On the most recent episode of the NYT “The Opinions” podcast, writer Binyamin Appelbaum said the following:
Where Democrats continue to struggle is in explaining what they would do differently. This is a party that continues to lack a coherent, economic vision. I don’t think it’s just a civil war problem. There are different wings of the party ideallogically and they have some definable differences over what economic policy might look like. But I’m not even sure any of those wings has defined to completely coherent plan for moving forward. It is really a party in search of answers. They know what the questions are and they’re putting them increasingly forcefully and successfully, and that may be enough to prevail in the midterms (to be clear). But going forward, they need to start articulating answers to those questions. That to me is the singular challenge confronting the Democrat party right now.
Here’s the thing. I don’t disagree with him. The Democratic Party should have answers to these questions. I just bump up against this political criticism when I hear it. And I think the reason is because this is what is said about either party when the other one has won (normally all sides of the government). I remember this very well when the Democrats controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress under Obama.
And let’s be clear, the only “strategy” the Republicans had walking in to 2024 was “We hate Biden!” It was a coherent vision, for sure. But I don’t think it’s proving to be a productive one for the actual state of the country. Other than “tariff the shit out of everybody”, what are the Republic economic ideas? Where are the Republican plans for healthcare? AI response? Foreign relations? Etc.
We can play this game all day long.
