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somsai

(196 posts)
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 08:13 AM 5 hrs ago

Deciding To Win

Toward a Common Sense Renewal of the Democratic Party
https://decidingtowin.org/

Only for those who want to win an election at polls in the US,

4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Silent Type

(12,057 posts)
2. Recommended, though some folks are going to chit when they read that.
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 08:28 AM
4 hrs ago

Not saying it's all on target, but there's plenty of truth there. We absolutely have to win in midterms, but there are some Democratic principles we can't ignore to win.

unblock

(55,811 posts)
3. While I applaud the research, analytics, and detail provided,
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 09:10 AM
4 hrs ago

it's really just a tired old argument of moderates calling for moderation. Worse, given the unprecedented transition the Republican Party and the trump administration has taken into a full-fledged criminal fascist cult, it effectively normalizes the extraordinary threat our country and freedoms are under.

Sorry, but this is not just another administration, not just another president, not just another election cycle, not just another opportunity for wonky message tweaking.

Thanks to republicans, America has turned from a nation of laws into a criminal organization run by a crime boss -- an actual convicted felon no less -- who prioritizes his own personal wealth and power over any discernible public interest. They advocate violence, and they clearly view the constitution and the laws of the land as barriers to overcome through corruption, by appointing people who will enforce any law they can find against democrats and ignore it for republicans, sometimes pointing to a loophole, and sometimes not even bothering to make an excuse.

Moreover, our media has shifted, largely abandoning journalistic principles in favor of amplifying right-wing messaging and lies. Opposition perspectives still get some coverage, though invariably presented as a partisan democratic view (and never anything like an objective truth) and Republican voices are always allowed to dominate any discussion.


Anyone strategy plan that ignores these elephants in the room isn't worth paying attention to.

I think it would be far more promising to develop effective messaging about fighting corruption and propaganda. Rally people around a rare threat to defeat an invasion of a toxic form of government abuse.

If we normalize them, in the long run all is lost.

Fiendish Thingy

(21,597 posts)
4. Consultant driven, Poll-centered centrist nonsense that ignores recent wins that reject this thinking
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 09:56 AM
3 hrs ago

From their manifesto:

Convince voters that we share their priorities by focusing more on issues voters do not think our party prioritizes highly enough (the economy, the cost of living, health care, border security, public safety), and focusing less on issues voters think we place too much emphasis on (climate change, democracy, abortion, identity and cultural issues).

Moderate our positions where our agenda is unpopular, including on issues like immigration, public safety, energy production, and some identity and cultural issues.

Embrace a substantive and rhetorical critique of the outsized political and economic influence of lobbyists, corporations, and the ultra-wealthy, while keeping two considerations in mind: First, voters' frustrations with the status quo are not the same as a desire for socialism. And second, criticizing the status quo is a complement to advocating for popular policies on the issues that matter most to the American people, not a substitute.

Taken together, we can think of these five changes as representing, roughly speaking, the approach of Barack Obama in 2012, the approach of Bernie Sanders (prior to 2020), and the approach of candidates like Dan Osborn, Ruben Gallego, Jared Golden, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Mary Peltola, Adam Gray, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Tom Suozzi, Marcy Kaptur, and Vicente Gonzalez in 2024. What these candidates teach us is that we must avoid both a pivot to corporate centrism and the pursuit of progressive ideological purity. These candidates demonstrate that we must instead maintain an unwavering focus on the economic issues that are the top priorities of working-class Americans while meeting voters where they are on issues like immigration and public safety.


This is the status quo’s panicked reaction to Mamdani’s populism. Foregrounding “kitchen table” issues (that don’t appear to include raising the minimum wage or union rights), while abandoning climate change, court expansion, Ukraine, reproductive rights, and “identity politics” (meaning human rights for everyone who is not a straight white Christian male).

This is what spending $20 million on “how to listen to men” (as the DNC did) gets you.

They admit their approach is driven by polls, focus groups and the “common sense” of the consultant class.

The list of candidates they hold up as role models for “winning” are some of the least progressive Dems in congress- Problem Solvers who sabotaged Biden’s agenda, reps and senators who took millions from tech and crypto lobbyists, and others who, rather than work for substantive change, supported the status quo and go slow pragmatic incrementalism.

The list of endorsers on the site is a Who’s Who of Democratic Party insiders and Republican Never Trumpers.

We can win without them- and that is what terrifies them.
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