Good Advice for the Democratic (and Republican) Party

Good Advice for the Democratic (and Republican) Party

– By Howard Sierer –

Want to improve your party’s performance in the next election? Ruy Teixeira who writes for “The Liberal Patriot” has some good advice for his fellow Democrats. His analysis of recent election results should guide Republicans as well.

Teixeira’s article, “Ten Reasons Why Democrats Should Become More Moderate,” shows why Democratic candidates won races in which they were underdogs and why Democrats lost races in which they could have won.

He is a moderate Democrat – a traditional liberal if I can use the phrase – who is interested in getting large parts of the liberal agenda enacted. He has little use for the party’s minority progressive wing that is calling its shots today. As a moderate conservative, I have comparable feelings about the Republican’s Trump/MAGA wing.

He modifies a famous Barry Goldwater quote to apply it to his party’s far left wing: “Extremism in the defense of progressivism is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of votes is no virtue.” He goes on to list ten reasons why Democratic moderation could break today’s electoral stalemate. If the Republican Party can resolve its split personality, it instead could enjoy future success.

1. Democrats exceeded expectations in 2022 by attracting independent and Republican crossover voters, not by mobilizing their progressive base. Democrats won in key races where they were seen as more moderate than extremist Republican opponents.
2. The Democratic Party has moved left over the last four years yet has actually done worse among its base voters. Since 2018, Democratic support is down 18 margin points among young (18–29-year-old) voters, 20 points among nonwhites and 23 points among nonwhite working class (noncollege) voters especially Hispanics. These groups are overwhelmingly moderate-to-conservative in orientation and not buying what Democrats are selling.
3. Democrats are not making up for this loss of support by generating a huge progressive anti-MAGA crusade. Latino and black turnout was down in 2022. These voters don’t respond to issues that motivate progressives. Instead they respond to safe streets, a healthy economyand a sensible, non-divisive approach to social issues.
4. Democrats lost the 2022 nationwide popular House vote by three percentage points. Even worse, they lost the House vote in seven states that have Democratic-held Senate seats up for vote in 2024, three of which went to Biden in 2020. Progressive Senate candidates in these states are sure losers in 2024.
5. Democrats took down most extreme Republican candidates. Nonetheless, the Democratic Party is regarded as extreme for its tolerance of extremist groups. Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are seen as extreme by 53% of voters. If either party can shed that image, it can expect to do better.
6. Moderate candidates generally do better than more ideological candidates. Trump-supported candidates paid a steep price when they ran against saner opponents. Democrats who ran moderate campaignsthat disassociated them from progressives did well. To this day, strenuously progressive groups like Justice Democrats have yet to flip a single House seat from Republicans.
7. Just 10% of those who voted for Trump 2016 but switched to Biden in 2020 think the country needs to go farther on political correctness in society today, compared to 51% who think we’ve gone too far. These voters have comparable feelings about teaching children about transgender issues, removing historical statues, teaching children critical race theory, firing people for long-past offensive comments, supporting Black Lives Matter protests, and using new gender pronouns. Progressives support all of these.
8. In 2022, Blacks, Hispanics and Asian-Americans prioritized the cost of living and crime. But national Democratic messaging said nothing about either. Common sense suggests Democrats should pay attention to the issues voters are most concerned about, rather than repeating the progressive mantra.
9. A message that says Democrats will not “defund in any way” and instead support “first responders” gets 7% more warm than cool responses. Tackling their own party on crime is a good way for Democrats to break through.
10. Democrats shouldn’t be afraid to embrace patriotism and dissociate themselves from those who insist America is a benighted, racist nation and always has been. Large majorities of Americans, while they have no objection to looking at the both the bad and good of American history, reject such a one-sided, negative characterization.

I hope Teixeira’s message falls on deaf ears in the extremist progressive wing that is directing today’s Democratic Party. The party faces a nearly-impossible task of retaining the Senate in 2024 with 23 of the 33 seats up for grabs currently held by Democrats. As Teixeira points out, Republican candidates won the statewide House vote in seven of those states. Democratic Senate candidates who cannot separate themselves from the party’s consistently-progressive messaging will be looking for new work.

I’ve long called for a return toward the center and encourage Republican decision makers to reject their party’s Trump/MAGA wing and move toward the great mass of voters in the moderate conservative center. If they do, the country can expect a return to a Republican Congress, economic growth that benefits all Americans and an end to extremist progressive’s radical social policies.

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