Approval rating of Democrats in Congress signals major change is needed.

[Cirsium]

38. Sure

That thinking comes from the dominant model that has been used for decades by the Democratic party consultants. They poll constantly in order to identify the median voter, and then we always hear the same recommendations from them - soften our positions, or triangulate. Look out! Be afraid! What will Fox news say? We must avoid alienating swing constituencies at all costs! So we prioritize “electability” above ideological clarity. This becomes self-defeating. It leads to exactly what we have now, an ascendant extreme right wing.

Turning politics into perpetual accommodation rather than persuasion means that even when we win, we lose. I know, I know. I have been hearing it for over 50 years. Once we get into office, once we have enough seats, once pubic opinion changes, once some miracle happens THEN we will start talking policy. Until then, any such talk is ridiculed as "purity" and dismissed.

Instead of asking “what do we believe, and how do we explain it compellingly?” the party begins by asking “what already polls safely?” That produces candidates and messaging that is managerial, condescending, ever cautious, and most importantly, emotionally unconvincing. That is particularly true with younger voters as well as for the progressive wing of the coalition. We should be articulating substantive convictions clearly, and advocate for them unapologetically. We should be trying to move public opinion, rather than merely mirror it.

The “electability” argument is itself circular and inherently conservative. Which candidates are deemed electable? The ones that fit existing assumptions. How can we ever expect change under those circumstances, when we operate only into existing assumptions and conceptual frameworks that are based on the status quo? It can only lead to a constant sickening drift to the right since we are ceding the change message to the right wingers. We narrow the range of possibilities by that process, and in turn that then prevents alternative political identities from fully developing, let alone being heard by the general public.

If we don't advocate for radical reform, the right wing steps in with their counterfeit version of reform. That is what we are suffering from right now. When we become overly reactive to polling and focus groups, we lose all coherence. The party is constantly calibrating rather than leading, and voters can sense that.

I think people try to destroy the progressive agenda not because it doesn't resonate with voters, but rather because of the fear that it will.

I think the party is in danger of making the same mistake that the Whigs made in the 1850s. The Whigs thought that the pro-slavery forces would go too far, the public would be disgusted, and that power would then just fall into their hands without them taking a strong stand on slavery. But the pro-slavery party did not collapse, the Whigs did.