Democrats need to ditch identity politics if they want to win elections
One of the most common questions I get these days is: “Where are the Democrats?”
The Trump administration continues to pillage the federal government, canceling programs that protect our health and safety, destroying carefully built international alliances, turning the Justice Department against political enemies, and harnessing the power of the regulatory state, mafiosi style, to extort vast sectors of the American economy — from large private businesses generally, to law firms, to universities, to the communications sector.
Meanwhile, Republicans are busy gerrymandering their way into what they hope will be a permanent majority, state by state.
Where are Democrats? Let’s see — sitting at around 30% approval, worse than Republicans, worse than Donald Trump himself.
So why are people not rallying to the barricades for the Democratic Party the way they did in 2018 and 2020?
It’s not for lack of distress about the havoc of the Trump administration. Rather, I suspect, the values and the worldview of the Democratic Party have slid deeply out of alignment with where many middle-class Americans are socially, fiscally and economically. And on top of this is a toxic, identity politics culture that permeates the institutional Democratic Party, particularly in Georgia.
3 observations about Georgia’s Democratic Party today
The latter challenge came to mind when I recently saw a social media post by a local Democratic Party operative: “Institutional racism in the Democratic party looks like accepting Geoff Duncan as a suitable choice for Governor in the Democratic primary.”
The support for this statement among other Democratic Party activists was broad and included a further elaboration that white liberal Democratic leaders were racist and were foisting the white former Republican lieutenant governor on the party faithful.
These sentiments, expressed and shared by so many Georgia Democrats, are one reason they are about to lose — again.
First, no one is foisting anything on anyone.
The idea that the Georgia Democratic Party is an institution with any capacity to accomplish much of anything, much less help broker a primary, is just fiction. The Democratic Party of Georgia offers, at best, some modest training for candidates, very modest (if any) support for county chapters, provides quotes for the news media about what “Democrats” think, and then hosts a very nice annual Carter-Lewis Dinner.
The former Republican lieutenant governor is going to have to make his case to the Democratic primary electorate just like any other candidate, including explaining his positions and why they changed.
His appeal is that he has shown enormous political courage over and over again, supported a Democratic Black woman for president at enormous political and personal cost, and may be able to break away from the widely discredited Democratic Party brand (see polling above).
Second, the Democratic power structure and leadership in Georgia, which largely resides among its elected officials, is dominated by Black leaders, including every Democratic member of Congress, one senator, the leadership of both the state House and Senate Democratic caucuses, and most of the metro area county executives and chairs.
Rather than “white liberals” foisting a white candidate on a racially diverse electorate, the far more likely scenario is that former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Black woman, will win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination because the Democratic primary electorate tends to favor Black women.
For various reasons, Bottoms is also very likely to lose in the general election. Undoubtedly, there is racism and misogyny, but she also had a very fraught term as mayor of the City of Atlanta and was a staunch advocate for former President Joe Biden, who continues to be unpopular.
Finally, the most pernicious problem with the social media post is the assertion that white liberals are racist. Indeed, this usually goes hand in hand with “all white people are racist.” This charge is frequent in progressive activist circles. It’s ugly and toxic. At this point, it is one reason there are so few white men actively engaged with the Georgia Democratic Party, and why a good number of white women have thrown in the towel, as well.
Dems should get rid of identity caucuses and unite as one
So in the interest of having a viable opposition party that can counter Trump’s influence, I’m going to make an ask of Georgia Democrats: Ditch the identity politics.
This initiative is going to have to come from the Black leadership of the Democratic Party. By defining the party around a struggle between the oppressed and oppressor, which in turn runs along the lines of skin color, ethnic identity or sexual orientation, Democrats are drawing lines around who is in and out of the coalition with the effect of drawing themselves into a permanent political minority and doing enormous damage to all of the causes Democrats claim to care so much about.
Is it more important that your state representative “look like you” or is it more important to have affordable health insurance and a functional democracy? Democrats should think long and hard about the answer to that question.
If the answer is the latter, as a first and important symbolic gesture, I would suggest the Democratic Party get rid of all its identity caucuses: the African American Caucus, the Latino Caucus, the Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus, the LBGTQ+ Caucus, the Federation of Democratic Women, etc. The Democratic Party should be all for one and one for all. Full stop.
Next, every Democrat should write down the following words and put it on a Post-it note or piece of paper where they can see it every day: “I want to win.”
Then, they should give Geoff Duncan a second look.
Carolyn Bourdeaux is a former member of Congress from Georgia’s 7th District. She is also executive director of the Concord Coalition and Concord Action, organizations dedicated to education and advocacy in support of fiscal responsibility. She is a contributor to the AJC.
