Not Being Republicans isn’t Enough for the Democrats to Win Back Voters
Edited by Owen Andrews and Sarah Ahmad
Two facts haunt the Democratic Party. One, the President, with the full-throated support of his Republican party, is leading this country down the road of authoritarianism by siccing the military on protestors, attempting to unilaterally remake the constitution, blatantly robbing the needy to give even more to the wealthy, and threatening academic freedom. Two, the Democrats are even less popular than the Republicans. It is clear that the Democratic Party needs to utterly remake itself, and party leadership would be wise to take notes from a young New York progressive named Zohran Mamdani by fighting back through an ambitious agenda that offers voters more than “not being Republicans.”
As the opposition party and last bulwark against Fascism, the Democratic Party has spent the weeks and months since the new presidential term began on January 20th flailing around and performing hollow gestures of defiance in the form of filibusters and strongly worded statements. Furthermore, the Democratic Party’s decades of irresponsiveness to a lopsided economy, aided by a conscious pivot to the center under President Bill Clinton, opened up millions of voters to an anti-establishment figure like Donald Trump. It didn’t matter that, in reality, Donald Trump pursued economic policies in line with those of earlier Republican presidents; he has been able to co-opt populism, and Democratic leaders have made no real effort to wrestle it back.
In fact, the Democratic establishment has actively worked against populist figures within its ranks, most notably during the 2016 and 2020 presidential primaries, when party elites coalesced around insider candidates, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, rather than allowing the primary process to unfold organically. Of course, Clinton and Biden may’ve still won the Democratic nominations, but they would’ve done so without alienating working-class voters who have long felt abused by the powers that be and flocked to Trump in the general election, especially in 2016. With authoritarianism looming, the stakes are far too high for the Democratic Party to repeat the same mistakes and turn its back on the working-class voters who decide elections.
By embracing policies that materially benefit the worker, Democrats have a real opportunity to build a winning coalition. The working class’s drift rightward isn’t as stable as Republicans might think. Research from Noam Lupu and Nicholas Carnes found that Trump has actually driven away many in the White working class, a constituency that historically voted for the Democratic Party but has largely defected. Democrats can re-cement their hold on the working class by recentering the electorate along class lines. The truth is that Trump’s domestic policy is a boon for the wealthiest Americans, and therefore, they have an incentive to vote for him even if they are revolted by his rhetoric on immigration, diversity initiatives, or climate change, among other issues. The Democrats must give similar incentives to the rest of the country.
At first, the recent campaign for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York appeared to be following the same script as the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. Once again, it appeared that an insurgent left-wing candidate with the bold ideas needed to attack Trumpism head-on would be sunk by an uninspiring, establishment-backed candidate. The candidate in question, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, has been credibly accused of sexual harassment and of mishandling nursing home cases during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Cuomo ended up resigning in disgrace, but apparently had done enough to rehabilitate his image to gain the establishment’s support. In the lead-up to primary day, Cuomo was consistently leading in the polls over the progressive candidate, State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
Then, on primary day, the voters of New York City discarded a familiar script. Mamdani won, and won convincingly at that (though Cuomo, who will now run as an independent, insists that he can beat Mamdani in the general election). Mamdani’s upset victory was driven by the convergence of progressive policy, with affordability being a central focus, and upbeat messaging designed to give voters hope. Democrats have adopted the latter well in the past, including in last fall’s election and most famously during Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. The problem for Democrats is that their use of 'hope and change' rhetoric on the campaign trail no longer has substance, because they haven’t demonstrated that they are willing to fight for many policies that live up to that message.
President Obama, for instance, passed the Affordable Care Act, which was a step in the right direction in that it gave affordable healthcare to tens of millions, but it only put a band-aid on the fundamental shortcomings of the country’s healthcare system. Private corporations still dominate the healthcare sector, driven by a profit motive, which is both immoral and fails to improve health outcomes for those fortunate enough to afford it. It is stunning just how underwhelming the ACA was, considering that the Democratic Party had a “trifecta” for all of 2009 and 2010 and even had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate during 2009. The Democrats also had a “trifecta” during the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency and once again gave the American people limited improvements that, while better than the Republican plan of actively making life more difficult for the average person, as evidenced by the “Big Beautiful Bill,” fall short in reforming our unfair economic system. Biden’s signature piece of legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, included some strong provisions that created clean jobs and better positioned the U.S. economy to grow while mitigating the disastrous impacts of climate change. Unfortunately for Biden, nearly everything in the IRA could be rolled back by Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress, completely undercutting any argument about “compromise” or “bipartisanship,” and illustrating the need for Democrats to be as bold as possible whenever the stars align with a “trifecta.”
In a way, the New York mayoral primary didn’t just mirror Democratic Party politics; it mirrored national politics. Cuomo’s ability to recover from devastating scandals would make even Donald Trump blush. Looking beyond policy, the two men, Cuomo and Trump, are similar in many other ways. Both men had powerful fathers who gave them their starts. Both men bully and belittle political opponents. And of course, both men have abused their respective offices on myriad occasions. Cuomo and Trump represent the Kakistocracy, which has metastasized and threatens to consume American politics. Mamdani is both the anti-Trump and the anti-Cuomo. This is a nation built by dreamers and immigrants, and Mamdani is both. Mamdani is anti-establishment, but unlike Trump, he targets powerful institutions that genuinely harm everyday Americans. Think hedge funds and rapacious landlords, not universities and the free press. Mamdani symbolizes hope driven by actionable policy. While Zohran Mamdani will never be president due to his being born in Uganda, it is in the best interests of the Democratic Party and the nation that our next president shares his willingness to fight back with legislation, not words.