A plea to DNC leadership
A plea to DNC leadership:
Please start thinking deeply about how you’re going to regain credibility and bring the country together if Kamala wins.
I cofounded Dean Phillips’ super pac so I’ll grant that I’m biased, but I worry that dems have really hurt themselves long-term with Kamala.
Regardless of how well one thinks she would govern, I think most Americans can see that she’s bad at campaigning. As longtime dem strategist David Axlerod put it: “she has a tendency to go to word salad city”. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone; that’s why primaries are so helpful! It’s really hard to identify winning political talent at the highest level — just ask any career campaign manager or advisor.
So now you are forced to trot out all the most respected dem figures to stump for Kamala, and it feels like it is undermining their credibility. Obama is an all-time political talent, a huge asset for dems, and—to me—he just looks lame & disingenuous trying to pump Kamala and defend the circumstances of her candidacy.
This is my worry: that unlike ’20, if Kamala wins, even moderate Americans will be skeptical of the results because the credibility of the most credible figures has taken a hit. Trump and republicans of course have their own role to play here, we should not let them off the hook, but the democrats have played directly into their hand.
Americans were rightly skeptical of Biden’s fitness for office, they’re rightly skeptical of the process that made Kamala the dem candidate—and democratic leadership has yet to provide messaging that assuages that skepticism. So please, please, don’t be surprised if many reasonable, moderate, Americans are sympathetic to Trump aggressively challenging the results.
Trump has been breaking norms for the last decade; that is no longer an excuse to abdicate responsibility for bringing the country together. He is very predictable, you know what he is going to do if he loses, and you must be ready with a response that will earn trust from as many Americans as possible.
You must accept that you have repeatedly failed to earn Americans’ trust this cycle. While I can empathize with why that’s been so difficult, I fear Americans’ belief in our republic will be irreparably harmed if you don’t wake up and change the way you’re communicating with the American people.
No matter how much Trump is to blame for sowing election result doubts, blaming him will not bring Americans together or restore our faith in our democracy. If Kamala wins, the future of our democracy will be in your hands—please wake up right now, realize that you must prepare to change your ways, before it’s too late.