Goal: "Telling Democrats what they need to do to win elections."

We hear it all the time: 

Insanity is doing the same thing but expecting a different result.

 A news and opinion organization with a Substack audience just shut down. The Liberal Patriot described a direction for Democratic policies, ones that would let them win elections again. How? By advocating policies that a vast majority of Americans agreed with. 

Simple: yes. Easy: no. 

Key Democratic policy groups have a religious-like faith that they are on the "right side of history" and that it is virtuous to ignore electoral signals sent by voters. 

The Liberal Patriot ceased publication with this:

This is The Liberal Patriot’s final post. We tried our best to make a non-profit media model work with entirely free analysis and commentary published throughout our existence. But it turns out upsetting the partisan applecart on multiple issues is not a particularly good fundraising or business model.

I share the policy direction and goal of The Liberal Patriot writers. A friend and reader, Herb Rothschild, suggested a description of this blog to use in a banner ad: "Telling Democrats what they need to do to win elections." That is what The Liberal Patriot people did. Unlike them, I am not going away. I do this for free and have no expenses and no expectations. People who solicit large contributions -- the people who win statewide and congressional offices in Oregon -- sometimes tell me they read me. Maybe they do.

The Liberal Patriot shared four policy directions where Democrats needed to change course. I agree with these and have mentioned them repeatedly in my posts:

--  The cultural problem. The archetypal Democrat now has the instincts and values of an educated, prosperous, urban, non-religious office-worker in a college town. Their sensibilities, language, values, and political instincts are off-putting to working Americans. Democrats have drifted too far to the left on cultural issues. The problem shows up in the loss of votes of people whose interests on health care, taxes, education, and public benefits that Democrats support -- they should vote for Democrats! -- but they vote Republican anyway. 

--  The trans issue. Democrats try to minimize the issue as a Republican talking point, and it is -- for a reason. It resonates with voters and probably swung the election to Trump. The issue exemplified Democrats demanding belief in an idea that seems utterly false to most Americans, that biological sex isn't real. Most people feel gendered as part of their lived experience. Trans athletes competing as women offend a moral instinct of fair play. Trans women in bathrooms feels like an invasion into a vulnerable space. Democrats ignore those feelings at their political peril. 

--  The immigration problem. Democrats encouraged mass immigration through lax border and interior enforcement and an asylum claim that effectively legalized illegal immigration. It made a mockery of controlled legal immigration. Democrats cannot stop with complaints about brutal ICE enforcement. They need to acknowledge that as a rich country we will draw immigrants, and if there is to be a limit on immigration then some "good" law-abiding people must be denied entry and deported if they are already here. Otherwise it is a free-for-all, and potential migrants will see that and come at rates that stress communities. There is a reason Democrats lost to Trump in border towns. Democrats must get the courage to say "No." 

--  Economics and climate.  Democratic messaging on climate emphasizes the sensibility of the already-comfortable people who can afford to hear messages of conservation and restraint. Poor and working people want policies of can-do abundance. Regulations, environmental lawsuits, and pipeline and drilling bans all send a message that Democrats are withholding prosperity to protect the wealthy.  Zero-emission and carbon goals are unrealistic in their timing and burdensome to working people. Technological advances in wind, solar, nuclear energy may allow Democrats to move toward climate goals in a some-of-everything policy, but Democrats need to get real on the pace of abandoning fossil fuel.

This all makes sense to me. It reflects the interests and values of people whose votes Democrats seek. Can a Democratic candidate for Congress or the White House say things like this and win nomination in a competitive primary? 

Possibly, but the indications are not good. We see the problem when Democrats including Gavin Newsom and Seth Moulton explore a presidential bid and say something heterodox. Liberal progressive enforcers jump on them and call them dangerous heretics and sellouts.

Policy leadership in the Democratic Party comes from officeholders and thought leaders who represent bright blue urban coastal polities. They set the tone for engaged Democrats who show up at candidate events and vote in the Democratic primary. The result is a party that can never win the U.S. Senate and can only win the White House when a Republican incumbent president totally runs the country into a ditch. That is not a description of a party with a durable majority. It is a description of a party that elects Donald Trump.

Democrats need to get real.

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