Get Off the Floor and Keep It Simple
Today I read this piece in Vox comparing the 2004 and 2024 elections and what Democrats today can learn about how the Democrats came back from defeat. Author Nicole Narea says Democrats did three things 1) They’re pursued a 50 state strategy, 2) Democrats reevaluated their messaging, 3) Democrats sought to become the party of ideas.
There’s some truth to Item #1. A 50 state strategy is absolutely something Democrats should pursue. But none of these three things are actually what happened. And they’re not why Democrats scored two successive wave elections in 2006 and 2008.
The Vox article speaks of a “reckoning” the Democrats had to have then and another “reckoning” they have to have now. I absolutely see red whenever I see people using this word in a political context. In post election terms it appears to mean a kind of ash and sackcloth self-criticism session on the part of whoever you have decided is to blame for the Democrats’ loss.
No.
