The election is over. Nothing will change it. It is time to put that behind us and focus on the future. It is time to fight for:
Reproductive rights
Renewable energy
Quality education
Healthy food, safe water, clean air
Better jobs, fair pay, quality retirement
Guaranteed minimum income, housing, and healthcare
A big part of the political fight is getting your message to the public. Progressives are bad at playing politics and even worse at messaging. Too often, they sabotage Democratic talking points, making it harder to win elections and, therefore, making passing progressive legislation more difficult.
The first example of this is energy and the economy. Donald Trump spent much of his campaign talking about how he would “drill, drill, drill” to unleash America’s energy, reduce prices, and, yes, Make America Great Again.
Democrats should have countered Trump’s rhetoric with the fact that Biden has the highest energy production ever seen. America is drilling, drilling, drilling.
The few times Biden tried to discuss the historic oil production, progressives pounced, saying how horrible it was that Democrats were increasing oil production.
It doesn’t matter that Biden also has the highest investment in green energy in US history, that the use of renewable energy is skyrocketing, or that America’s CO2 emissions are falling. For idealists, drilling oil is terrible, and anyone supporting it is wrong.
Our nation can’t simply shut off fossil fuels and turn on renewable energy. The economy relies on oil and gas.
When it comes to the border, Biden was tougher than most people realize. His deportations were high, his border patrol and ICE funding were higher than Trump's, and he attempted to enact the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule after the Covid emergency ended in hopes of getting the border under control (a problem that had worsened every month for the final nine months of Trump’s presidency). The courts blocked the rule for years, but that’s not why you didn’t hear about it. Progressives aren’t too keen on deportations, even though they are necessary.
Biden also increased legal immigration, streamlined the process of migrants requesting asylum at ports of entry, and worked on a bipartisan bill to significantly improve the asylum system backlog and process requests faster.
Ultimately, Biden’s executive orders and ongoing efforts to address the root causes of migration resulted in border crossings dropping from all-time highs to lower levels than when Trump left office. In the last two months, southern border crossings have been 54,000. Trump ended with 75,000.
Despite this success in the face of stiff obstruction, immigration became a tricky topic. Democrats receive blowback from idealists whenever they work towards tightening immigration laws.
Several Democratic Senators voted against the bipartisan border bill, even though Congress hasn’t succeeded in passing any meaningful immigration reform in decades, because they didn’t want to lose their progressive credentials. Yet this bill had many improvements for migrants and was a fair and balanced piece of legislation.
Progressives must embrace pragmatism and understand that progress happens in continual small increments, not all at once.
Two top issues that Trump voters cited in exit polls were the economy and immigration. The Democratic Party let Republicans control the narrative surrounding those topics and lost votes because of it.
Democrats also never drove home how they increased police spending nationwide and how crime has fallen year after year. They didn’t talk much about how new gun reforms have reduced gun violence throughout Biden’s time in office. Or how they had the most pro-anti-trust administration in decades, added a corporate minimum tax, added a tax on capital gains, and blocked several types of junk fees. Democrats spent far more time discussing the dangers of MAGA, which are all true, than they did talking about how they’ve been striving to improve working-class lives.
Despite having the most legislatively successful administration in modern times and enacting numerous progressive laws, voters didn’t hear about progress being made, so they didn’t see a reason to vote for those in charge.
When the counts are final, Harris will have lost the popular vote by the slimmest of margins. Reaching a small percentage of additional voters could have flipped the outcome.
You cannot please everyone; it is impossible. That is why it is far better to choose your positions and confidently commit to them rather than waffle in hopes of not alienating a single voter.
We can drastically improve legal immigration and work visas while enforcing the border.
We can move towards a power grid dominated by renewable energy while ensuring we have enough fossil fuels to power today's technology.
We can fund police and reduce crime while holding abusive and corrupt officers accountable.
We can enact a guaranteed minimum income while reducing our debt.
We can empower unions while keeping businesses prosperous and growing our GDP.
The only way we achieve any of it is if we are proud of our ideas, champion them to the people, and are willing to defend them everywhere we go. Messaging is critical.
It is time to lay a path forward with conviction and understand that not everyone will agree or support it. Those who do will be impassioned to grow our movement and help usher in a level of progress not seen in generations.
