In a scathing opinion piece, MSNBC politics reporter Alexander Nazaryan warns that Democrats must overcome their identity crisis and adopt a clear, relatable platform—or risk eight years of J.D. Vance in the White House.
Nazaryan urges the party to “pick a lane and stay in it like grandma white-knuckling her way” down the highway, rather than continuing to struggle with a disjointed message. Democrats lost the presidency, Nazaryan argues, “because normal people had no idea where they stood on any of the things that normal people care about. Instinctively, Americans understood that the Democrats no longer knew who they were.
Democrats were awkward, seemingly unable to say if they were the party of billionaire donors or middle-class normies.” The piece highlights how Donald Trump successfully weaponized culture war issues, turning Kamala Harris’ talking points on transgender rights into “the Willie Horton of 2024.”
According to the Brookings Institute, this strategy weakened Harris’ attempt to position herself as a common-sense, center-left candidate. Meanwhile, Nazaryan notes, the MAGA movement thrived on “an almost absurdly simplistic set of ideas that are often contradictory and in some instances truly bizarre,” such as Trump’s push to invade Greenland.
Trump’s strength, Nazaryan writes, lies in his ability to market his ideas, no matter how outlandish. “Donald Trump knows that his ‘ideas,’ such as they are, tend toward the preposterous. But every time he repeats them, they become a little more real. He understands marketing, and knows that you won’t sell much by turning your political platform into a graduate seminar.”
To counter this, Nazaryan urges Democrats to focus on tangible issues that resonate with average voters, such as tax reform, cutting government waste, promoting green infrastructure, or even ambitious projects like traveling to Mars. “It literally does not matter,” he writes. “Democrats just need to pick a small set of coherent ideas and then stick to them like barnacles to a ship’s hull.”
Nazaryan concludes with a stark warning: “Trying to be all things to all people is a sure way to ensure that J.D. Vance will enjoy eight years in the White House, and probably Ron DeSantis after him.” The piece serves as a call to action for Democrats to streamline their messaging and reconnect with the concerns of everyday Americans.