The Short Game Is a Loser

Time the Dems figured it out

The Republicans have been playing the current game of politics for, arguably, at least 60 years. They despised the bleeding-heart Kennedys and the agitator Martin Luther King, Jr. In retaliation, they brought us Nixon, via the Southern Strategy, which eventually metamorphosed into the Tea Party and then MAGA. Through the decades, they’ve had one guiding philosophy: move wealth upward, consolidate power. The party has become monolithic: no one steps out of line, under fear of being ostracized and ousted from elected office, or worse. Strategies have included more obvious moves, such as many corporate mergers (largely unchallenged since the time of Reagan); a continual push for deregulation and lower taxes on the wealthy; and a 24/7/365 propaganda machine ginning up fear of and anger at “the other.”

But the genius of the GOP has been to accomplish the bulk of its maneuvering incrementally, in the shadows. They insinuated themselves into all kinds of offices, from the bottom up: school boards, county clerkships, election boards, and so on, up to high-level state offices, not to mention judgeships of all ranks. The result is 23 Republican trifecta states; that is, the governor and both legislative houses are in the red zone (versus 15 for the Dems). The Republicans know very well that the vast majority of Americans would never support most of their policies, which is why they devised their behind-the-scenes methods of exerting control. And why they’ve been willing to move slowly to gain what’s currently looking like a solid victory, perhaps an insurmountable one. If ever they have a setback, they simply regroup and re-set, according to their One Goal.

They over-played their hand in 2020, when their selected tool so thoroughly bungled the Covid response that he lost the election, so in the wake of that temporary defeat, they simply had voter rolls purged by hundreds of thousands (e.g., Georgia, and here); gerrymandered wherever they could, even against voters’ wishes and court orders (e.g., Ohio, Alabama); and openly bought votes (Pennsylvania). I personally think Elon Musk’s team of hackers put their thumbs on the scales, as well, and there are some reports questioning various results (here, here, and here, as examples). Bottom line, even if they had to cheat, the Rs won the 2024 contest and got back on track to keep on amassing wealth and power at the expense of the bottom 90% of the population. Now, however, their think tank, the Heritage Foundation, has laid out a formal blueprint for retaining power and vacuuming up every available cent: Project 2025. It took GOP disciples 60 years to get it all down on paper, but now they have their master plan, along with a doddering figurehead and a subservient acolyte to implement it. We are seeing the pinnacle of Republican power, utterly evil and unashamed of it. They’ve pulled in many billions from Wall Street magnates and Silicon Valley tech bros, and have spent the money very wisely.

Meanwhile, for the last six decades, the Dems have played politics four years at a time. They have no overarching plan, philosophy, or ultimate goal. They rarely strategize beyond winning a given state. They don’t believe in controlling from the bottom up. “Staying on message” is a foreign concept to them. At this point, they don’t even have a strategy for next week or next month, let alone the midterms (should the midterms actually happen, and should they be more than mere kabuki). Their defeat last November, which shouldn’t have been that big a surprise, knocked them for a loop, and they milled around aimlessly, at a loss, while the Rs immediately set to work putting the dictates of Project 2025 into practice. They were prepared, they had personnel on the ground and in the pipeline, they had executive orders written out. Because the Dems had zero contingency plans, they’ve been steamrolled into irrelevance. To be fair, it’s likely that even the most pessimistic prognosticators underestimated the bewildering speed with which the entities behind the curtain (that is, the controllers who pull even Stephen Miller’s strings) seized all the levers of power. The signs were certainly there that SCOTUS would bow to MAGA desires, but there may have still been hope that the Court wouldn’t be quite as blatant about doing so. Now that the gloves have been discarded, though, we’re seeing with clear eyes how dire the situation really is.

Has that vision motivated the Dems to, say, make a plan?? If they have, they’re certainly keeping it close to the vest. Instead, what we’re seeing is individual Dems speaking out and standing up for causes they believe in. Congressman Chris Van Hollen going to El Salvador to help Abrego Garcia. Maine SoS Shenna Bellows telling the current Administration to pound sand when voter information was demanded. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and New York Governor Kathy Hochul giving sanctuary to Texas state Dems protesting extreme gerrymandering. Jamie Raskin protesting NOAA cuts, among many other actions. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka trying to lawfully access an ICE detention center and being arrested for his efforts. There are dozens of examples of Dems protesting the situation in this country, and they are all HEROES. But inevitably, they are all reacting, and they are all alone (a few other Dems eventually tried to emulate Van Hollen, but by then, Speaker Johnson had taken the wind out of their sails). The party has no cohesive policy or plan of action for these times, nine months after the election. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer writes the occasional strongly worded letter. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi told AOC to basically sit down and shut up when it came time to choosing a Minority Leader. The result was ascension (?) of the nearly invisible Hakeem Jeffries. In short, the Dems are flailing. The very least they should have been doing since January 20^th was to vote “no” on every single nomination and every single piece of legislation. That hasn’t happened; not even close. Schumer voted in March to keep the government open, instead of making the Rs own their own mess. That type of mealy-mouthed, weasel-y caving-in demonstrates how little the Dems are looking at the big picture. They’re their own worst enemy.

The Dem policy for the remainder of the current Presidential administration, regardless who finishes out the term, should be to throw out every possible procedural roadblock, vote “no” on everything, delay whenever possible, sue when there’s any reason, and be on every platform, all day, every day, taking turns pointing out the R failings. Make them own the cuts from that Big Ugly Bill—both the ones that will happen in the near future and the ones slated for after the midterms. Pound on the poor FEMA response when it’s critical; every Dem in every affected state, several times a day. Laser-focus on every single place the Rs have made the government come up short, whether it’s cuts to the National Weather Service or the FAA. Show the ugliness of Alligator Alcatraz. Show masked ICE agents snatching people off the streets: use footage of them doing it in real time, and run it again and again. Call out the sanewashing, constantly. Ask the hard questions, and demand answers. Keep asking, every. single. day. Appoint a different person to do it each day.

Kathy Hochul occupied a news cycle when she got up and said that it was time to fight fire with fire. Get every Dem in front of a microphone, in their states and nationally, to proclaim that they’re in a war to save their constituents. When a Raskin or a Van Hollen or a Crockett, Murphy, AOC, or other Dem with courage steps up, have a whole chorus of colleagues loudly and publicly affirming their actions.

The catch is that all of the above tactics require planning. They require coordinated effort. They require everyone to be on the same page for the long haul. So far, Bernie Sanders (who isn’t a Dem, of course) is the only person who’s consistently gone on the offensive, and he has an itinerary. He’s built grassroots support, all over the country. He has a message, the same message he’s had for decades, one that very well could have won him the White House in 2016 or 2020, if only the Dems had listened. It doesn’t involve “othering,” but unity against the forces that want to squash the bottom 90%. Tim Walz had it right, too, but he didn’t get a chance. Now, Dems need to adopt Sanders’ and Walz’s mindset. In short, they need to be smart, they need to unite, they need to have purpose, and they need to meet the people where they live. They need to figure out next steps for right now, and for the next year, then three, ten, twenty, thirty years, gaming out scenarios and yes, doing what the Rs do: work from the bottom up. Because if they keep playing the short game, autocracy will be here for the foreseeable future. The Republicans have planned for it.