America's "Monstrous Majority"

Wearing USA Hockey gear, silent for the national anthem, and not posting

This morning’s “Behind the Curtain” newsletter from Axios hit hard, exposing America’s Big Lie:

Watch TV, scroll social media or listen to politicians, and the verdict seems clear: Americans are hopelessly divided and increasingly hateful.

• It’s a ubiquitous, emphatic, verifiable ... lie.

Why it matters: Most Americans are too busy for social media, too normal for politics, too rational to tweet. They work, raise kids, coach Little League, go to a house of worship, mow their neighbor’s lawn — and never post a word about any of it.

This isn’t a small minority. It’s a monstrous, if silent, majority. Most Americans are patriotic, hardworking, neighbor-helping, America-loving, money-giving people who don’t pop off on social media or plot for power.

• The hidden truth: Most people agree on most things, most of the time. And the data validates this, time and time again.

Our entire team lives far from Washington, DC.

I live in Needham, Massachusetts. There are a few TRUMP and MAGA flags here, about on par with flags for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills (the real enemy).

Kamala Harris dominated my hometown, 75% to 22%.

A few years ago, the Democratic nominee for Governor lived in our town. He got blown out by the moderate Republican, 67% to 33%. In Massachusetts. During Trump’s first term.

Hey, the Republican was normal.

The sign outside Memorial Park, where the high school football team plays in the nation’s oldest Thanksgiving Day rivalry, says GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Our basketball team entered the state tournament ranked third, earning home court advantage a few days after the Olympics wrapped up. That home court advantage = a rambunctious student section wearing USA hockey jerseys and Uncle Sam overalls.

They stood silently for the national anthem.

---

Our team lives a version of this normal offline life, in Alabama and Colorado and Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Lauren lives in South Carolina. In September, she wrote about the struggles our team faced with candidates last year:

This cycle we are seeing a plethora of progressive Democrats shrouded in the “authenticity” they believe will make people like them more than Democrats in Congress.

I’ve been calling it the “progressives in sheep’s clothing” phenomenon, where a “regular guy/gal” decides to run for office to prove that normal people can be Democrats, but they espouse the same positions as those who are in the progressive caucus and are notably disagreeable with median voter sympathy.

So they’re not actually normal, aka where the median voter is. And their candidacy will just further estrange moderate-to-conservative voters from our Party.

I tell people often that Welcome was founded in 2019 to cultivate a more welcoming Democratic Party that appeals to Republican and independent voters.

But as of late, I often find that we are working to cultivate a more welcoming Democratic Party that ensures Democrats still feel welcome! Voters like myself who don’t identify as progressive and are people of color who still need a home in our politics.

Being forthright about this reality helped us build an incredible slate of candidates.

But it isn’t always easy. Most people in politics are very online, and very polarized. Back to the Axios description of The Big Lie:

Oh, but you’re so naive, so delusional and detached from reality. Everywhere I look, I see dispute and decline!

But it’s the terminally online news junkies who are detached from the actual reality.

• We’ve been manipulated by algorithms and politicians amplifying the worst of humanity. Our feeds and screens spread a twisted, inaccurate view of America.

• It makes it seem like the nation is hopelessly broken ... Political enemies are evil ... Facts are no different than fiction ... Morality, honesty and service don’t matter ... And salvation can only come from magical technologies or a powerful few.

What if we told you it’s a big lie that makes you stop believing your own two eyes?

• Every day, people battle over outrageous things said on X. Did you know that four out of five Americans don’t use X, and therefore don’t see what you see? Pew Research Center found last year that only 21% of U.S. adults use X, and just 10% visit it daily. The loudest platform in politics reaches barely one in five Americans.

• But what about the wacky claims made on cable TV? Did you know that during most hours of most prime-time nights, less than 1% of the country watches Fox News, CNN or MS NOW, combined?

Maybe, just maybe, it’s the very people on these platforms who are the crazy ones.

• Maybe, just maybe, most people are simply normal, sane, real.

• A Gallup World Poll out last week found Americans are more anxious about their political system than citizens of almost any other country — yet the data consistently shows this anxiety is driven by the noise, not the neighbors. The system feels broken. The people are not.

The first in-person meeting we had in DC, a participant said “either we’re crazy, or everybody else is.”

Five years later, it is more true than ever. We live it every day.

Believe your own two eyes.