An extraordinary exposé in The Atlantic pulls back the curtain on a decades-long problem perpetuated by a few Latino pollsters that cost Democrats the White House…not once, but twice.
Heck, all I did was read the "damn book" and I mad as hell about it too! I've now read at last count, three articles, in addition to the Atlantic one, all equally devastating indictments of the Democratic party and their blindness (our blindness) to the visible-from-outer-space writing on the wall. My optimism that there is a path through this period of transformation that runs through the Democratic party is all but gone. The only sane and viable path forward, at least for me personally, is to focus on grassroots LOCAL efforts.
devastating. horrific, even. any sign Dems see it now, finally? thank you Mike, for today's nightmare. of all the endless alarming stuff roiling us these days, here's something worth being alarmed about (because it is addressable...it is, right?)
Mike, I’ve been complaining about the same old same old Ridiculously Wealthy Dem consultants & pollsters since 2008. Not just over the Hispanic issue, but messaging in general. I’m friends with one. He’s a lovely guy, but very much an elite who thinks it’s still 1992. Every time we sit down to catch up, I’m astonished at how much more I - a civilian - know about current breaking news, & political people & events. That was my 1st red flag. I’ve written to the DNC about it, I’ve tweeted about it since then, I’ve shared it with everyone close to politics that I know.
All moot. They simply cannot quit their inner circles…who I believe lost the election for us in 2016 as well.
Success & a recurring gig with a regular client makes people too sure of themselves & too lazy. I’m not the kind of person who phones it in, but if I was being paid that level of money to give the same advice I did 20 years earlier…I might take the money, too.
It has to stop. Started noting the Hispanic issue while working in LA w/many Hispanic colleagues from about 2003 on. The immigration issue was a no-brainer. Even a colleague who’d literally crossed the river illegally (now naturalized) could care less about it, which kinda shocked me. Attitude was “I worked terrible jobs, I paid my dues, now let everyone else pay their own.”
I could scream. There’s something terribly wrong with Dem party politics. But I’m not an insider & don’t know exactly what it is. Been rebuffed (as have many REAL messaging experts I know) so many times & am just so tired of trying as a single voice, especially since I’m not directly in politics, I’m just a professional storyteller & communicator who pays super close attention to it.
Anyway, everyone in the damn party should be assigned your book. And hire you & boots on the ground experts, not ivory tower academics & corporate elites who’ve been doing the same thing forever.
They’re scared to change because whenever someone speaks out against identity politics they get accused of being racist, sexist or privileged. The Democratic Party has insulated itself into a giant echo chamber of mostly college educated people worried about fringe issues that leave out probably 90 percent of the country.
Plus, there’s a self-righteous addiction going on too.
Kamala Harris needs to lead this fight. They can’t write her off as racist, sexist or privileged. They’ll be forced to contend with the merits of her argument.
I’m floored by how inept the party operatives are. Biden not closing the border early in his term coupled with inflation and no effective comms on it were the fatal blows.
I’m as enraged as you are. I’ve been losing progressive friends who no longer want to speak to me because I’m calling out identity politics for what it’s done to our party. It’s a damn broken model. Why didn’t any white progressives question these latino pollsters who were selling them bad data? Because doing so would be considered racist in the progressive world. The broken thinking is voters fit into identity boxes. Black voters think this way, brown voters that way. White voters this way. There are no true individuals, only categories of people who can never truly understand someone from a differing identity group. So, in progressive orthodoxy there’s no way a white person or a black person could ever truly understand a brown person. This thinking requires us to ignore the working class struggle hurting all Americans.
I wish what I said was hyperbole but it’s not. The Democratic Party has allowed itself to be hijacked by this model. That’s partly why they couldn’t understand why cost of living and immigration was pissing voters off. “Black and brown voters are primarily concerned about ethnic issues, aren’t they?” There’s a lot of white savior complex going on here too. Democrats took a working class party and turned it into a party that lectures people on their privilege and policies their language to hunt down any verbal indiscretion.
The fact of the matter is we’ve lost our connection with working class America. We’re in a giant echo chamber of mostly college educated people being led by progressives operating off of a savior complex and a ton of guilt.
Don’t get me started on how we turned going onto shows like Joe Rogan to be morally impure. We’re too good to go on Rogan as he holds one of the largest audiences in America. Not only did we follow bad data. We insulated ourselves into our own echo chamber and refused to listening to anyone who tried to show us the light.
Thank you again Mike for being right on this issue and never backing down. The Democratic Party machine needs to do some serious introspection and start calling balls and strikes. Trump is such a terrible candidate and a terrible human being. And yet we keep losing to him. What’s that say about the Democratic Party?
Thank you for this piece. It is, in effect a problem that rings through the entire party. The Democrats are not fit to winning. The party is run by and for consultants who pay no real price when they are wrong. You can see this even now as people like Pelosi intervene in the fights over committee chairmanship to prevent change from taking place. The same people who profit off the party are leading it and no matter how often they fail they will always make a buck.
Mike you are on fire! And I love it. Big tent? Don’t think so. Dem politics has become insular and they are debating issues that a changing demographic of voters care about inside their own echo chamber of urban, white, wealthy, college educated, academics. They’re losing the labor vote for similar reasons.
To top it all off they elect a 74 year old with cancer for oversight chairman. I'm just done with them and I loath Trump with my whole being. Biden should not have run again and although I believe he was a good president he should have let some of the younger people step up. Just like RBG and Pelosi.... We are so screwed because these olds won't retire.
Not every older person , but for them ALL to stay and protect one another ?! It’s beyond comprehension - that Connelly did not notify public prior to the election, that he agreed to the Oversight position - it would be one thing if he were a person with Fire - like Warren, sanders etc but he is not . And he will not remain a “young” 74 after cancer treatment - im just ffs-ing it all over the place. This man appears gaunt already - heading INTO treatment - and it’s esophageal . FFS
Jesus wept, and so do I. I am appalled to put it mildly. I thought I was reasonably well informed, but I had no idea so much credence was placed in these people.why weren’t we out scouring the country speaking with hundreds or thousands of actual voters? This ties in with my complete unwillingness to go back to the institutionalized version of the Democratic Party. What the hall. I worked my posterior off for Hillary and Pete—nine flipping months every day for Hillary, and some hopeless bozos are out there not doing their job and being paid a ton while I volunteered? Stupid system. Stupid Dem leadership. I am so angry. If we have another election this will not be how it goes down.
How could the Party think it could represent the needs and wishes of a huge constituency if it wasn’t even talking to them?
Democrats are slaves to compassion - whether with illegal migrants, drug addicts, trans kids or criminals who they advocated for bail reform. It comes back to punch them in the face, because none of these people vote. And as a result, the White House will now be occupied by a twice impeached, convicted felon who will go after all of them - while you can feel comfortable you passed a purity test. How about the party learn how to attact VOTERS, not satisfy the twitter mob of UNEMPLOYABLE ACTIVISTS. Learn how to WIN. Trump only received 30% of the VOTES - less than 1/3rd. Something is really wrong with the DNC strategy and messaging. Fire them all. Biden should have stayed a one-term President. He, and the people who covered up for him before the debate, should shoulder a lot of blame.
Does referencing working in a political campaign include the grift of the Lincoln Project, the PAC you were a member of that includes a cabal of pedophiles/sexual abusers (John Weaver) and pathological lying thieves and performative buffoons (Jennifer Horn, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson - Rick, you're the rodeo clown) who pay their own consulting firms as subcontractors or engage in rampant nepotism and hire their own kids?
I admire your passion, conviction and intelligent outspokenness so much. Thank you for always keeping it real!
Anybody have a gift link to The Atlantic expose? I’d love to read it. My guess is that once I read it my cynicism will surface. After all, grifters gonna grift, no matter what “side” they are on. But then optimism will win, it always does. I’ll read Desiderata and get right back on track, focus efforts where I can affect the most change, keep listening to my neighbors, find common ground, and help coax “aha” moments into their lives as well as my own.
Time for the Democratic Party to STOP pandering to various identity groups, many of whome rewarded theuir efforts by voting for Trump, and start pandering to a broader more numerous group called voters, 35% of whom voted for no candidate. Trump won 30% of the eligible voters. less than 1/3 - that is no mandate - it is rule by a cult of clowns. Get rid of all the old folks who have outdated concepts of race and identiy politics. That tired playbook may have worked since the late 60's but everyone is fractured into tribes. Focus on greatest common denominator issues, IGNORE noisy, unemployable Twitter-mob activists (who can't deliver any votes or take them away) and provide a strong contrast to the corruption, incompetence, self-enriching grifting and lying of the MAGA TRASH GQP.
Let them care out all of their plans, put up a younger ex-military candidate the has broad appeal and ENERGY, lose the celebs, and let MAGA destroy itself in a circular firing squad. The pro-Israeal Zionists, Neo Nazis, Fascists, Wall Street hustlers, Merch Grifters, Low IQ conspiracy theorists and workers are not aq coalition that can hold together. Let them show Americans what they voted for, with ZERO resistance from Democrats, and perhaps the 35% of apathetic voters might turn out to flush them out at Midterms and in 2028.
Times were too good under Biden. Low unemployment, falling inflation and an end to the pandemic have allowed voters to believe Trump's lies and fairytales, especially since many have selective amnesia. They for got about all the DEATH and the 15% unemployment under Trump - along with brawling MAGA TRASH and Daily Trump Chaos. No they will get a refresher. He has not changed. He will be far worse.
Dems should ask minorities on the street, not just their pollsters and consultants. I live in a blue city and the Trumpiest part of the city is China Town. Growing up, I see restaurant owners proudly displayed pictures of them with Democratic governors and politicians. But years of progressive city politics have shifted voters to the right. It doesn’t take a PHD to understand what happened.
In the past decade, we've seen who the Republicans (and now former Republicans) really are. Their masks are off. In the next few years, Democrats will reveal themselves similarly and we shall see who is true, who is false, who are the most craven opportunists, who has spine, and who doesn't.
I only hope there are enough responsible Democrats to build something worthwhile on the ashes of the Trump administration, whether together with Never Trump Republicans and former Republicans like Mike, or in healthy competition with each other.
Heck, all I did was read the "damn book" and I mad as hell about it too! I've now read at last count, three articles, in addition to the Atlantic one, all equally devastating indictments of the Democratic party and their blindness (our blindness) to the visible-from-outer-space writing on the wall. My optimism that there is a path through this period of transformation that runs through the Democratic party is all but gone. The only sane and viable path forward, at least for me personally, is to focus on grassroots LOCAL efforts.
devastating. horrific, even. any sign Dems see it now, finally? thank you Mike, for today's nightmare. of all the endless alarming stuff roiling us these days, here's something worth being alarmed about (because it is addressable...it is, right?)
Yes. Very fixable
Mike, I’ve been complaining about the same old same old Ridiculously Wealthy Dem consultants & pollsters since 2008. Not just over the Hispanic issue, but messaging in general. I’m friends with one. He’s a lovely guy, but very much an elite who thinks it’s still 1992. Every time we sit down to catch up, I’m astonished at how much more I - a civilian - know about current breaking news, & political people & events. That was my 1st red flag. I’ve written to the DNC about it, I’ve tweeted about it since then, I’ve shared it with everyone close to politics that I know.
All moot. They simply cannot quit their inner circles…who I believe lost the election for us in 2016 as well.
Success & a recurring gig with a regular client makes people too sure of themselves & too lazy. I’m not the kind of person who phones it in, but if I was being paid that level of money to give the same advice I did 20 years earlier…I might take the money, too.
It has to stop. Started noting the Hispanic issue while working in LA w/many Hispanic colleagues from about 2003 on. The immigration issue was a no-brainer. Even a colleague who’d literally crossed the river illegally (now naturalized) could care less about it, which kinda shocked me. Attitude was “I worked terrible jobs, I paid my dues, now let everyone else pay their own.”
I could scream. There’s something terribly wrong with Dem party politics. But I’m not an insider & don’t know exactly what it is. Been rebuffed (as have many REAL messaging experts I know) so many times & am just so tired of trying as a single voice, especially since I’m not directly in politics, I’m just a professional storyteller & communicator who pays super close attention to it.
Anyway, everyone in the damn party should be assigned your book. And hire you & boots on the ground experts, not ivory tower academics & corporate elites who’ve been doing the same thing forever.
They’re scared to change because whenever someone speaks out against identity politics they get accused of being racist, sexist or privileged. The Democratic Party has insulated itself into a giant echo chamber of mostly college educated people worried about fringe issues that leave out probably 90 percent of the country.
Plus, there’s a self-righteous addiction going on too.
Kamala Harris needs to lead this fight. They can’t write her off as racist, sexist or privileged. They’ll be forced to contend with the merits of her argument.
I’m floored by how inept the party operatives are. Biden not closing the border early in his term coupled with inflation and no effective comms on it were the fatal blows.
I’m as enraged as you are. I’ve been losing progressive friends who no longer want to speak to me because I’m calling out identity politics for what it’s done to our party. It’s a damn broken model. Why didn’t any white progressives question these latino pollsters who were selling them bad data? Because doing so would be considered racist in the progressive world. The broken thinking is voters fit into identity boxes. Black voters think this way, brown voters that way. White voters this way. There are no true individuals, only categories of people who can never truly understand someone from a differing identity group. So, in progressive orthodoxy there’s no way a white person or a black person could ever truly understand a brown person. This thinking requires us to ignore the working class struggle hurting all Americans.
I wish what I said was hyperbole but it’s not. The Democratic Party has allowed itself to be hijacked by this model. That’s partly why they couldn’t understand why cost of living and immigration was pissing voters off. “Black and brown voters are primarily concerned about ethnic issues, aren’t they?” There’s a lot of white savior complex going on here too. Democrats took a working class party and turned it into a party that lectures people on their privilege and policies their language to hunt down any verbal indiscretion.
The fact of the matter is we’ve lost our connection with working class America. We’re in a giant echo chamber of mostly college educated people being led by progressives operating off of a savior complex and a ton of guilt.
Don’t get me started on how we turned going onto shows like Joe Rogan to be morally impure. We’re too good to go on Rogan as he holds one of the largest audiences in America. Not only did we follow bad data. We insulated ourselves into our own echo chamber and refused to listening to anyone who tried to show us the light.
Thank you again Mike for being right on this issue and never backing down. The Democratic Party machine needs to do some serious introspection and start calling balls and strikes. Trump is such a terrible candidate and a terrible human being. And yet we keep losing to him. What’s that say about the Democratic Party?
We should all be pissed.
Thank you for this piece. It is, in effect a problem that rings through the entire party. The Democrats are not fit to winning. The party is run by and for consultants who pay no real price when they are wrong. You can see this even now as people like Pelosi intervene in the fights over committee chairmanship to prevent change from taking place. The same people who profit off the party are leading it and no matter how often they fail they will always make a buck.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-152551865
Mike you are on fire! And I love it. Big tent? Don’t think so. Dem politics has become insular and they are debating issues that a changing demographic of voters care about inside their own echo chamber of urban, white, wealthy, college educated, academics. They’re losing the labor vote for similar reasons.
To top it all off they elect a 74 year old with cancer for oversight chairman. I'm just done with them and I loath Trump with my whole being. Biden should not have run again and although I believe he was a good president he should have let some of the younger people step up. Just like RBG and Pelosi.... We are so screwed because these olds won't retire.
Not every older person , but for them ALL to stay and protect one another ?! It’s beyond comprehension - that Connelly did not notify public prior to the election, that he agreed to the Oversight position - it would be one thing if he were a person with Fire - like Warren, sanders etc but he is not . And he will not remain a “young” 74 after cancer treatment - im just ffs-ing it all over the place. This man appears gaunt already - heading INTO treatment - and it’s esophageal . FFS
P.S. Bless you, Stuart, Rick, etc. for the Lincoln Project. The savviest, on target political group of my lifetime.
Jesus wept, and so do I. I am appalled to put it mildly. I thought I was reasonably well informed, but I had no idea so much credence was placed in these people.why weren’t we out scouring the country speaking with hundreds or thousands of actual voters? This ties in with my complete unwillingness to go back to the institutionalized version of the Democratic Party. What the hall. I worked my posterior off for Hillary and Pete—nine flipping months every day for Hillary, and some hopeless bozos are out there not doing their job and being paid a ton while I volunteered? Stupid system. Stupid Dem leadership. I am so angry. If we have another election this will not be how it goes down.
How could the Party think it could represent the needs and wishes of a huge constituency if it wasn’t even talking to them?
Thank you, Mike. Eyes wide open now.
Economic voters most definitely. And economic data was there for the Dems to tout.
Democrats are slaves to compassion - whether with illegal migrants, drug addicts, trans kids or criminals who they advocated for bail reform. It comes back to punch them in the face, because none of these people vote. And as a result, the White House will now be occupied by a twice impeached, convicted felon who will go after all of them - while you can feel comfortable you passed a purity test. How about the party learn how to attact VOTERS, not satisfy the twitter mob of UNEMPLOYABLE ACTIVISTS. Learn how to WIN. Trump only received 30% of the VOTES - less than 1/3rd. Something is really wrong with the DNC strategy and messaging. Fire them all. Biden should have stayed a one-term President. He, and the people who covered up for him before the debate, should shoulder a lot of blame.
Does referencing working in a political campaign include the grift of the Lincoln Project, the PAC you were a member of that includes a cabal of pedophiles/sexual abusers (John Weaver) and pathological lying thieves and performative buffoons (Jennifer Horn, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson - Rick, you're the rodeo clown) who pay their own consulting firms as subcontractors or engage in rampant nepotism and hire their own kids?
Mike🔥!!
I admire your passion, conviction and intelligent outspokenness so much. Thank you for always keeping it real!
Anybody have a gift link to The Atlantic expose? I’d love to read it. My guess is that once I read it my cynicism will surface. After all, grifters gonna grift, no matter what “side” they are on. But then optimism will win, it always does. I’ll read Desiderata and get right back on track, focus efforts where I can affect the most change, keep listening to my neighbors, find common ground, and help coax “aha” moments into their lives as well as my own.
Time for the Democratic Party to STOP pandering to various identity groups, many of whome rewarded theuir efforts by voting for Trump, and start pandering to a broader more numerous group called voters, 35% of whom voted for no candidate. Trump won 30% of the eligible voters. less than 1/3 - that is no mandate - it is rule by a cult of clowns. Get rid of all the old folks who have outdated concepts of race and identiy politics. That tired playbook may have worked since the late 60's but everyone is fractured into tribes. Focus on greatest common denominator issues, IGNORE noisy, unemployable Twitter-mob activists (who can't deliver any votes or take them away) and provide a strong contrast to the corruption, incompetence, self-enriching grifting and lying of the MAGA TRASH GQP.
Let them care out all of their plans, put up a younger ex-military candidate the has broad appeal and ENERGY, lose the celebs, and let MAGA destroy itself in a circular firing squad. The pro-Israeal Zionists, Neo Nazis, Fascists, Wall Street hustlers, Merch Grifters, Low IQ conspiracy theorists and workers are not aq coalition that can hold together. Let them show Americans what they voted for, with ZERO resistance from Democrats, and perhaps the 35% of apathetic voters might turn out to flush them out at Midterms and in 2028.
Times were too good under Biden. Low unemployment, falling inflation and an end to the pandemic have allowed voters to believe Trump's lies and fairytales, especially since many have selective amnesia. They for got about all the DEATH and the 15% unemployment under Trump - along with brawling MAGA TRASH and Daily Trump Chaos. No they will get a refresher. He has not changed. He will be far worse.
Dems should ask minorities on the street, not just their pollsters and consultants. I live in a blue city and the Trumpiest part of the city is China Town. Growing up, I see restaurant owners proudly displayed pictures of them with Democratic governors and politicians. But years of progressive city politics have shifted voters to the right. It doesn’t take a PHD to understand what happened.
In the past decade, we've seen who the Republicans (and now former Republicans) really are. Their masks are off. In the next few years, Democrats will reveal themselves similarly and we shall see who is true, who is false, who are the most craven opportunists, who has spine, and who doesn't.
I only hope there are enough responsible Democrats to build something worthwhile on the ashes of the Trump administration, whether together with Never Trump Republicans and former Republicans like Mike, or in healthy competition with each other.