What is "Populism"?
Democrats need the answer to succeed
From Wiki:
”After the defeat of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, Murphy urged a significant revamp of Democratic Party policy, stating that neoliberalism, a growing social and economic alienation of many Americans from the party, and a perception of elitism has contributed to the loss of working class voters. Murphy believes the Democratic Party should embrace left-wing populism as an antidote to right-wing populism, reiterating his belief that third way politics had eroded the traditionally broad appeal of the party.[79]”
And today from “Punchbowl News”:
Murphy’s case for populism
New: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is circulating a polling memo arguing that Democrats need to embrace populism to win back working-class voters.
Murphy is trying to position himself as a leading Democratic voice as the party grapples with a brutal election cycle. Murphy argues that a “populist message of power deconcentration is a truly unifying message — across income brackets and political ideologies.”
“Democrats must reclaim our identity as the party of the working class,” Murphy wrote in the memo. His solution? Have Democrats talk about “why corporations and billionaires have too much” and why Democrats “are the only party that is serious about putting that power back in the hands of workers.”
Here’s one tidbit from the polling, conducted internally by the Murphy campaign in Connecticut:
Most of the respondents, 82%, “either strongly or somewhat agree that one of the biggest problems facing America today is that a handful of corporations and economic elites have too much power and the government is doing too little about it.”
Seven in 10 Republicans, 92% of Democrats and 81% of independents agreed with the statement.
— Max Cohen
My view is that Democrats lost the presidency and both house of Congress because they didn’t pay attention to the financial challenges faced by most Americans. Carville was right again. “It’s the economy, stupid!” But it is not the economy of statistics that moves voters to support candidates.
Want to see glazed over eyes? Babble on about how inflation has improved and unemployment is the lowest in decades and the chips factories we are building and blah, blah, blah. We have invested in infrastructure and green energy like no others before us…blah, blah. It IS truly good stuff. But it is irrelevant if you are living a nightmare of underpaid jobs and escalating costs for everything. And…you have NO HOPE that it will get better.
It is the economy of their checkbooks and credit card statements. And all too often, the latter is a lot bigger than the former.
Wages have inched up, yes. But the basic construct of American society when it comes to housing, health care, cost of life saving drugs, child care, elder care, cost of utilities, cost of food, cost of vehicles, cost of YOU NAME IT - that math just doesn’t work anymore.
And while I think Kamala Harris pulled off an excellent campaign, she was doomed by the facts just explained. Her party wasn’t listening. Joe Biden has been one of our finest presidents and he was moving us in the right direction. But the bureaucracy of our government and the silo thinking of Democrats sank our ship. American families need help. Now.
I think Senator Chris Murphy is on to something. What do you think?
https://punchbowl.news/article/washington/murphy-case-for-populism/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Murphy
Bill,
Good to see the post and the effort to understand and react to Trump's win.
I think Democrats have a huge uphill climb mostly because of two aspects of Trump's success.
1. His continuous lies about everything, but, especially his refrain that the "economy" was the "worst in history" while it was one of the best in history. Note, this was always delivered without data to confuse his audience or more than one sentence.
2. Fox News and a huge right wing, online echo chamber saying the same simple thing.
NY Times reported today that Americans are already "feeling" better about the economy, likely because Trump has suddenly dropped his "worst in history".
Now? Just like Trump took credit successfully for Obama's good economy, he will take credit for Biden's hugely successful economy. As soon as he is in office he will start crowing about the "best economy in history" and his write wing echo chamber will follow and?
Americans will believe.
I think Democrats need to learn how to communicate with short, one sentence summaries that are untethered from reality (learn to lie and brag).
And, we need an on line echo chamber parroting the same BS in a histrionic tone.
If Democrats continue to talk in paragraphs, tell the truth and have no shrill on line echo chamber they will continue to lose.
We have to deliver what Americans clearly want. Bluster, BS and crap.
He may be onto something, and it's clear that the Democrats missed the boat. To me, the biggest issues were the economy and immigration, about which trump lied and gaslit continuously lobbing hand grenades, and Dems responded with marshmallows.
I was hoping to hear Carville's stark message this time, but it either never came or was drowned out by other stuff. I got tired of getting pants-on-fire emails purportedly from him demanding "donations" to various candidates. I stopped opening them.
In fact, I believe the incessant emails asking for money were a big part of the problem, and nobody is talking about it. I was getting a dozen or so daily, and it was annoying...
and I was pretty engaged! I'm still getting them (probably a half dozen a day or more).
I'm still trying to get used to the idea that a good part of the rest of my life is going to be significantly impacted by one of the worst assemblages of protoplasm on the planet. I plan to ignore him as much as possible, but I'm not giving up. I'll stay in the fight, but I want to be strategic. We'll see how long that lasts.