Status Updates From Democrats 101: A Primer for Us

“Creating change isn't our real challenge. Creating consensus is, the kind of national consensus that makes real change possible. That needs to be our number one goal: creating a significant majority in America that emotionally identifies with basic American values. We need to drive people away from the subconscious artifacts of fear and threat that the Republicans have constructed...”

“This isn't 1950. It isn't even twenty years ago. It's now, and right now... despite all the noise and confusion... a majority of Americans inherently recognize our core values... things like the principles of justice and opportunity fair play... that they do understand. Not every body, that's for sure, but a lot more than 51 percent... and that's our future, bringing those people on board.”

“Basically, the Republican Party has managed to emotionally unite every White person who feels left out or left behind in America. And we have helped the Republicans. ... It's the assumption that our endless goal is to win that thin slice of America that tips us to 51 percent. It's the same subconscious idea that a lot of us cling to that demographics will fix everything, that we just need to wait for the babies.”

“We need Americans to understand that the real issue isn't the size of government, it's the use of government. As Democrats... we believe in government that gets done what's needed, when it's needed. Nothing more and nothing less. That's what we've got to make clear to people (and to ourselves): we stand for an effective government based on values that help people.”

“The point of all this is that we're not socialist and we're not capitalist... we're Americans who are trying to make this a better country to live in. The point is, capitalism is a foundation of our economy, something that is necessary but most definitely in need of regulation.”

“Large corporations aren't immoral, they're amoral. If doing good turns a bigger profit, they do good. If doing bad creates a bigger profit... they do bad. And we've already seen what happens when corporate greed meets no rules and no referees: inhumane work conditions, starvation wages, and child labor, culminating in the Great Depression.”

“socialism has lost any practical meaning. Does it mean communism? Or does it mean Social Security and Medicare? How about the right to clean air and clean water? Is that "socialist"? Or national standards to ensure fair voting in elections? The truth is, the Republicans have turned the word "socialist" into a bogeyman,' a label they can stick on anything they don't like to make it seem evil.”

“Protecting the rich is why they oppose Social Security and Medicare, and expanding Medicaid. It's why they oppose all social programs, the very ones that would benefit a lot of their base: Social programs cost money. And money means taxes...”

“Protecting the rich is why Republicans oppose things like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Protection Agency, why they oppose any kind of regulation of clean air or water, why they want to open our natural resources to unlimited exploitation and why they oppose any sort of research into the consequences of it. Rich people own the coal mines.”

“Protecting the rich is why the GOP keeps pushing huge tax cuts for the wealthy. It's the origin of Reagan's "supply-side economics" (also called "voodoo economics"), the idea that if you pour lots of money into the hands of the rich, some of it will slip through their fingers and "trickle down" to you and me.”

“The truth is, the modern Republican concept of conservative values didn't begin with the Founding Fathers, it began in 1933, and it was a knee-jerk reaction to FDR. The wealthy industrialists of those days... . were appalled at the reforms Roosevelt was undertaking. The ultrarich saw the New Deal as a direct threat to their power, to their enormous profits and political influence.”

“let's be clear: for us, winning 51 percent of the vote is losing. We may take the presidency, we may control the House and the Senate, but we will never gain our real goals... universal health care... campaign finance reform ... until we have... majorities in both chambers that make that kind of real reform possible, and that won't happen until we reach out and embrace that significant part of the Republican vote”

“Rural areas... and smaller cities... may be where the Republican base is located, but it's also where the people who we want to bring over to our side live... people who embrace the basic values we're talking about in this book but who live in a world with a different style, language, and day-to-day priorities... the elite who guide our language and messaging keep missing... confusing lifestyle with substance.”

“The Republican Party has an objective here: to turn the entire country into Whole Foods versus Cracker Barrel on a deeply emotional level, because then they can smoothly lump together a whole lot of independent voters with the haters. Then they can make them all feel like a tribe, emotionally connected... and threatened... in a very primal way when they shouldn't be at all.”

“The Republican strategy isn't about politics at all, it's about culture. The Republican goal is to keep us separated into two warring tribes based almost entirely on cultural differences.”

“It captured them because that's what so many of them wanted to believe. Of course it drew in racists. It drew in all the racists, but it drew in a heck of a lot of others as well. It drew in Hispanics and more than a few Black voters. In short, it worked.”

“Playing on this cultural anxiety is the essence of Republican strategy... MAGA was a subconscious message that the stability and security of the lives they used to know could somehow be recaptured.”