Yes, they could. However, they're owned by the same billionaires as the Republicans and the desire is to burn it all down. As such, the Democrats will continue to be good lap dogs and do their part to ensure the destruction occurs.
this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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There’s the targeted message of the month!
Of the month? This has been the case for a very long time... Jimmy Carter may have been the last real Democrat. Bill Clinton was all over the place. Otherwise, it's been nothing but a shit-show and theater.
This is David Sirota's version of the white male centrist argument to stop talking about all that "culture war" stuff and instead just talk about the economy so that you can convert some uncomfortable Republicans. It's not quite "play dead", but it's more focused on all the questions Democrats should dodge and avoid and change the subject from than what they should lead on to bring a diverse coalition back to victory. Fuck those trans people and immigrants and minorities, we've got a plumber who hates Mexicans to win over. Surely all the grievance propaganda will just stop working if only the Democrats would stop their basically non-existent defense of minority populations.
Fuck these fucking assholes, both in the center and the class reductionist left.
That's not how I read it. I read it as don't offer useless platitudes of "I support x minority" and then do nothing to help them, but instead improve their and everyone else material living conditions.
Look at the most popular politician in the US Bernie Sanders. He doesn't focus on platitudes instead offers real solutions to working class people problems and he is supported by all minority groups because of it. That doesn't mean he won't defend those minorities when they are atacked, but he doesn't make it his platform.
Bernie Sanders absolutely will just say he supports people and his platform included things that fall into this culture war space. He's not a shitty class reductionist.
Please show me where his platform lists platitudes instead of concrete actions.
Now you're saying it's about not having platitudes as the platform, not just not saying them? And this somehow is not engaging in the culture war?
Most politicians, including the vapid ones, will have some policy in the details to back up the platitudes. Sometimes "supporting black people" is a $10k tax credit for an inner city small business if you're left handed and buy American, sometimes it's "housing discrimination is wrong and it must be ended". Bernie says stuff like the latter more than the former, and that's not a bad thing.
Sirota doesn't seem to want either, because we have to peel off MAGA voters and Trump likes to play to racism.
Now you're saying it's about not having platitudes as the platform, not just not saying them? And this somehow is not engaging in the culture war?
I'm consistent. "<...> offer useless platitudes of "I support x minority" and then do nothing to help them <...>" is not the same as saying you support someone for the sake of saying to gain political capital. And it's not his platform. His platform is about working people. It might have some policies that are targeted, but the goals are the same. To help all working people to have a better life.
There is a good quote from Sanders in this article that highlights this.
“You get to what we call identity politics (which is) you’re Black you’re wonderful, you’re tremendous, you’re gay you’re the greatest human being on Earth, rather than saying what do you stand for?” Sanders said recently. “You’re gay, that’s fine, who cares. . . . The issue is, what you stand for, which gets you back (to) class politics in the sense of which side are you on? Are you going to stand with working families?”
Sirota doesn't seem to want either, because we have to peel off MAGA voters and Trump likes to play to racism.
Kamala Harris tried to peel of MAGA voters, how did that worked out for her? His whole post is about the focus being around anti-capitalism and elite establishment which resonates to more people than there are in the MAGA cult. You can't reach cult members, but you have millions upon millions of people that can be easily reached with good working class focused platform.
Kamala Harris tried to peel of MAGA voters, how did that worked out for her? His whole post is about the focus being around anti-capitalism and elite establishment which resonates to more people than there are in the MAGA cult.
Literally my whole point is that Sirota (and the centrists) continuing to counsel for the politics of conversion is fucking stupid! Harris tried it! It's dumb! Assuming your own voters don't have other options so crafting a message that won't offend your opponents just means you lose your own people. Sure everyone would like a pay raise, but if you just pretend trans rights are irrelevant or a rising tide lifts all boats despite a long history of that tide not actually being equally distributed, they're not going to trust you're actually going to be there for them after you just go stealth mode "for the election".
Sirota:
Liberals are offended by Trump’s lack of manners in pulling off extreme versions of what their own party icons have done, but many Americans seem to cherish the Joker-like quality of Trump’s antics. They seem to appreciate that — unlike establishment Democrats — Trump at least doesn’t use a dog whistle to trick anyone. He uses a bullhorn to proudly broadcast and brag about his malfeasance — all while offering a captivating and distracting culture war along the way.
Swinging these disillusioned voters away from the authoritarian right is an imperative — not for saving the Democrats, but for saving the country. And yet right now, these voters are being offered only conservatives’ MAGA circus or liberals’ Davos cocktail party.
We literally just tried avoiding the culture war to convert conservatives and the centrists and Sirota won't let that stop them from saying the problem is all that wokeness. Fuck them all.
Sirota:
Liberals are offended by Trump’s lack of manners in pulling off extreme versions of what their own party icons have done, but many Americans seem to cherish the Joker-like quality of Trump’s antics. They seem to appreciate that — unlike establishment Democrats — Trump at least doesn’t use a dog whistle to trick anyone. He uses a bullhorn to proudly broadcast and brag about his malfeasance — all while offering a captivating and distracting culture war along the way.
Swinging these disillusioned voters away from the authoritarian right is an imperative — not for saving the Democrats, but for saving the country. And yet right now, these voters are being offered only conservatives’ MAGA circus or liberals’ Davos cocktail party.
We literally just tried avoiding the culture war to convert conservatives and the centrists and Sirota won't let that stop them from saying the problem is all that wokeness. Fuck them all.
That's not how I read that in the context of the rest of the article. Maybe it's me, but I feel like you try to fit this article into the "centrists" framing when it's not about that. The article is about offering alternative to Trump fake anti-establishment talk with a real policy based anti-establishemnt movement. It's promoting everything that corporate (aka centrists) Democrats doesn't stand for.
Literally the only difference between the (white cis male) centrists and (white cis male) Sirota is that he says "economic populism" and the centrists say "kitchen table issues" or "tariffs". They have exactly the same scapegoats, the same goal to convert conservatives, and the same dismissiveness for core constituencies on the left.
He literally centered "avoiding culture war" in the title and spent two thirds of it listing the things you shouldn't say, dutifully accompanied by conservative caricatures of the left. How you can come away from that as "it's just anti-establishmentism" is beyond me.