Defeat Requires Accountability
Joe Rogan and Joe Biden are Not the Only Reasons Democrats Lost Two Weeks Ago
Eighty years ago this summer, Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, sat at Southwick House meeting with his commanders in chief about the imminent invasion of France, Operation Overlord.
After a weather delay, SHAEF’s chief meteorologist James Stagg informed Eisenhower and his officers that the weather would improve in time for D-Day to be fixed for Tuesday, June 6, 1944. After surveying those that would lead the invasion, Ike said, “Okay. Let’s go.”
After the room emptied out, Eisenhower sat and wrote a brief note in case of failure:
“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
He understood and accepted the nature of leadership and command: With the power, prestige, and authority comes responsiblity and accountability. Democratic leaders need to take a lesson from Ike.
A National Loss
Democrats failed to retain the White House and the US Senate. They failed to retake the US House of Representatives. It is fashionable to lay all the blame at the feet of President Joe Biden. If he’d kept his promise! If we’d had a process!
“If only we’d had our own Joe Rogan!” is bouncing around lefty elite circles without any conception of what Rogan and the conservative media ecosystem actually represents. Podcasts are the bottom of MAGA’s funnel, not the top, as I wrote recently.
What I haven’t heard from anyone of note or authority is any acceptance of responsibility for losing (again) to a man who should have been the most beatable human on Earth. Regardless of reason, those that direct message, control strategy, and spend money in the Democratic Party are either unwilling or unable to admit their own culpability for losing.
Looking Forward?
There are many who say we (and yes, I mean WE) should just move forward; that recriminations and infighting don’t help focus on the next election cycle: The 2026 mid-terms. This is a cop-out, pure and simple. Leaders don’t shy from accountability: They’re willing to accept it as part of being at the top of the pyramid.
To look ahead, Democrats must first look in the mirror. Per the New York Times, “In predominantly urban counties nationwide where most votes had been counted, Ms. Harris received two million fewer votes than Mr. Biden had four years earlier.”
These are supposed to be Democratic strongholds. As a faith leader in the Midwest told me two years ago, “My people have two choices. They know what they get with Republicans and they don’t want that. But they look out their windows year in and year out and their lives don’t change.”
How can a national political party simply “move forward” when its core constituencies are so disillusioned they’d rather role the dice with Donald Trump and Company than take the time to participate in the election? It can’t. It shouldn't. If it does, the defeats will not simply continue, they will accelerate.
Running out of Real Estate
Donald Trump won all seven of the battleground Electoral College states. That is terrible news. To make it worse, he narrowed his margins in states like New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and New Mexico over his results four years ago.
What’s going on with the ‘new’ states?
Trump Margin of Defeat
State: 2020: 2024:
New York 23.2%. 11.7%
New Jersey 15.8%. 5.6%
New Hampshire 7.3%. 2.8%
New Mexico 10.8%. 6.1%
These trends cannot and must not continue. The Democrats' paths to power in the House, Senate, and White House are already too narrow and will continue to constrict if they don’t take radical action and make significant change across the board.
Given their willingness to give up on states (see the US Senate and state legislative maps of the last dozen years) if the party cannot find a way to staunch the bleeding, the Democrats will go the way of the Whigs; at exactly the worst time for American democracy, free elections, and most Americans’ belief systems.
We’re at the water’s edge politically, and Trump’s Republican Party and MAGA movement will do all they can, all they can, to push us off the beach. I only spend so much time and thought on the Democratic Party (of which I’m not a member) because they’re the only pro-democracy party we have left.
I will not stop beating the drum for a true reckoning in their ranks. We shouldn’t leave the fate of the Republic to the myopic arrogance of of elite know-it-alls. Their national messaging failed. Their metrics failed. Their byzantine and over-hyped testing regimens have failed.
To Whom We Owe A Debt
You’ve read and listened to me talk about my travels around the battleground states this fall. What happened on November 5th was not the fault of the hundreds of patriots I met, the millions of volunteers who did their part, or the candidates up and down the ballot who did their level best in the face of a tsunami they couldn’t see coming.
We owe it to them, and to all every American whom we claim to care about to do better; so much better. For 330 million citizens, this isn’t a game. Their lives are not zero-sum contests to be determined by a few people thousands of miles away, and light years’ distant from their daily struggles.
So, to the leadership of the Democratic Party: If you won’t listen to me (which you won’t) how about listening to your voters? Their frustrations are loud and their silence at the ballot box was deafening. They don’t care who you are, nor should they. They do care that theirs is a party that continually claims to care about them, only take them for granted year in and year out.
News and Notes:
The latest edition of The Home Front Podcast is up! Journalist Abigail Tracy and I discuss The Onion buying InfoWars, Matt Gaetz, Marco “The Jellyfish” Rubio, and much more. I NEED YOU TO LISTEN, FOLLOW, AND LEAVE A FIVE STAR REVIEW!
Social Media Update: I’m off Twitter. Follow me at Sez.Us and Blue Sky!
We’re still hard at work at The Union. Help us build our infrastructure and grow our movement! An investment today means victory tomorrow!
Book Review: Check out The Light of Battle by Michel Paradis. It’s a terrific view of Dwight Eisenhower’s journey from lowly colonel to Supreme Allied Commander.
You can find it here.
abigail Tracy had some good strong points about the media world and how Biden particularly did not take advantage of it, being too 'pure'. BUT she spoke a bunch of B.S. about the Democrats' policy. and Reed, you too about the 'great sucking sound' of globalisation. True, BUT have you bothered to notice the amount of on-shoring and private investment in manufacturing in the US that Biden's policies and legislation have got, in the past two years? Billions in investment and jobs (often in red states, where the legislators take credit for the impact of the bills they voted against.)
So yes, Biden did not brag enough, and Harris did not defend their economic policy as well as she should have, but it's simply not true that the policies were bad. Bidenomics ended the 'trickle down' myth that Reagan and his successors have followed, and that Trump and Musk are going to bring back in spades.
The Dems' policies were very much geared to the little guy. Abigail echoed the complaint of youth that they don't have health care - BUT under Biden-Harris, the number of Americans WITH health care is the highest it has ever been (and way higher than it is about to be under Trump when they gut the Affordable Care Act.)
Solve the problem of the low-information voter with Fox poisoning, but don't add to the misinformation while you're at it.
The Democratic Party must have new leadership if things are going to change. It has to be the party of the people, and that is going to require leaders who are not in the pockets of corporations and billionaires. Right now, I like the voices of AOC and Jasmine Crockett. They are young fearless fighters. That is what we need to bring life back to a demoralized party who feel fear and hopelessness. We need righteous voices to lead and inspire.