxes to fund an even bigger government, or her past calls to “defund the police.”
As Douglas Mackinnon noted in the Hill, aside from AOC’s support for highly unpopular policies, her singular, animating issue has mostly been attacking Trump.
Mackinnon wrote that AOC does not “seem to address crime, the punishing effects of illegal immigration…or the maladies of our crumbling inner cities.”
Rather, her “entire platform” seems to be “hating Trump, loving government spending, demanding billions for reparations” and expanding the size of government.
In fairness, that critique of AOC could be applied to the Democratic Party writ large.
For nearly a decade, they have been able to use Trump as a boogeyman – running against him, rather than for something.
To an extent, that approach worked in 2018, 2020, and 2022, and it may well work in 2026. But, in 2028, Democrats must rediscover who they are and what they stand for.
To start, they need a leader.
Ultimately, whether it’s Newsom, Governors Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore, or JB Pritzker, or another centrist, they need to realign the party with what voters overwhelmingly want: secure borders, a smaller federal government, fewer regulations, and the prioritizing of economic growth over controversial social issues.
Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant.
Originally Published:
