…no.
Because that isn’t how being disillusioned works.
For example: I’m completely disillusioned with the Democrats. But do you think thats based on a bunch of false talking points, or because I don’t think they are capable of stepping up to the moment?
I can assure you it’s the second. And I’m not alone there. Disillusioned means I’m largely disappointed in someone or something, that I’ve lost faith in them. That means for most people, you would have had to have faith in them in the first place.
I need to be careful how I respond here because I’m restricted in what I can say, and don’t want to drag this thread off-topic.
But I can’t stress enough how devastating this calculus was for many people to lose faith in the party. They saw the decision to choose one side for no other reason than they thought it would get them more votes as an outright betrayal. And the complete refusal of Biden & Co to stop funding and supporting the war was being complicit. And the polling suggests it wouldn’t have been as suicidal as you might think. Which again: contributes to the disillusionment. Because this was all known at the time, but the administration and the campaign made the deliberate decision to ignore it.
That’s all I’ll say on this.
I didn’t say “cede ground”.
My argument is that the Democrats are fundamentally incapable of organising this.
This is what they are up to:
https://archive.ph/ZliIi
They are treating it like it’s a hunt for a start-up. Some of the names mentioned in the article are IMHO grifters, and whatever they eventually come up with will ultimately just be an extension of the Democrat messaging as it is anyway. I’m hearing from the people I follow that these internal squabbles on what direction to take are very intense: and won’t be resolved any time soon. So they know they need to do something, they’ve got the money, they just aren’t doing anything.
And that messaging will not appeal to MAGA, and it will not appeal to the disillusioned, it will only appeal to what the think-tanks consider to be the ideal Democrat voter, which tends to be much more of an “old school Republican” AKA the political donors much more than the working class, more than the progressives, more than the marginalised, more than the traditional Democrat.
So you either have to buy into whatever the Democrats finally settle on after they’ve reviewed the pitch-decks and finalised the funding rounds, or you’ve got to bypass that and do it yourself.
Just look at this Tweet put out by the Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer:
He’s so proud of what he’s done. And it’s completely fucking useless.
Because he also voted to confirm Marco Rubio. It was unanimous. Didn’t even put up a fight. The battles they are picking are completely inconsequential. MAGA are perfectly happy to give up the name of the bill because they still got their bill.
You aren’t ever going to fight this and win. The eco-system relies on the donors to keep funding itself and they are never going to stray too far from what they want.
So my argument here is that you’ve got to bypass the ecosystem.
And that starts with the ground game.
It doesn’t end there, though. With Mamdani for example, he also has a fantastic social media presence and team. He’s sticking on message, even if that means ignoring Democrat talking points which is making many members of the party real mad.
And around that will develop a new ecosystem of podcasts, media and messaging that goes beyond the current stable of podcasters and influencers.
They won’t have the same reach as the billionaire backed eco-systems both the Republicans and Democrats have established. But I think in the post-truth era you need to be thinking smaller, not bigger. America will increasingly get more fragmented. Balkanised. More local.
And it starts with people fighting for what they believe in. I’m still not sure Mamdani will win. Everything is stacked against him.
But I think this is really the only way forward. It won’t happen overnight. It may take over a decade.
Because the Democrats are not coming to save you.