Reactions to this past weekend’s DNC elections have ranged from “that was terrible” to “sure, that was terrible … but what did you expect?”
It was also a reminder to join us at WelcomeFest on June 4 in DC because we need a vision for change, not more of the same.
Our inaugural gathering last summer brought together more than 300 fellow pragmatists seeking a return to reality. This year’s WelcomeFest will be bigger — and arguably, even more needed.
Show Us You Learned Nothing
A DNC reaction worth reading is from Jonathan Chait, who puts the stick-fingers-in-ears-and-say-nah-nah-nah-nah approach of the DNC into context for The Atlantic:
The good news about the DNC, for those who prefer that the country have a politically viable alternative to the authoritarian personality cult currently running it, is that the official Democratic Party has little power. The DNC does not set the party’s message, nor will it determine its next presidential candidate.
The bad news is that the official party’s influence is so meager, in part because the party has largely ceded it to a collection of progressive activist groups. These groups, funded by liberal donors, seldom have a broad base of support among the voting public but have managed to amass enormous influence over the party.
Read more of the aptly titled The Democrats Show Why They Lost: At a meeting of the DNC, the party seemed to be at pains to demonstrate that it learned nothing from its 2024 defeat.
Alienating, Captive, Out of Touch
Here’s Molly Ball with an on-the-ground view from the DNC elections. The verbs are on-point:
All of the candidates could agree that the situation facing the party is dire. The Democratic brand is in the toilet, with a recent Wall Street Journal poll showing 60% of Americans view the party unfavorably while only 36% see it favorably. Democrats lost ground with nearly every demographic group last November, including minorities, women, low-income voters and those without college degrees. “Twenty big cities, Aspen and Martha’s Vineyard—that’s what’s left of the Democratic Party,” lamented former congressional candidate Adam Frisch. “And I’m not exactly sure those 20 big cities are getting the best version of the Democratic Party.”
Yet as the would-be leaders bickered over party mechanics, the very pathologies that many critics argue have alienated Democrats from the American heartland were on display: a party captive to leftist activists, obsessed with divisive litmus tests, out of touch with regular people’s concerns and in thrall to a patronizing identity politics that alienates many of the very minorities it is meant to attract. Nor did anyone dare to argue that the prior administration’s failures might have contributed to voters’ sour view of Democrats …
Adam Frisch (Wins Above Replacement: D+6.3) will be at WelcomeFest, by the way. You should be too - you can register here.
Welcoming, Learning, ‘Festing
Last year’s WelcomeFest featured the brightest lights of a revitalized center-left poised to counter the denial coming from too many on the left.
Conversations like Winning Center-Right Voters with
and PA-10 candidate Janelle Stelson (who went on to run 8.8 points ahead in Split-Ticket’s model, third best of all Democrats). Visions for the future, like the case for progressive conservatism from (won a district Trump won by 9.4 points).We heard
in conversation with Senators Michael Bennett and Chris Murphy, presenting research predicting major losses among young and minority voters, and with Gen Z experts on progressive myths, and a stirring call for reclaiming the flag from , who was out yesterday in The Bulwark on lessons from the Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council (Bubba Has the Answers for Dems in Despair).There’s also so much good work being done by the co-sponsors of last year’s ‘Fest. Third Way came out with a new report this weekend from the authors of the original DLC tome: Renewing the Democratic Party.
We know the DNC conversation is not real. Join us on June 4 for real conversations addressing the problems and tackling them head-on. You can register here.
No More Masquerade Ball
PS, Chait also touches on the election of David Hogg to DNC Vice Chair (an absurdity we wrote about over the weekend):
Hogg’s takeaway from the 2024 presidential race is that Democrats lost because they failed to rally the youth vote with a rousing message on guns, climate, and other issues favored by progressive activists. Polling, in fact, showed that young voters had similar issue priorities as older voters, but Hogg’s elevation was a tribute to the wish masquerading as calculation that Democrats can gain vote share without compromising with the electorate.
Hogg wasted no time in leveraging his new role as DNC Vice Chair to raise money … for his PAC, not the party.
“Wish masquerading as calculation” is a charitable description of much of the left. It’s time to change the math.