In Kamala Harris's speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president in Chicago in August, one key word and its variations were conspicuously absent, and it's a shame because she was speaking to a huge audience that needed to hear the words "Democrat" and "Democrats" and "Democratic Party." The only reference was a worthless nod to dead bipartisanship: "Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades." Awesome. Now how about all the shit that was done by Democrats?
In other speeches, she didn't mention the party at all, and sometimes that was just odd. At a rally in Atlanta, Harris said, "We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity to build a business, to own a home, to build intergenerational wealth; a future with affordable health care, affordable childcare, paid leave." While this was in a comparison to Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric, she never expanded "we" beyond her and her voters. That "we" should have been "Democrats."
I know that a parliamentary system requires a different kind of approach to an election, but look at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's speech when the 2024 campaign started over there. He ties the success of the country to the success of his party: "A vote for Labour is a vote for stability – economic and political. A politics that treads more lightly on all our lives. A vote to stop the chaos." Candidates know in other countries that the only way to success is for their party to win, and they campaign on the good their party can do. Throughout its electoral history, Labour has put the party front and center in its advertising. While Starmer did have one poster that just had his image and "Change" on it (like Obama), I honestly can't remember a Harris/Walz sign that even mentioned they're Democrats. In fact, I can't remember seeing a single "Vote for Democrats" poster for anything beyond local offices. I know they exist. I've seen them online. But they weren't prominent by any stretch, and they never have.
It's not just Harris. Even when a Democratic leader talks about Democrats, it's in the most polite and milquetoast way, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a press conference last week: "Democrats are always, always ready, willing and able to work with anyone to find the common ground necessary to solve problems on behalf of hardworking American taxpayers." Jeffries went on to describe Republicans as the party that wants to cut taxes on billionaires. That notion, that Democrats will "work with anyone," is, yes, the reality for a party in the minority. But it's not something anyone can rally around. No one is going to say, "Yeah, fuckin' go, Democrats. Compromise!"
After the 2024 election, when Democrats lost the presidency and the Senate and failed to retake the House, the punditocracy went into high gear about how the brand of the Democratic Party is "in the toilet" or "toxic." Actual elected Democrats joined in the beatdown, declaring, as Washington's Adam Smith saying the party is "broken." Most recently, Senator John "This Year's Sinema" Fetterman also called his party "toxic" and said that its "primary currency was shaming and scolding and talking down to people and telling them, ‘Hey, I know better than you,’ or you’re dopes, or you’re a bro, or you’re ignorant or, ‘how can you be this dumb? I can’t imagine it.’" Considering that Trump and Musk and all of those bros and dopes and ignoramuses and dummies on the right insult everyone not them, Fetterman's accusation is self-serving and wrong, and it's a shame to watch this once bad-ass warrior for the working class become a simp making nice with Republicans.
My response to all of this is "What Democratic brand are they talking about?" Because, see, Democrats have forgotten to make their brand meaningful. Every fucking good thing in people's lives right now from the federal government came from Democrats. That what they should be selling. You like Social Security? Democrats got you that. You like Medicare and Medicaid? Democrats did that. Civil rights? You know it's Democrats who got that done. You like having access to health insurance? Motherfucker, there's one reason they call it "Obamacare," and that's because of Democrats. Don't fucking talk about shit that was done across the aisle. Don't fucking say shit like "Well, Ronald Reagan gave amnesty to undocumented migrants and raised taxes to save Social Security," like you're making some big point about how Republicans have changed. Goddamn, Republicans trot out fucking Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt to say, "Look how great we are." Democrats can barely mention FDR and LBJ.
Last week, I bitched about the lack of energy in the Democratic response to Trump's fuckery and the GOP rolling over telling him to fuck away on the ass of the Legislative branch. That energy is surging, finally. But it's got to go further, and it has to be framed that Democrats want to keep the lights on at hospitals and punish financial institutions that harm everyday people and prosecute corporate criminals and not tear down the FBI and CIA and the military and keep people from starving. It's not just that Republicans are the assholes here. It's that Democrats are the ones who can make it right.
Stop being afraid of being part of this party. That's letting Republicans define you and accepting that it's the only way to think about the Democratic Party. Fuck that. Don't ask people to vote for you because of how well you get along with Republicans. Ask them to vote for you because you're a Democrat, and if they elect Democrats, you can get shit done for them.
You know who knows how to talk about the party? Barack Obama. At the DNC, Obama discussed what the party and Harris and Walz believed about how to help people, saying, "That’s the Democratic Party’s vision. And our job over the next eleven weeks is to convince as many people as possible to vote for that vision." Of course, he said the opposition was "the other side," not "those filthy fucking Republicans." But at least he embraced who he is.
