Some free advice for Democrats and Leftists
If you want to build a coalition against Trump to take back the White House in 2028, you need to be willing to expand the coalition to include “heretics.”
President Trump has a great many character flaws, but there is one aspect of his character that Democrats and Leftists would do well to emulate: He welcomes converts. Tulsi Gabbard is a former Democratic Congresswoman who had been very critical of Trump, and now serves as his Director of National Intelligence. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a former Democrat who had been harshly critical of Trump, and he now serves as Secretary of Health and Human Services. J.D. Vance was harshly critical of Trump and compared him to Adolf Hitler, and he serves as Vice President of these United States.
So here is some free advice for Democrats and Leftists: Stop being tone deaf and read the room. While there have been cases of Republicans getting “strange new respect” when breaking from Trump, there is also reflexive opposition to former Trump supporters when they criticize the President. “You got us here!” “You need to take responsibility for your actions!” When you reflexively condemn people who agree with you because they are not in 100% perfect alignment or because they have “sinned” in the past, you drive people away. You are also acting like you are part of a cult.
President Trump was the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years, and only the second Republican to win the popular vote in nine consecutive presidential elections. Some of that is due to Vice President Kamala Harris being a poor candidate, but Trump (for all of his vindictiveness against his current opponents) has been smart about building his coalition and welcoming converts. Democrats seem to get more grace from Trump and his most devoted supporters than even formerly Trump-skeptical Republicans. If you want to build a coalition against Trump to take back the White House in 2028, you need to be willing to expand the coalition to include “heretics.”
You also need to read the room regarding some of the more radical elements of your base. Stop pretending to be shocked that anyone would be critical of Antifa. Do not pretend to misunderstand the opposition, asking “Do you know what the FA stands for?” The bodies of 30 million people murdered by Joseph Stalin should be enough evidence that being “anti-fascist” does not necessarily make you a good person. Stalin was anti-fascist and anti-Nazi, and killed a lot of them. He was also one of the most evil men in human history.
Here is the reality: When people see a bunch of black-clad, masked thugs burning down buildings, beating people in the street, or even blockading a vendor at the Farmer’s Market to stop them from peacefully selling vegetables, “normies” have a visceral reaction against that behavior. The people who love that sort of thing are a tiny portion of the overall electorate and you damage yourself by refusing to distance yourself from them. There’s a reason that President Bill Clinton’s condemnation of “Sister Souljah” in 1992 resonated and helped him get elected. Clinton also learned from the Willie Horton debacle in 1988 and suspended his 1992 campaign to oversee the execution of a murderer, in order to shed the “soft on crime” label that had hurt his party.
Shunning the radicals is especially important for Democrats at a time when many Republicans are foolishly adopting a “no enemies to the right” strategy. Republicans are risking turning off “normies” just as the Democrats did in 2024 and continue to do in 2025. Democrats are going to continue to sink as long as they do not realize the damage they are doing to themselves, even while Trump needlessly alienates people with his childish antics and needless trolling.
It is not good to have one crazy political party while the other one caters to “normies.” We need two political parties that, while they may offer diametrically opposite policy agendas, are firmly in the rhetorical and tactical center of American politics, rejecting extremists and violence by people who are supposedly on “their side.” Craziness by one side fuels resentment and craziness by the other. Democrats can reverse that trend by deciding to be the adults in the room.