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Solidarity, Not Entitlement [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-10
Democrats are losing elections because they have abandoned solidarity in favor of entitlement-driven politics. Instead of uniting people around shared economic and social interests, we have fractured into an ever-expanding collection of identity groups, each demanding recognition and redress based on increasingly narrow classifications of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, religion, physical ability, cultural background, nationality, language, education level, geographic location, and family structure.
Each of these groups insists not only on equal representation, but also on recognition and/or compensation for past injustices, no matter how far removed or recently discovered. This has led to a culture where entitlement outweighs merit, and where the Democratic Party is perceived as prioritizing ideological identity over competence and effectiveness. Instead of advancing policies that unite working- and middle-class Americans, Democrats are perceived as having embraced a framework that demands preferential treatment for candidates based on their membership in a recognized group. Worse still, party leaders are expected to endorse every demand—no matter how fringe or politically damaging—if it aligns with the latest activist cause.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans, particularly the working and middle classes, have seen little benefit from decades of economic growth, regardless of which party was in charge. They struggle with rising costs, job insecurity, and declining opportunity, all while being told they are the problem—privileged oppressors who must make way for a new social order. Is it any wonder they are turning away from the party that once championed their interests?
The result? A catastrophic loss of political power. Decades of progress undone. A Constitution at risk. All because we allowed elections to be defined in the minds of many Americans by immigration, bathrooms, pronouns, and drag queens reading to children in libraries—while the people we were supposed to fight for felt abandoned, patronized, or attacked.
There’s an obvious problem with this, of course. Sexism is real. Racism is real. The very groups most politicized during the election are now the most at risk from the new administration. As Democrats, as decent human beings, we cannot turn our backs on them, no matter the political cost.
However, we cannot allow identity groups to determine the public face of our Party. It just doesn’t work. As despicable and racist as he is, Trump won the vote of Hispanic men by one point (49 percent Harris – 50 percent Trump), a 35-point difference from 2020. He increased his support among women from 42% in 2020 to 45% in 2024, despite running against a female candidate. His support among black voters was almost 10% higher in 2024, amid lower overall turnout of this key Democratic demographic, all while running against a Black candidate.
The Democratic Party has one job: to gain and maintain the political power needed to implement our shared values. This means emphasizing policies that will be supported by the broad majority of working and middle class Americans, not allowing our politicians or our Party to be defined by the goals and objectives of a relatively small number of individuals on the fringes of society. It means choosing candidates who are most able to win elections—not those deemed most representative of a particular group whose “turn” it is to hold office. Representation should be about values, not skin color, gender or any of the other identity group.
The alternative? We end up arguing about pronouns in the Gulag.
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