Senator Mark Warner, speaking yesterday “at a POLITICO Pub event on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference,” had the following to say in “a blunt assessment of the Democratic Party’s struggles in the wake of its crushing losses in the last election.”
“I think the majority of the party realizes that the ideological purity of some of the groups is a recipe for disaster, and that candidly the attack on over-the-top ‘wokeism’ was a was a valid attack. The irony of course is – and this sounds like a a whining Democrat, which maybe I am – is that you know, Democrats do some stupid things in 2019 and occasionally one person says one thing – that stick forever. President Trump can say virtually anything and it’s forgotten within the same 24-hour news period. So that is a whine and a complaint but it’s the reality.
[Is there something Democrats can learn from from President Trump and how he does politics?]
Be crazy all the time?…But I do think acknowledging the over ‘wokeism’. I don’t think that you know the kind of notion that some in my party say of, well, we just got to turn out more people, I think they DID turn out more people. And folks that we thought were going to go for Democrats aren’t. I think a lot of that goes back to culture. Until you can make a cultural connection, I’m not sure people are going to listen to you on issues. And particularly as we now live in a world where the number of people who watch a Politico or read a newspaper or do the normal means of communication or the traditional means of communication is less than 50%. And Trump was brilliant…was so ahead of his time on sorting that out with a huge reinforcing network of supporters, of followers – that’s extraordinary and the Democrats have got a lot lot to learn from that.”
So, lots to unpack here, but I’d just say: 1) Warner is absolutely correct that Democrats need our own “huge reinforcing network of supporters,” which we most definitely do NOT have right now; 2) Warner’s also 100% correct that people get their news – including bits and pieces of misinformation, half truths, disinformation, etc. – all over the place (TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, talk radio, whatever) as the traditional news media has splintered into a gazillion pieces; 3) I also agree that a lot DOES go to culture, namely that if voters think you’re not in sync with them on core values, they’re not going to listen to your arguments on anything; 4) I wouldn’t lump “the groups” together necessarily, because they’re very diverse and it’s hard to generalize, but Warner’s correct that enforced ideological purity is not helpful at all – in fact, it’s VERY alienating, off putting, divisive, etc.; 5) no question, “President Trump can say virtually anything and it’s forgotten within the same 24-hour news period,” which gets back to the splintered media environment, people’s short attention spans and constant seeking for something new/exciting/novel; 6) I understand what Warner’s getting at, but I wouldn’t adopt Republican “framing” by using words like “wokeism,” which really is just a right-wing (wild) distortion of something which, at its core, is simply about raising awareness about racial/other discrimination and injustice (having said that, of course you build a winning coalition through ADDITION, not SUBTRACTION, and that means being welcoming – and not alienating – to large groups of voters who might agree with you on a bunch of issues but feel put off by perceived hostility or whatever towards them); and last but not least 7) Dems *really* need to be focused pretty much 100% on fighting back against Trump’s dangerous assault on democracy, the rule of law, the federal government, the constitution, etc.
With that, what do you think of what Sen. Warner had to say? Should it have been said publicly at all, or should this be more of a private discussion?
P.S. Interesting comment here: “‘Ideological purity’ and ‘over the top Wokeism’ aren’t characteristics of actual Democratic politicians; they are insults used by Republicans for political gain. A competent politician could simply refuse to go along with the ruse.”
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