Losing is tough. Democrats are learning that the hard way with the recent Laken Riley Act, a bill with real flaws that sounds common-sense. As Lauren noted last week, the problem Democrats face is a credibility gap caused by getting to far ahead of public opinion on immigration. Members feel like they have to vote for this bill to prove that they care about illegal immigration.
Progressives who oppose the bill must show the public why it’s apparently common-sense messaging disguises some worrying provisions.
The bill certainly contains some worrying provisions: allowing states to sue the federal government for its immigration decisions, and allowing people to be detained if they are arrested but not charged. Even ICE is raising concerns about implementation.
So, are progressive activists clearly explaining these problems to lawmakers, since a more accurate and nuanced understanding of the bill might persuade them to vote another way? Sure doesn’t seem like it.
From the Indivisible “Advocacy Director” Andrew O’Neill:
I invite any of the Dems struggling with the disinformation about immigration to simply read the bill - it’s 10 pages. I’ll draw you pictures if you or your staff need that.
A few things here.
First, he’s responding to a quote from a member who opposes the bill (a Latina too - should a progressive white dude tell a Latina Congresswomen they can “draw pictures” to explain concepts to them).
Second, you don’t need to be a career lobbyist to know “I can draw you pictures” is not typically an effective strategy. You shouldn’t call the members you’re trying to persuade idiots.
Third, it’s actually literally your job to explain the bill and the adverse outcomes you want to prevent!
Imagine a pharmaceutical lobbyist derisively telling a Senator they can “draw them pictures” to explain a bill. It would never happen! In fact, pharmaceutical industry lobbyists are more than happy to spend all day explaining a bill to you. They’ll walk you through their polling on the bill and their analysis of its impact on GDP and job growth, broken down for your district. They won’t simply tell you to read it yourself. They want to provide you with their interpretation!
Progressives have gotten so used to getting whatever they want from Democrats that the idea of actually talking to legislators, walking through legislation, and making a data-informed case is considered beneath them. Professional progressive activists, in their minds, are supposed to fire off a few tweets and wait for Democrats to do what they say. Unsurprisingly, before firing off tweets on behalf of Indivisible, O’Neill worked for Mark Pocan, a lawmaker with a penchant for Twitter.
And Indivisible’s founder has seemed fine with this approach, as we covered in Second Wave Resistance:
For some, the original Resistance has been going well. As the co-founder of the
progressive group Indivisible said after Democrats lost the House in 2022:
“The great thing about having your strategy being proven correct is that you don’t have to rethink your strategy…We would have, if the red wave materialized. But it didn’t…”
The progressive community’s retreat from winning, and full embrace of “it’s not my job to explain to you why you’re wrong” Twitter rhetoric, has coincided with a growing radicalization. The far left no longer debates the merits of their ideas, and they are increasingly incapable of explaining the ideas on their merits.
I think reasonably often middle-aged people hired recent college graduates through pipelines that had historically produced nice moderate liberals like themselves and discovered in shock that now they were producing illiberal leftists who thought the org should be run their way.
Piper is responding to revelations that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was shocked to learn that his family foundation’s staffers hired to manage the organization's criminal justice work attempted to fire him for being too bipartisan. The reality is that bipartisanship is how things get done in DC. The far-left strategy of alienating friends and insulting potential allies will only lead to further marginalization.
That’s sad, because on a wide range of issues, we need a viable progressive voice to protect the vulnerable. But if the far-left impulse to deride rather than inform and berate rather than compromise rules, American politics will only shift further to the right.