Political Service Announcement #2: If You Want to Win, Act Like It

Once Again, Democrats Don't Seem to Get It

The late Al Davis, Founder of the Oakland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Las Vegas Raiders.

The late owner of the (now) Las Vegas Raiders had a simple ethos: “Just win, baby.”

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Back Bench) had a political take on it: “Winners make policy, losers go home.”

So I ask this question of my Democratic friends: Do you want to win the 2024 election? If you do, it’s time to start acting like it.

A few years ago, I was working on a national campaign and the candidate did a cable news town hall where they expressed a view that was (slightly) heterodox compared to his perceived public position. I happened to be sitting with a young staffer as the program ran and they were extremely upset. Below is a brief recreation of our interaction.

Staffer:            I don’t agree with that.

Me:                  Campaigns aren’t about what you believe. They’re about what he believes.

Staffer:            That’s not how it should be.

Me:                  You should run for office.

Staffer:            But I don’t agree with his position.

Me:                  Working on a campaign means subsuming your public opinions to the candidate’s message.

Staffer:            I don’t like that.

Me:                  You don’t have to work here.

Staffer:            That’s not fair.

Me:                  Shrugs and walks away.

Scene.

Since Hamas’ October 7^th attack on Israeli civilians, there’s been screaming and rising antisemitism on college campuses, TikTok-induced anger among younger voters, and within the Democratic Party about President Joe Biden’s position that Israel has a right to defend itself.

In November last year, a group of federal employees from across the Executive Branch released an open letter opposing American support of Israel. At the State Department many of those opposing the policy veered away from the traditional “dissent channel” that exists within Foggy Bottom to express disagreement.

Today, Politico ran another story about unhappiness in the ranks about President Biden and Israel. This time, though, it came from within the president’s own reelection campaign. Seventeen staff members wrote yet another anonymous letter demanding the president change course on Israel and Gaza.

Let me take it out of the context of a specific issue, Israel in this case, and put it into the frame campaigns and morality.

Good campaigns usually win elections. Bad campaigns usually lose. It’s hard to build, operate, and scale a presidential campaign. The process is arduous, onerous, demanding, and consequential. It’s harder when you have people acting like big shots for their friends in the media and the Coalitions Department.

If this kind of thing went on in a Republican campaign, from dog catcher to president, there’s a good chance the whole place would be fired and rebuilt from scratch. Working on a national campaign is a gift and opportunity. Working for a sitting president is an honor and often a springboard to the kinds of work others can only dream of.

President Biden’s campaign isn’t serving him well and if I were he and Mrs. Biden, I’d be looking around the Oval Office asking just what [bleep] is going on in Delaware. If someone didn’t have the right answer immediately, it would be the last time any of those people saw the inside of the West Wing without an A Pass.

Politico reports that the campaign staffers wrote their letter out of a sense of ‘moral responsibility.’

Bullshit.

If you’re one of the people that signed this letter, your ‘moral responsibility would have driven you to 1) put your name on the letter and 2) resign in public protest. But none of you did that, did you? No.

Why? Because you want the best of both worlds. You want to feel morally superior (a continuing bugaboo for too many Democratic operatives,) keep your job prospects alive if Biden does win, and be able to say, “I told you so,” if Donald Trump wins in November.

Reminders for you young staffers (and old) staffers out there who complain but do it behind closed doors or with your reporters friends:

1)    Your name isn’t on the ballot;

2)    Your job isn’t to decide policy;

3)    You’re not in a position (literally or figuratively) to publicly demand anything of anyone, especially the President of the United States;

Your only job on the campaign is to do your best to ensure Joseph R. Biden, Jr. takes the Oath of Office again next January. Everyone wants to be a strategist. Social media has made everyone feel like an instant expert on the topic of the day, whether they know their rear from a hole in the ground or not. Just because you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night doesn’t mean you’re an expert on Middle East peace, or anything else for that matter – unless of course someone has specifically said that is, in fact, your job.

I hate to break it to you, but there are no perfect candidates. There is no perfect policy, and there are no perfect outcomes, especially when innocent lives are in harm’s way. The job of a campaign, a political party, or a White House is to help put their candidate in the best position to win, all day, every day. Want to debate policy? Get stoned and argue with your roommates.

There are also no “moral victories” in politics. It’s a binary outcome. A candidate wins or loses. The continuation of democracy, the American experiment, and America itself depends on ensuring Donald Trump never returns to the White House. The actions of these staffers, both official and political, make Trump’s return more likely.

Because you see, Trump, MAGA, and Republicans understand how to drive further wedges into the Democratic coalition and do so gleefully. As they’re proclaiming mass deportation, Christian nationalism in public schools, and further theft of Americans’ individual liberties, Democratic staffers are publicly criticizing their own leader.

To those who think this is a good idea or your moral responsibility, let me make it plain. You’re doing the work of Trump, MAGA, Vladimir Putin, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the January 6^th insurrectionists, the list goes on… What kind of morality is that? You’re willing to stake the future of the entire country on the idea that you’re mad at your boss? This is the height of arrogance and ignorance.

“Morality” isn’t calling out the leader of the free world from behind the “fear of retribution.” Morality is understanding that we live in a complicated and dangerous world. The world will be only more dangerous and more complicated with a second Donald Trump term. You think you’re waiting on 2028? Think again, pal.

These staffers aren’t displaying moral superiority, but cowardice. The irony of their cowardice is that they’re willing to risk the country for their beliefs, but not their image or their jobs.

In the Associated Press report of division with the administration’s rank and file on Israel, when asked why they don’t quit, a staffer responds:

“Staying silent, or resigning, would shirk their responsibility to the public,” the staffer said. “If we just leave, there’s never going to be any change.”

You know, that’s exactly what all my old friends who went to work for Donald Trump said, too.

To all of you disaffected staffers, talking heads, grandees, Washington, DC apparatchiks, ask yourself this simple question: Do you want President Biden to win reelection or not? If you do, start acting like it. If you don’t have the decency to quit and let someone else take the responsibility. It’s not about you. It’s about 330 million other Americans.