Welcoming @ the DNC

GOP on the main stage, progressive rhetoric moving center, Barack's secret message, and Welcome featured at events on the future of the party

We’re hanging in Chicago at the DNC - let us know if you’re here and want to meet up! Shoot Lauren a note at lauren@welcomepac.org

Two big Welcome themes have emerged so far at the DNC: elevating Republican validators, and tamping down the far left rhetoric.

As we saw last night, Republicans - including a courageous address from former Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham - were given significant airtime to make the case for Kamala Harris. The CNN headline framed it thusly: Next up at the Democratic convention: Republican speakers.

Earlier in the election, we were critical of the Biden campaign’s lack of engagement of GOP supporters. But that has turned around - and the staffing shows it:

“We will be putting patriotic Republicans front and center in our convention programming to explain, in their own words, why they are putting country first and supporting Vice President Harris,” said Austin Weatherford, the campaign’s national engagement director for Republicans for Harris.

Kudos to the centrist political entrepreneurs who have kept pushing forward on this, especially Haley Voters for Harris and Republicans For Harris.

The Bulwark headline from Joe Perticone captures this change - Democrats Welcome Disaffected Republicans With Open Arms.

Republicans have been defecting from their party for as long as Trump has run it. But these ones in particular are being welcomed with open arms by Democrats who view them as key validators for their case against the ex-president. They are being hailed as embodiments of the case Harris is making that voters should put country over party.

Hug Right, Pivot Center

While the Harris campaign is investing in outreach to Republicans, the party’s most prominent leftist is also pivoting to the center (rhetorically at least).

We have written how the Far Left Has Peaked; and even AOC has gotten the message. Reporter Jordan Weissman noted that AOC’s much-lauded speech was “the official transition from the most magnetic leftist … to the most magnetic normie Dem.” And in The Atlantic, Yair Rosenberg noted the contrast between AOC’s factional, academic 2020 DNC speech and the more generically Democratic 2024 speech directed at mainstream voters: “The progressive congresswoman is no longer speaking solely to the left wing, but to the party as a whole.“ (h/t Jonathan Chait).

Obama’s Secret Message

Jonathan Chait also put America’s most popular politician into proper context this morning in New York magazine with this must-read: Obama’s DNC Speech Had a Secret Message for Democrats.

Toward the end of his speech, Obama aimed an argument squarely at his own party. Democrats are sometimes tempted to meet the hatred and anger on the right in kind. That is where they go wrong. “We start thinking that the only way to win is to scold and shame and out-yell the other side,” Obama said, “And after a while, regular folks just tune out, or they don’t bother to vote.”

Since his second term, Obama has been calling out the progressive tendency to shut down criticism by labeling it racist and sexist. In his Chicago speech, he framed this argument in practical electoral terms, explaining that Democrats cannot win over voters by treating them as bigots if they don’t agree on everything:

To make progress on the things we care about, the things that really affect people’s lives, we need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices. And that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process. 

After all, if a parent or grandparent occasionally says something that makes us cringe, we don’t automatically assume they’re bad people. We recognize that the world is moving fast, that they need time and maybe a little encouragement to catch up. Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us. That’s how we can build a true Democratic majority, one that can get things done.

Read the whole thing here.

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Welcome @ The DNC

The quadrennial Democratic convention also serves as a marker for reflection and planning on where the parties will go. We joined two conversations on those topics so far this week, on the “Four -Party” faction that has emerged within our two party system and on an emerging policy agenda for a pragmatic Democrats.

This morning, Lauren joined former Congressman Patrick Murphy for a discussion on intra-party schisms hosted by the Annenberg Institute at USC and the University of Pennsylvania:

American politics is described as a duopoly despite the reality that roughly half of the electorate identifies as independent or unaffiliated and the reality of clear schisms within the major parties — between pro and anti-Trump Republicans and between moderate and progressive Democrats. Are these clear schisms reconcilable? Will the 2024 election result in a major party alignment?

Strengthening a coherent centrist faction is a founding argument of ours, and this multi-faction reality within our two party system is why we believe that To Defeat Authoritarianism, We Need Partisan Centrism.

Abundance of Optimism

President Obama brought the house down last night, and he lit up housing policy Twitter with his line on “getting rid of the outdated regulations that make it harder to build.”

This approach to bringing down costs is a hallmark of the emerging “Abundance” movement. Yesterday, Lauren joined Chamber of Progress for a discussion on how Democrats can deploy supply-side progressivism and use it to address the issues that matter most to voters. Check out the recommendations in their “Abundance and Affordability” project.

Tomorrow (Thursday), Lauren will be featured in the Braver Angels Coliseum Debate on whether "Progressivism is a Force for Good in American Democracy." You can join in person if you are in Chicago, or watch the livestream - more information here and below.

This will be a thoughtful and eloquent conversation, featuring the expertise and insight of a unique mix of local leaders and national thinkers from the friends of the Braver Angels community, with the perspectives of civic activism, political journalism, and historical reflection on the phenomenon of progressivism in America in 2024. Themes will include the DNC's being held in Chicago, the future of the party system and especially the Democratic Party, the styles of progressivism in their red and blue forms, and the Upper Midwest's unique role in political movements in American history.

Braver Angels Debates, in all their forms, including the Coliseum style, are meant to bring out the highest versions of arguments for as many sides of a question, and from as many modes of understanding, as possible, and to place them in productive conflict with each other. At best they become microcosms of the national discourse, in all its complexity and contradiction, but leavened and enlightened by goodwill, curiosity, and courage.

This debate will be held in-person at the Chicago Public Library's Sulzer Regional Library's Large Community Room, from 4-6pm on August 22nd. It will also be live-streamed via the Braver Angels YouTube channel. Guests are encouraged to register ahead of time, and the Braver Angels Illinois and Chicago leaders will host a nominee speech watch party after the debate ends.

This is a *FREE* event. Use promo code BRAVER during registration to get a free ticket. Donations beyond the free ticket support Braver Angels, 501(c)3. Register here.