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Bad news: The Democratic Party is not popular. Good news: Democratic candidates can win anyway [1]

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Date: 2025-06-02

This diary starts depressingly — because I decided to get the bad news out of the way. However, I assure the reader that it gets better.

The Democratic Party is not popular . Chuck Schumer is sending "very strong letters." Hakeem Jeffries is trying "to figure out what leverage we actually have." The Left's wailing and gnashing of teeth is biblical. Frustrated uber-liberals say the Party is 'too centrist.' The self-declared pragmatists blame the 'fringe's' obsession with pronouns. Everybody has an opinion on what ails the Left.

The Party's former standard bearer is a man closing the curtain on a vibrant and consequential career. A man who is not the physical specimen he once was (who of us are?). A man who is likely suffering some mental decline. So be it. We will all eventually shuffle off. The GOP will continue to make Biden an issue to distract from their sadism. Democrats shouldn't take the bait.

In regular times, a party this ineffectual in the face of the right wing's arson, vandalism, and temple-razing would spell doom for candidates flying its banner. However, the Democratic Party's dismal image has not been a handicap for Democratic candidates so far in 2025. And if future Democrat hopefuls play their cards right, the Party's lack of substance may turn out to be a stealth advantage.

We have already seen, despite the mainstream media's promotion of the Democrats' fecklessness, that what happens in DC can be limited to DC. Instead of being like the low-energy, risk-averse leaders in Congress, Democrats, out in the heartland and along the coasts, are thriving.

MAGA swept the board in November 2024. But since then, they have underperformed in consequential elections. They retained two open US House seats in Florida. But in the five months between the general election and the special elections in April, the GOP's margin fell by more than 15 points — a staggering decline.

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the wannabe GOP king-maker Elon Musk spent $25 million to grease the skids for the conservative candidate. His boy lost by 10%. The South African immigrant may pay more to watch his rockets blow up. However, his failure in the political arena was a public humiliation, so much so that he has now taken his ball and gone home.

After the summer break, the political world's attention will turn to Virginia and New Jersey . Should Trump's cash giveaway to the wealthy, partially paid for by denying healthcare to the working poor — aka the Big Beautiful Bill — pass the Senate, these two off-year gubernatorial elections will be the first review of MAGA's economic policy.

Both seats will be vacant as the Republican in Virginia, Glenn Younkin, and the Democrat in New Jersey, Phil Murphy, are barred from running for re-election. If the Democrats flip VA and increase their margin in NJ, 2026 will look promising.

In the midterms, the weakness of the Democratic Party may be an asset to Democratic candidates. They will not be in a box the way Republicans are. GOPers have to run on the MAGA platform. Any deviation from the Lord of the Flies will be an apostasy soon crushed on social media. The problem with that one-size-fits-all approach is that Republican candidates in suburban New York will have to run identical campaigns to the rural good old boys deep in the Bible Belt.

Democratic candidates, on the other hand, can tailor their message to the hometown crowd. I suspect that many will run against the Democratic Party as much as they will against the GOP. The DNC should stop worrying about how to regain its standing among young men and other groups. Instead, they should take the money earmarked for that consultant-enriching vacuity and send the cash to local candidates. Then stay out of their way.

If the DNC needs to feel like they are contributing, let them raise cash and find the best candidate for each district. Then step back. And let those candidates run the campaigns that talk best to local concerns.

In short, the future of the Democratic movement is not in the hands of the national Party. It is in the care of dedicated people on the ground, talking to their neighbors, showing up to protests, getting their friends and families to the polls, and all the other meaningful stuff.

If the Democratic Party promotes energy, develops charisma, and becomes the place to be, that would be super. If it doesn't, so be it. Liberalism — whatever flavor works for you in your part of the country — will be in good hands. Yours.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/6/2/2325636/-Bad-news-The-Democratic-Party-is-not-popular-Good-news-Democratic-candidates-can-win-anyway

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