The Only Party Worth a Damn
Democratic Voters on the Future of the Party (A Four-Part Series)
There is no other party that is worth a damn. That’s why it’s so important for the Democrats to get it together. Either Democrats will fix things or nobody will. –Atlanta attorney, white Episcopalian male, 41
Last week, the Democrats announced “A Better Deal”, a short list of economic policy objectives that would begin the roll-out of a 2018 and 2020 platform. While some applauded this effort, others declared the slogan and the proposals insufficient, or a simple rehash of the Clinton/Kaine 2016 platform.
Beyond the “A Better Deal” debate, a critical discussion has been heating up in various media outlets, online, and at kitchen tables nationwide: what do we want from the Democratic Party? How can the party win in 2018 and 2020?
A few weeks back, I noticed several articles on this theme, but also noticed that many were written by or featured politicos and journalists from Washington, DC and New York City. Not all, but enough that I thought it was time to expand the public conversation, and bring in more Democratic voices from across the country.
The Process
While not scientifically determined, I reached out to what I hoped would be a wide cross-section of citizens who identified as Democrats. If they did not identify as Democrats, they had to have voted Democratic in the past, or be open to voting Democratic in the future. Volunteer participants received extensive surveys and returned the surveys, or memo responses, via email. Participants were free to answer as many or as few questions as they wished.
46 responded, many quite thoroughly, with thoughtful, insightful answers. Because they shared so much strong feedback, this will be a four-part series: 1) What We Want from the Democratic Party; 2) Learning from 2016; 3) Resistance Notes: Engagement, Activism, & Fighting Back; and 4) Advice to DNC Chairs for 2018.
What First Drew You to the Democratic Party?
I asked participants to consider their what first drew them to the Democrats. Many participants spoke of family, of being “born” into the party. “I grew up with ‘liberal’ parents and a family that saw themselves as part of something bigger than just our town, or ourselves,” wrote Justin, a white gay corporate manager in Texas (47). “My mother worshipped FDR,” said Lea Belair, a white writer in Vermont (67). “She was influenced by growing up during the times the labor unions were fighting for workers’ rights, especially in the factories.”
“My parents were typical New Deal Jewish Democrats who viewed being Jewish and being Democrat as coterminous,” said a Detroit-born male attorney (70) with extensive Democratic party and government service. A black male Ohio executive (59) was also “born” a Democrat: “My parents revered President Kennedy and President Johnson. Growing up, there were three non-family members framed on the wall in my home: Jesus, JFK, & MLK.”
Ideals and issues drove affiliation. “The liberation and inclusion of many different kinds of people — people of color, LGBTQ people, disadvantaged people,” wrote Laura, a white actor from NY. “I remember becoming so aware of the differences between the parties’ goals during Clinton’s first election.”
Some participants spoke to party perceptions. “They seemed less venial,” wrote Robin McKay, a white woman writer (62) in Pennsylvania. A female South Asian business owner in New York wrote that she was swayed by “the perception that Democrats supported progressive policies and that Republicans were only interested in protecting large corporations.”
Others spoke to particular candidates. “Obama,” wrote a female East Asian (bi-racial) professor from Houston. “I am a huge fan of personal integrity, personal responsibility and honor,” wrote a Black New Jersey woman. “I proudly voted for Obama.”
Hillary Clinton inspired loyalty in Peter Yacobellis, a white HR Director (37) in New Jersey with extensive political and government experience. “I first interned for Hillary in 2004 when I was in college. I came out to her at a roundtable discussion and it became a pivotal moment in my personal story. It was the first time I came out to anyone like that and her reaction — to embrace and comfort me, affected the trajectory of my life.”
“I am attracted to Bernie Sanders-like candidates who want this country to evolve and focus on a greater community known as the United States,” wrote Serena (40), a white editor from Maryland.
A white lesbian police officer (50) in Florida wrote: “Attracted to the party because I was gay. It was a softer landing spot than GOP and Reagan.”
“I have never been ‘attracted’ to the party,” wrote a white male urban planner (29) in Detroit who self-IDed as “queerish”. “But I remember my father, a pretty conservative Republican (who voted for Obama both times and Clinton) not being able to get down with the get down of our local Republican establishment, which was super conservative. I remember feeling alienated from the suburban whiteness.”
What Do We Want From the Democratic Party?
“The Democratic Party needs to create a narrative as to who we are as a party,” wrote a Los Angeles film executive, white male (45). “Not on an individual issues basis but a more macro narrative as to why this is the party people should belong to.”
“I want the Democrats to articulate better who they are — who we are — and not just talk about who we’re not,” wrote the Detroit-born attorney (70). “We need to, of course, do the latter, but that’s not enough, particularly for emerging voters, particularly millennials, who unlike me have less loyalty to institutions generally and less grounding in the two-party system. The recent DCCC campaign, basically saying ‘we’re not them’ is so off-point as to have the potential to turn younger voters away from us.
As a New York black female non-profit leader (41) with extensive political experience wrote: “We need more of a message than ‘I am not Trump.’
“I want [the Democrats] to let go of the past and be visionary again,” wrote a female Memphis-based writer and professor (45). “Learn how to seize the imaginations of voters again. I want them to be unafraid to be young and intersectional in its leadership and membership and be sharp-tied and fired up.”
“Start from scratch,” wrote Judith (60), a white Bronx academic and longtime local activist. “Dems need to speak truth. Propose radical changes. Force those changes wherever possible.”
“I really wish the Democratic leadership would embrace an unapologetically progressive platform and have that be reflected in the party leaders themselves,” wrote the white city planner in Detroit. “The idea that the frankly neoliberal/right-of-center Hillary Clinton, a respectable politician who might have made a decent president, was the best we could do, when compared with the likes of Bernie Sanders — not a Democrat, even, but certainly a voice that drew support from the right (Reagan Democrats) and the left- was preposterous.”
A Silicon Valley East Asian man (42) in corporate development instead suggested: “Less liberalism, more centered inclusiveness. Less dismissiveness, disdain for “the deplorables.”
The Atlanta attorney spoke to a core crisis: “More than anything else, I want the party to come up with a serious response to the long-term, secular decline in the value of human labor. Other than perhaps global warming, this is pretty clearly the most important issue of our time, and my party seems not to be very interested in it, or to fundamentally understand the nature and scope of the issue.”
“I want Democrats to be able to articulate why our ideals will better serve Americans of modest means,” wrote the black Ohio executive. “We struggle at this with very few exceptions. We need to invest consistently in building local party organizations to GOTV isn’t a desperate scramble at election time.” He continued: “We must recruit young people to run for city councils and other local offices so that they can grow to take on state and national profiles, as their talent allows.”
New Jersey HR manager Peter Yacobellis agreed: “the party needs to be a vessel for talent to rise through and get exposure to the masses and not necessarily be the machine it has historically been that tries to engineer a candidacy. The party has the right ideas and the right values. It needs to get out of the way and let true talent rise organically.”
“I want the Democrats to reach out to populations of color,” wrote Carolyn Ferrell (55), black college faculty in New York. I want them to cross class boundaries. I want them to take seriously the difficulties of the middle class, and think outside of the box when it comes to education, reproductive rights, income disparity and tax solutions, and above all: how we talk to each other and not let hate speech rule the day.” Serena, the white editor from Maryland wrote: “I want Democrats to fight harder for those in need of it — students, minorities, etc.”
For Amber York, a queer black activist (38) from Detroit, the Democrats need to run “real people who do real community work”. As she wrote: “People like me want to see candidates who reflect who we are — not just a milquetoast butterfly net of a candidate who says the right buzzwords.”
“Don’t write off elections in red states,” wrote a white woman writer from Tennessee. “Start to fight with good candidates, realize it will take a long time to be competitive, and don’t give up.”
“I am pragmatic,” wrote a white woman (44) from Michigan. “I want the Dems to put up candidates with ‘teeth’. Ability and charisma. I am not expecting perfection. If I can agree with a candidate on 70% of her platform — I will vote for her.”
The Florida police officer has another take on starting from scratch: “I want older Democrats who have made a life out of being in Congress to retire. I think there should be term limits and an end to lobbying. We need new blood and fresh ideas and less cronyism. I don’t trust them anymore.” She added: “Having more openly gay LGBT members and members who are vocally supportive of LGBT rights will win my attention. Also, anyone who has a backbone speaking out against tr*ump.”
“The Democratic Party needs to wake up,” wrote Lea Belair of Vermont. “Bernie Sanders has the right idea. We are at a tipping point. Democrats, if they want to survive as a party, have to be bold and champion the people’s causes such as single payer health care. We are ready for real structural change in this country, and it has to come soon because the old structures of politics as usual, borne out of corruption, are crumbling. If not, the authoritarians will rule.”
As Laura, the NY actor wrote: “Be the party of the people. Always.”
What Is Standing in the Way?
“The Democratic Party is not invested in truly empowering people,” wrote Detroit activist Amber York. “They want to make systems that hurt people a little less terrible. Since they are so deeply entwined with big corporations and need their financial support to win elections, they’re not going to write regulations that truly regulate them and decrease their profits — and decrease their political contributions. They have to break their dependence on big money for elections.”
Vermont writer Lea Belair made a similar point. The problem is “entrenched power and money, just like what is standing in the way of the Republicans doing the right things for our country. Our politicians are bought by corporations, especially Big Pharma. We have to get money out of politics. However, if we look at the case of Bernie Sanders, that was the corrupt DNC ensuring that its power remains in place. I would like the Dems to support candidates being chosen by the popular vote, and open primaries.
“I wish money didn’t factor so heavily into elections,” wrote a black New Jersey woman. If no one can be ‘bought’ how would that change the trajectory?” She continued: “It all seems to be one big fraternity. Harvard or Yale? Same script, different cast. I am growing cynical which is the kiss of death for political change.”
A Connecticut woman writer who grew up out west also sees an elitism problem. “We need to change the perception by some that the Democratic party is run by the rich and/or ivy league-educated who want to tell the rest of the country how to live — or so the stories go. When I first heard grumblings about this I chalked it up to ‘crazies’ and a ‘fringe element’ on the right. But the longer the run-up to the election the more I realized that a lot of people thought that way, including my son-in-law, a Bernie supporter, who is still a Democrat.”
Some participants declared that Democrats don’t live up to their rhetoric. “Dems promote an idea of being ‘ethical’ and above the fray, of ‘walking across the aisle’ and yet they clearly don’t confront the inequities, absurdities, and outright lies of the other parties,” wrote Judith, the Bronx academic. “The Democrats have become useless and I no longer donate any money to them. I include the period of the Obama administration (and the Clinton administration)”.
“I am soul sickened by our country,” wrote New York publisher, writer, and activist Deborah Emin. “I find our terms of existence to be indefensible. I’ve never seen so much hatred in my life. We hate ourselves, we hate each other and we hate this planet that has given us life. All so sad and unnecessary.” In reference to the recent bill criminalizing BDS (the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement fighting for Palestinians): “The facts of our current American life are not going to be solved by a two-party system where the likes of a Schumer or a Gillibrand can be swayed by a warmongering foreign government that scares the crap out of them if they oppose anything they should maintain for American citizens, including free speech.”
“The Democratic Party does very little to actually distinguish itself from systemic inequalities in domestic and foreign policy,” wrote Ibrahim, a black New York Muslim (40) who works in city government. He implored the party to “become about strong ideas instead of about simply being the biggest tent or the biggest coalition of disenfranchised voters.”
Wilhelmina Perry (82), a black longtime Democratic and social justice activist from Harlem, offered this suggestion: “If the Party would separate itself from the Dem elected officials and power structure, they might have a better chance of reaching out to others. They seem locked into a bubble of their own self-perpetuating realities. If the election of Trump has proven anything, it is that there are populations out there who never get heard. I am not sure that the Party can risk or wants to risk exposing itself to the realities of the lives of all of us. If they cannot, they are going to lose again. Where is the party that we all loved and lived to support…the unions, the working people, the marginalized?
“The Clintons now represent the Eastern elite,” wrote a white male international banker (81) in Rhode Island who once served in the Oregon state legislature as a Republican. “To regain the confidence of the working class there must be a wholesale turnover of the DCCC leadership that honestly embodies youth and middle America. Elizabeth Warren as our party’s flag-bearer? No, no, no. I fear the same sad results in 2018 no matter what Trump does to himself.” Instead, draw from a state that is “less ‘all white’ and more diversified.”
Roy Nelson, a white IT professional (44) from Michigan suggested “younger and more progressive candidates.” That the Democratic Party should “[reach] out to poor, young and middle class voters and actually find out what they care about.” New Jersey HR Manager Peter Yacobellis suggested the Democratic Party “poll the people” as well. “Just put it out there to the widest, deepest audience ensuring to get a cross representation of demographics and geography. It can be as simple as asking: what do you think your party should stand for? I’m guessing the better answer is out there and not in DNC headquarters.”
Participant Demographics
Out of 46 participants, there were 32 women and 14 men, ages 22–82, representing 16 different states: CA, CT, FL, GA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, VA, and VT. All were college graduates or had some college experience or specialized training. Only 2 self-identified as unemployed. 10 self-identified as LGBTQ.
White 31
Black 11 (1 self-identified as bi-racial)
South & East Asian 3 (1 self-identified as bi-racial)
Latinx 1
For those who self-identified their religions:
Protestant 8
Jewish 6
Catholic 3
Muslim 1
Secular Humanist 1
Participants & the Democratic Party
Did they consider themselves Democrats? YES/73% NO/22% NO ANSWER/6%
Did they consider themselves part of base? YES/46% NO/11% NO ANSWER/43%
Did they feel valued by the party? YES/13% NO/35% NO ANSWER/50%
(and one person said “no more, no less than before”)
Candidates Considered for 2020 Election
Participants could list as many candidate names as they wished. Number denotes how many times the person was listed.
Kirsten Gillibrand 7
Kamala Harris 7
Cory Booker 5
Al Franken 4
Chris Murphy 3
Elizabeth Warren 3
Al Gore 2
John Hickenlooper 2
Oprah Winfrey 2
“Someone Like Macron” 2
Other candidates listed: Tammy Baldwin, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Sherrod Brown, Steve Bullock, Maria Cantwell, Hillary Clinton, Castro Brothers, Mark Dayton, Joaquin Castro, Julian Castro, Mark Dayton, John Bel Edwards, Eric Holder, Amy Klobuchar, Chirlane McCray, Terry McAuliffe, Bill Nelson, Michelle Obama, Deval Patrick, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Debbie Stabenow, Jon Tester, Mark Warner, and Maxine Waters.
Ideal 2020 Tickets
Participants could list as many tickets as they chose. However, only six participants offered pairings. Including state origin of participant with each pairing.
Cory Booker/Castro Brother (TX)
Kamala Harris/Cory Booker (TX)
Hillary Clinton/Maxine Waters (TX)
Eric Holder/Kirstin Gillibrand (MD)
Joe Biden/Elizabeth Warren (TN)
Kamala Harris/Kirsten Gillibrand –either order- (NY)
Oprah Winfrey/Michelle Obama (NY)
Hillary Clinton/Andrew Cuomo (NY)
Kirsten Gillibrand/Michelle Obama (NY)
Lastly, a CA participant wrote: “A woman VP no matter the gender of top of ticket (Klobucher, Harris, Gillibrand, Warren, Michelle Obama)”
Motivating Issues
When the 46 participants were asked to list their motivating issues, here were the top issues, and how many times they were listed:
Racial Justice & Equal Opportunity 11
Women’s Rights & Wellbeing (including reproductive rights) 10
Economy & Financial Inequality 9
Healthcare (including single-payer) 9
Education 7
LGBTQ 6
Immigrant Rights & Xenophobia 4
Sensible Gun Laws 4
Social Issues & Human Rights (catch-all) 4
Mass incarceration & Criminal Justice Reform 3
Fairness & Caring 3
Resistance to Theocracy & Preservation of Ind. Freedoms 2
Trump’s Presidency/Ethics 2
Next Up: Part Two — Learning from 2016
Stacy Parker Le Melle is the author of Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House(HarperCollins/Ecco) and was the lead contributor to Voices from the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath (McSweeney’s). She chronicles stories for The Katrina Experience: An Oral History Project. Her recent narrative nonfiction has been published in Callaloo, The Offing, Apogee Journal, The Nervous Breakdown, Entropy, The Butter, Cura, The Atlas Review, and The Florida Review where the essay was a finalist for the 2014 Editors’ Prize for nonfiction. Originally from Detroit, Le Melle is the founder of Harlem Against Violence, Homophobia, and Transphobia, and the co-founder of Harlem’s First Person Plural Reading Series. She received her B.A. in Political Communication from The George Washington University.
Read her interview pieces on the Pre-Trump Inauguration Concerns (“Disaster Can Be a Tweet Away”) and the 2017 Women’s March (“To Be a Force of Positivity, To Be Everything Trump Is Not”).
