Robert Ferry: Like it or not, the Democratic electoral strategy of “democracy is on the ballot” may not be successful because many Americans have already lived most of their lives in a marginalized majority without a functioning democracy. It is a slogan penned by a tone deaf and privileged political class.

The symptoms of a broken democracy. “It is not that my side…is losing in the marketplace of ideas. It is that many of the ideas that I believe in absolutely kill in the marketplace of ideas, and it does not matter…Our electoral politics no longer care about representing the winning ideas.”

Opinion | Whoever the Democratic Candidate Is, Americans Have Already Lostwww.nytimes.com The American Republic feels fragile.

Like it or not, the Democratic electoral strategy of “democracy is on the ballot” may not be successful because many Americans have already lived most of their lives in a marginalized majority without a functioning democracy. It is a slogan penned by a tone deaf and privileged political class.

Don’t get me wrong. Personally I think democracy is on the ballot, or at least salvaging that which yet remains of it. That is all the more reason to adopt an actually winning strategy, telling people how voting for the Democratic candidate will materially improve their lives.

That last part is the biggest piece missing in my opinion. The last few election cycles have been nothing but "We must defeat trump/the GOP!" Without offering substantive change to people. The Dem party needs to offer a compelling vision of the future not just fearmongering

The problem isn't messaging; it's the refusal to act and the implementation of right wing policy. Biden is president right now. Nobody's going to believe that things will improve if he's re-elected. That's why he can't present a compelling vision: he'd have to start implementing it now.

Cosigned. It’s not the messaging per say, although frankly thats not good either.

100%, but in fairness there are a number of barriers (the filibuster in the Senate for example, GOP control of the house) which means that even if he wanted to he couldn't right pass huge legislation right now. But the party needs to A)get all members in line B) do SOMETHING even if it's smaller

the party can only offer the status quo because that’s what they’re built their profit streams on top of

Look, the fact that the "everyone gets a unicorn pony" section was stripped from the Inflation Reduction Act is entirely on Joe Manchin.

I get that you're joking around, but in seriousness it doesn't matter. Biden was president so he owns what happens, fairly or not that's what people will remember. Regardless though the campaign needs to offer that vision for how things can change rather than just being "not trump"

Erry dang day on here we get the "Dems suck at doing stuff / OK they do stuff but they suck at messaging" dance and I thank you for knowing the steps.

Reading articles and posts and listening to podcasts about Brits being able to identify with a party or candidate’s manifesto… I feel so jealous. Why has America voting been reduced to “the other guy is worse”? How about giving us something to vote FOR?

Because the Brits have a system where if you vote in a majority, they have the power to carry out the agenda they ran on. In the US, you need to win a trifecta with enough margin to overcome stragglers and then hope that the courts don't decide to play legal calvinball and screw you over.

A vacuum leadership the donor class engineered will not be solved until they think it ought to be solved.

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