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The importance of coalition building [1]
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Date: 2025-04-07
In the days, months, and years ahead it will be important for people who value democracy to band together to fight against the forces of authoritarianism. Unfortunately, coalition building requires a lot of work, a lot of patience, and a commitment by all involved to find common ground. Coalition building is lots of things, but the single most important part is the building of trust. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of trust amongst different factions committed to democracy and our enemies work to kill that trust.
The need for a coalition is hopefully clear to most, but in case it isn’t, let’s examine where we are.
In 2008 and 2012 Obama won big as many progressives got behind his candidacy. While there was some conflict with the Clinton campaign during the first primary, the sides worked it out and successfully put it behind the party for the general election. The moderate/progressive coalition behind Obama held together to get him a second term.
In 2016 there was division within the Democratic Party between Hillary supporters and Bernie supporters which roughly came down between Moderates versus Progressives (though plenty of exceptions). There was distrust and animosity during the primary and enough of it carried over to the general election for it to be amplified by Russian bot farms and it played a role in the results.
In 2020, the primary was again looking like Moderates versus Progressives (painting in wide strokes here) but the big difference was moderates coalesced around Biden after South Carolina while Progressives remained split between Warren and Sanders. Biden ended up winning the nomination handily and Progressives rallied behind the Democratic nominee. Biden at the time had favorable press coverage and won handily.
In 2021, the Democrats responded to the COVID crisis with many progressive style initiatives such as the child tax credit which were wildly popular. But as these and other progressive measures were being used to stabilize the country press coverage of Biden changed significantly. With the withdrawal of Afghanistan the press had a topic to hammer Biden on. In addition, Sinema and Manchin stopped any further ability to get progressive policies in place. The Inflation Reduction Act was finally hammered through but not without many concessions to industry demanded by Manchin.
By the time 2024 came around Biden was relatively unpopular compared to the start of his first term. We then had the debacle of replacing Biden with Harris. Harris went on to run a fine campaign under short notice but failed to turn out the voters like Biden did in 2020. While the cause of this obviously has many components, one of the more vocal causes was the Genocide Joe faction which was a sub faction of progressives (many progressives didn’t agree with that faction). They organized against Biden and transferred that opposition to Harris. Justified or not, it had an effect in depressing turnout.
When progressives and moderates work together we can blow the doors off of elections. When we are divided and the coalition breaks apart, and the moderates alone are unable to beat the Republicans. So hopefully we can at least all recognize that when we are all willingly working together we can win. But when distrust is high and we don’t operate as a true coalition, we have significant problems.
Organizers at a local level are frequently engaged in coalition building over local issues. If there is some need for a local law to be passed which affects several different constituencies, say Unions, liberal Churches, and issue specific organizers, they will often put lots of energy and time into building a coalition to get it done. These coalitions can even on occasion create odd-bedfellows as enemies on a range of issues come together on specific issues to get something done.
Anyone doing this work will tell you that building trust is key to success. The different organizations involved need to build trust with each other so that as the proposed legislation moves through the system there are times when some parties have differential power over the outcome. It’s one thing to get something out of committee, but if there is still a chance it won’t make it through the general session without particular groups support, there is a chance that particular group will use their advantage to ram through a version closer to what they want than what the Coalition as a group agreed upon. If there is no trust amongst the coalition, many in the coalition could end up feeling used by the group that changed. If such acts have happened on previous attempts to work together, the item may never make it out of committee as there is not enough trust in the parties who have the most power in the late stages of the process.
Due to the nature of national US politics, a winner take-all mentality can arise inside of party politics. On countless occasions progressives are asked to vote for the moderate and instead of the moderates looking to build a coalition with the Progressives, the progressives are told “My way or the highway”. The moderates don’t seem to feel the need to reach out to Progressives because if the progressives don’t vote for the moderate, the conservatives win. Unfortunately this does not generate goodwill or trust. It leaves many progressives feeling used. And some then return the favor making demands of the moderates that they incorporate a Progressive issue or the progressives simply won’t vote at all (per the Genocide Joe effect). Moderates then go on to blame progressives for those losses, many times without owning up to or even attempting to understand the crappy demands they are placing upon progressives.
Should the progressives have voted for the moderate anyway? Probably. I have done so many times. But it builds resentment and distrust and done repeatedly it makes many people question what the point of voting moderate is. You can argue all you want that people shouldn’t feel this way or are not justified to feel and vote this way, but you can’t change the fact that people ACT this way. And further telling people they have no choice does not help .
If I am being biased in favor of progressives here that would be because the moderates have long held the advantage within the Democratic Party. Progressives certainly play a role and get into some positions of power, but they are rarely in the role of being the candidate and being able to tell the moderates “My way or the highway”, at least in closer elections (some heavily progressive districts they can).
If we are to win as a Coalition, we must work together to build trust. Even if “vote for us or you are helping Trump” may be applicable, it doesn’t mean it’s the correct policy. If instead, moderates and progressives all came together to find reasons for both sides to get excited about, perhaps turnout would be better. This means compromise. Perhaps moderates prioritize bank friendly policy over all else, and some progressive prioritize national policy towards Israel over all else, while some of us prioritize climate over all else. Instead of creating a dynamic where one group wins the primary and then gives a big middle finger to the losers, we should create a dynamic where the winner of the Primary then works to ensure the other groups get something to get excited about for continued support.
There will of course come times when issues are simply diametrically opposed and compromise can’t quite work. But I personally feel those times are fewer than many realize. I personally don’t support current Israeli policy, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice an election over it. But I would certainly support other progressives in moving US support for Israel towards their preferred policy, while keeping in mind the concerns of liberal Jewish Democrats who have many concerns over Hamas. Perfection is the enemy of the good. But in order to feel that way, there needs to be trust amongst all of us that our views will be honestly taken into account and acted upon.
Currently, I have very little trust in moderate Democratic leadership. And for once, looking at the AOC vs Schumer poll for Senate, I appear to be in the majority. Moderates who fail to realize how little trust there is in moderate leadership and chide us for questioning that leadership are clearly not interested in coalition building. They are interested in another win for moderates and appear to have little interest in doing anything for other groups who help the get there.
Building trust for coalitions requires many things, but what it doesn’t require is unanimity on all topics or the silencing of dissent amongst different parts of the coalition. Instead, trust allows different parties to openly criticize each other. If a random person criticizes me for something I am much less likely to listen to them than if my spouse criticizes me for the same thing. I might verbally contend with the stranger because I have no trust in them. But my spouse and I will have a much different conversation because we have built trust in each other. When trust exists between political groups, it is far more difficult for enemies to wedge apart the coalition by amplifying disagreement. If I trust you have my back even when we disagree, I’m not necessarily fazed when I hear you “attacking” my position in public. Instead of an increase in district, I can feel “well of course they disagree, we’ve talked about it and come to some sort of understanding on it”.
So I ask everyone interested in building a coalition for Democracy. Please voice your criticisms. Please voice your desires for the party. Please voice what is most essential to you. And when you hear other people voicing what is essential to them, understand it as an ask EVEN when phrased as a demand. If you have often been on the side of the dominant party, please take the time to understand why your “allies” can feel betrayed by their issues never getting addressed. And please don’t ever use the phrase “they are stealing votes from us”. Those votes belong to no one except the person who cast it. Please think of how it feels when someone utters the words “I own you” which is essentially what you are saying even if you don’t mean it personally. The other person can hear it that way.
We can win together with trust AND dissension. Or we can go down bickering and never coming together to address as many of our concerns as we can. Let’s give coalition build a try. Everyone put down your “my way or the highway”. Let’s make this a better world together.
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