More Democratic men members of Congress need to start speaking out about what Trump’s America is doing to our Country. No lectures, just plain old facts in an agitated voice with words not to inspire, but to show you are angry as they are about Trump’s America. Leave out the messages about climate change, trans athletes, and the LGBTQIA, since they know where democrats stand on those issues. Remember Trump doesn’t own the words Fight, Fight, Fight.
Bernie and AOC are. They're doing all the things that Rick says Democrats ought to do. They're staying focused on economic justice and staying away from identity politics. They're entirely authentic and the last thing from focus group tested. They have identified the enemy and are taking the fight to the enemy.
I agree, they definitely are. I guess I was asking is there an understanding with a large group in the party that something has to change. Bless AOC and Bernie for their efforts.......but we need a heck of a lot more.
AOC's a registered Democrat and Bernie's an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Neither of them go out of their way to sabotage the leadership; our left flank is nothing like the Freedom Caucus in that regard; they're team players. I dunno about Bernie, but I think AOC is also a member of the DSA. Ideologically, they'd both agree that their politics are aligned with Democratic Socialism. And whether you agree with this ideology or not, partially or otherwise, they're doing things tactically -- fighting -- that Rick is imploring the whole party to do.
The problem for the rest of the party is that the Democratic Party is a governing party, not an insurrectionary party. We believe in government; the GOP thinks that government is the problem. The problem with the rest of the party is not so much ideological as it is temperamental. There are plenty of House and Senate Democrats who are as liberal as you'd like, but they're temperamental moderates. They're not bombthrowers, they're institutionalists. They believe in comity and finding common ground with the opposition. This sets Rick's and many of us here's hair on fire. You can't go by Marquis du Queensbury rules when the other side has nunchucks and flamethrowers. But it's a systemic problem, not so easily solvable when the middle ground in a broad coalition against Trump is also ideologically in the middle, extremely chary of broad, systemic changes that might ease the suite of problems that led to a radicalized GOP to begin with.
So the simplest solution is for Rick to embrace Democratic Socialism ;)
I absolutely appreciate and agree with your advice to Dems intellectually. However, as a woman and on an emotional level, I am pissed off that men are holding this country hostage yet again. I don't believe the ascendance of women implies that men are villains. In fact, when I was in elementary school, I was routinely chastised for talking too much while the talkative boys in my class were held out as future leaders... Did I take the constant gender bias I have faced all my life and turn into a raving fascist lunatic. NO. This culture has had a problem with young men for many years. As a Gen X'er, I can say this became apparent to me when Columbine happened. This is not new. As a female, I don't want to "meet MAGA men where they are" but as a human who wants a peaceful country, I agree with Rick that the Dems approach sucks. The true key is authenticity. If we get authentic candidates who can speak plainly we can attract more people and maybe increase the amount of registered Dem voters without having to try to appease fascist men.
It's a terrible conundrum because any perceived loss of status, no matter how minor, feels like oppression to the dominant group. Democrats can't abandon their values and say that they're okay with asshole behavior, if that behavior is coming from men who are perpetually butthurt that this is no longer the world of their father's and their father's father's. We all know it's not a zero sum game, that if women are allowed to rise it doesn't automatically mean that men have to fall, but this is their psychological reality.
And I don't exactly know how the Democrats can completely address this.
I also agree very strongly that authenticity is the key.
Here’s an impossible idea. Imagine those who met in the Bay Area to talk about talking to men simply started visiting factories, road construction workers, and men who run a business out of their garages, maybe even talk to the mechanics who work on their vehicles. What a concept!
MAYBE IT COMES DOWN TO THIS: After spending a night ruminating on your good rant, Rick, I realize: In recent times, parties tend NOT to at first coalesce around an effective plan, but rather do so once a FIREBRAND arises who is an attention-getter and demonstrates what to do. Then they follow suit. It took a Clinton in the 90s. Then Obama.
At first, the charismatic personality arises (often at rebellious odds with the status quo), then the street and party fall in line as their personal popularity soars. Personality first, then plan and direction come. (Wish it weren't true!)
Trump did all this in the last 10 years. (evil-intentioned, but he checked the boxes).
The Dems have great potential in their rising class of younger newcomers to gov. But I fear that until one of them BREAKS THROUGH to national attention, and sets the tone by example, we are in this wilderness. Therefore you are RIGHT ON in demanding that the old guard be trash canned. The sooner we make room for the next unifying voice, the better.
Strangely: if you held a gun to my head and said: Tell me now, like it or not, who best fits this bill at the moment: I'd have to say AOC. Yup, she tends to be too far LEFT for me, but I admit she's gotten smarter and appealing more to the middle. (Yes, touring with Bernie, but sadly their message of the oligarchy is actually becoming relevant.)
RICK: WHAT IF LINCOLN SQUARE got HER (AOC) as a guest to hash stuff out..... I'd be real interested to see a back and forth between you guys and her.
I strongly second this motion. I'd love to see AOC with Rick and hear her thoughts on forging a broad anti-Trump coalition for the midterms and beyond.
Agree completely. Get rid of the Dem consulting class who have failed and will continue to. As a grassroots volunteer, I saw very bad advice doled out to candidates by out of state consultants. Also, the lack of talking plain English, of being real with voters, these are big obvious problems that I saw years ago. I agree with Rick on all of it. And a woman, African American, gay or Jewish presidential candidate comes in with handicaps, and I base this not on personal preference but on the fact that all our presidents have been white, straight, male Christians, save one. I have my eye on Andy Beshear and Chris Murphy, in that order, both qualified, naturally talented people who can win, assuming they ignore the failed Dem consultants.
I just saw you and your intelligent and engaging son Andrew on By The Numbers. Couldn't agree more about making corruption the Dems' killer app for the midterm. And yes, first we have to get our own house in order. I loved Generalissima Pelosi like nobody's business (somebody here blocked me for calling her that but I've always meant it as the highest compliment), yet the one thing she did that made me want to metaphorically smack her upside da head was when she was asked about Democratic insider stock trading and she goes "we're a capitalist country." As if being opposed to corruption is socialist. No, it's as American as Teddy Roosevelt.
We ought to call for blind trusts / index funds for all Democratic House stock holdings (no more day trading) and challenge Republicans to do the same. This helps neutralize some of the more toxic aspects of the class warfare that AOC and Bernie are having so much traction with. We're not against people getting rich, we're against people taking unfair advantage because it hurts you.
Part 2; Now that we’ve all expressed well earned righteous rage - I think we need a more constructive follow up with: okay , step by step here’s specifically what’s needed. You did throw out some points but they were meshed in the overall rant. So please let’s pull together a better step by step outline to move forward
Thinking more deeply about the core issue you discussed, how to talk to disaffected young men, is making my poor little educated liberal brain hurt. We can't do it with programs and focus-tested bullet points, okay I get that. But how do you get through to weaponized assholery?
The MAGA GOP says to young men "You're an asshole? That's _awesome._ The most successful and dominant societies in all of human history were chock full of assholes. Celebrate your assholery! You deserve it! And anybody who doesn't like assholes -- be an asshole to them!"
I mean, it's not like the MAGA GOP is doing the Jordan Peterson clean your room thing.
My question desiccated in a hot kiln: Can Democrats afford to embrace assholery?
Hey Rick. You know me by now as a strong postwar liberal and I've had many respectful disagreements with you on matters of ideology. I think I triggered you a little, unintentionally, on Memorial Day by ranting against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I apologize if I didn't make it clear enough that we should always support our troops, no matter the mission given to them.
I don't disagree with a word of this, brother. I, too, loathe the consultant class. Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias make me puke. I listen to The Bulwark, not Pod Save America. As a son of children of the Great Depression, I have a visceral connection to the populist left. As nerdy as I am about political theory, I left my Marx-curious days in early adulthood and consider my ideal politics social democratic, which means a full integration of social support with a market economy.
I have to differ with you on one point that I know you were being tactically rhetorical about. You may not be a progressive, Rick, but you're a small-l liberal. You're a strong civil libertarian and there's a huge Venn overlap with liberals and progressives there. You're not a social conservative; your values aren't driven by religion or patriarchy and you don't itch to shove your brand of morality down throats. Your arguments about getting back young men are tactical, not essentialist.
And as a former American studies guy, I completely share you view of America as a work in progress, as Joe Biden says, the only nation in human history founded on an _idea._ That doesn't mean whitewashing the sins of the past, but it also doesn't mean wallowing in them, either.
With this out of the way, there's a conundrum that your analysis leads to. That is, to harness the anger the MAGA GOP is so successful at, we have to drastically simplify our message and find a class of demons we can scourge. Politics Ad Hominem. That's not as easy as it looks; the immediate answer is just to go after MAGA as sociopathic assholes who want to wreck our future. But even Chuck Schumer does that. There's a group of nominal Democrats who seem to already have a handle on this, who are taking a streamlined populist message out into the red states.
That's, of course, Bernie and AOC on the Fighting Oligarchy tour. AOC is currently leading the straw polls for '28 nominee. On one hand, I couldn't be happier for them that they're drawing big crowds in places the party has all but written off. On the other had, I fear the mother of all train wrecks when the primary season rolls around. I get emails from AOC on the daily. She's still pushing Medicare For All and the Green New Deal. Six months back, she was saying that trans girls are girls and she dropped that. Heh. But mainly, they're all about Eating The Rich. If that includes the Democratic consultant class, I say have at it. Forget specific policies, they have a vision of a future that, say what you will about the moral hazard of demanding "free stuff," resonates.
I'm also ambivalent about David Hogg. Yes, our party is a sclerotic gerontocracy; Democratic House members are dying off like Trumpers during covid. But I don't know if DINO hunting is any less cannibalistic and destructive than RINO hunting is for Republicans. I'm ambivalent about dumping big money into hopeless marquee causes like taking out Lindsey Graham and MTG.
I don't have answers here, just expressing gut-level concerns.
In any case, I've become an activist for my building. I talked to our building manager and I'm going to be workshopping with staff ways to get our residents to push back on the coming HUD cuts. I'll be at events with them and hopefully we can take a few of them to our congressional offices.
That's not the same thing as talking to disaffected young men. It's talking to cranky, checked out white seniors who lived their entire lives believing that nothing bad could ever happen to them.
It will be quite a learning experience and a test of my abilities to get through to those who don't already agree with me. It's not about elections. It's about trying to save our homes.
I’m with you. Borrowing from Tolkien: we have been: one party to destroy the nation and one party to destroy itself.
There’s a tipping point opportunity that Dems need to take if they can take tough love. People are seeing that trump is too extreme and even cruel but they need an alternative that can connect. It begins with ramming the message over and over that trump is using them, stealing from them. Then a follow up of getting their issues and speaking plain and with a backbone. Keep at it Rick.
Are the consultants lost, misguided, or just following the money?
Let's be honest. Political consultants are sales people, first and foremost. Selling ideas and selling themselves. Unfortunately, that often means convincing the hiring entity (those with power and/or money) that you are their kind of people. So they forge their ideas around what will sell to the clients. In case you haven't noticed, just like the Republicans, the people with power in the Democratic party are either rich and/or OLD. I'm not being ageist here, I'm 72. Young blood is necessary.
I doubt most in power really get what younger folk want, and perhaps not even what they need. I can't say I do much of the time. But the Republicans see anger and hone in on seizing it and then making it theirs to use. Take Charlie Kirk, please. Little POS that he is. Isn't even young (relative) any more. But he has built a dangerous following that far too closely resembles the Hitler Youth.
Too often the Democrats aren't listening to their own youthful leaders. "Too radical", "not realistic", "unmanageable", etc. But they have heart. Listen to them. Embrace them, and try to offer them ways of furthering their goals. Not all goals fit into what EVERYONE in our big tent wants, but that's always the case.
But let's remember that consultants are human beings with their own directions.
Finally, can we get past the "Rick Wilson was one of THEM memes" and accept that he may not always agree with us, or we with him, but he does stand for what we all want, the Rule of Law and a Constitutional government not run by a bunch of lunatics.
Young folk, especially men, during the eighties, started thinking that at 20 they should have all the goodies that their parents didn't achieve until they were 40. That's naive to the extreme, and yet they believe it. Changing perceptions has to happen, and that means pain. Unfortunately, the aversion to pain is deep, and denial is serious.
I graduated from high school in 1971. I came from a very working class family. We lived week to week most of the time. My dad died when I was 18, and I went to college. But things didn't work out and I went into industry as a blue collar worker. Wasn't easy, but I knew I could succeed. I went back and got my degree after a debilitating accident at age 30. But I ended up in an industry where continuous employment wasn't the norm, aerospace. So throughout my career I saw ups and downs. But I put away money and tried to better myself. Today, I have a comfort level my folks could only dream about; and though I'm better off than many, it would only take a) the loss of Social Security and/or b) a major real economic downturn to have me and the wife lose everything.
What I'm saying is that there's some really effed up values out there today; and I'm saying this coming from the 'hippie' generation. The young 'disaffected' youth want it all and people are willing to sell them a dream without foundation, and they're willing to grasp it.
We need to design a practical, reachable dream that not only promises but delivers. Because in the end, Trump will turn on this young cannon fodder that is following him; especially the minorities, whom he will never accept or respect. Maybe, just maybe, the only way to reach them is when all our worlds fall apart and they finally get that they were used and betrayed.
It’s Americans that have stopped to fight. It’s no longer about parties. It’s about our Constitution.
How can your life be improved? The life for others in your town?
What do you want to see done here? How do you, your friends, and your neighbors accomplish that?
And also,
What should government do? How should it provide what it does.
Should certain groups be denied? Why?
What is it doing wrong?
What is fair? Should fairness be considered?
Excellent questions, Jeff.
More Democratic men members of Congress need to start speaking out about what Trump’s America is doing to our Country. No lectures, just plain old facts in an agitated voice with words not to inspire, but to show you are angry as they are about Trump’s America. Leave out the messages about climate change, trans athletes, and the LGBTQIA, since they know where democrats stand on those issues. Remember Trump doesn’t own the words Fight, Fight, Fight.
I ain't yelling at ya for telling the truth. Been asking and wondering if anyone over there in that party gets it and is doing something about it.....
Bernie and AOC are. They're doing all the things that Rick says Democrats ought to do. They're staying focused on economic justice and staying away from identity politics. They're entirely authentic and the last thing from focus group tested. They have identified the enemy and are taking the fight to the enemy.
And they're also ... Democratic Socialists.
I agree, they definitely are. I guess I was asking is there an understanding with a large group in the party that something has to change. Bless AOC and Bernie for their efforts.......but we need a heck of a lot more.
AOC's a registered Democrat and Bernie's an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Neither of them go out of their way to sabotage the leadership; our left flank is nothing like the Freedom Caucus in that regard; they're team players. I dunno about Bernie, but I think AOC is also a member of the DSA. Ideologically, they'd both agree that their politics are aligned with Democratic Socialism. And whether you agree with this ideology or not, partially or otherwise, they're doing things tactically -- fighting -- that Rick is imploring the whole party to do.
The problem for the rest of the party is that the Democratic Party is a governing party, not an insurrectionary party. We believe in government; the GOP thinks that government is the problem. The problem with the rest of the party is not so much ideological as it is temperamental. There are plenty of House and Senate Democrats who are as liberal as you'd like, but they're temperamental moderates. They're not bombthrowers, they're institutionalists. They believe in comity and finding common ground with the opposition. This sets Rick's and many of us here's hair on fire. You can't go by Marquis du Queensbury rules when the other side has nunchucks and flamethrowers. But it's a systemic problem, not so easily solvable when the middle ground in a broad coalition against Trump is also ideologically in the middle, extremely chary of broad, systemic changes that might ease the suite of problems that led to a radicalized GOP to begin with.
So the simplest solution is for Rick to embrace Democratic Socialism ;)
I am not being entirely facetious.
I absolutely appreciate and agree with your advice to Dems intellectually. However, as a woman and on an emotional level, I am pissed off that men are holding this country hostage yet again. I don't believe the ascendance of women implies that men are villains. In fact, when I was in elementary school, I was routinely chastised for talking too much while the talkative boys in my class were held out as future leaders... Did I take the constant gender bias I have faced all my life and turn into a raving fascist lunatic. NO. This culture has had a problem with young men for many years. As a Gen X'er, I can say this became apparent to me when Columbine happened. This is not new. As a female, I don't want to "meet MAGA men where they are" but as a human who wants a peaceful country, I agree with Rick that the Dems approach sucks. The true key is authenticity. If we get authentic candidates who can speak plainly we can attract more people and maybe increase the amount of registered Dem voters without having to try to appease fascist men.
It's a terrible conundrum because any perceived loss of status, no matter how minor, feels like oppression to the dominant group. Democrats can't abandon their values and say that they're okay with asshole behavior, if that behavior is coming from men who are perpetually butthurt that this is no longer the world of their father's and their father's father's. We all know it's not a zero sum game, that if women are allowed to rise it doesn't automatically mean that men have to fall, but this is their psychological reality.
And I don't exactly know how the Democrats can completely address this.
I also agree very strongly that authenticity is the key.
Here’s an impossible idea. Imagine those who met in the Bay Area to talk about talking to men simply started visiting factories, road construction workers, and men who run a business out of their garages, maybe even talk to the mechanics who work on their vehicles. What a concept!
MAYBE IT COMES DOWN TO THIS: After spending a night ruminating on your good rant, Rick, I realize: In recent times, parties tend NOT to at first coalesce around an effective plan, but rather do so once a FIREBRAND arises who is an attention-getter and demonstrates what to do. Then they follow suit. It took a Clinton in the 90s. Then Obama.
At first, the charismatic personality arises (often at rebellious odds with the status quo), then the street and party fall in line as their personal popularity soars. Personality first, then plan and direction come. (Wish it weren't true!)
Trump did all this in the last 10 years. (evil-intentioned, but he checked the boxes).
The Dems have great potential in their rising class of younger newcomers to gov. But I fear that until one of them BREAKS THROUGH to national attention, and sets the tone by example, we are in this wilderness. Therefore you are RIGHT ON in demanding that the old guard be trash canned. The sooner we make room for the next unifying voice, the better.
Strangely: if you held a gun to my head and said: Tell me now, like it or not, who best fits this bill at the moment: I'd have to say AOC. Yup, she tends to be too far LEFT for me, but I admit she's gotten smarter and appealing more to the middle. (Yes, touring with Bernie, but sadly their message of the oligarchy is actually becoming relevant.)
RICK: WHAT IF LINCOLN SQUARE got HER (AOC) as a guest to hash stuff out..... I'd be real interested to see a back and forth between you guys and her.
Let's try it.
I strongly second this motion. I'd love to see AOC with Rick and hear her thoughts on forging a broad anti-Trump coalition for the midterms and beyond.
And PS: I agree that a great simple tag line should start with CORRUPTION. But it may take an individual to demonstrate this to get the rest on board.
Agree completely. Get rid of the Dem consulting class who have failed and will continue to. As a grassroots volunteer, I saw very bad advice doled out to candidates by out of state consultants. Also, the lack of talking plain English, of being real with voters, these are big obvious problems that I saw years ago. I agree with Rick on all of it. And a woman, African American, gay or Jewish presidential candidate comes in with handicaps, and I base this not on personal preference but on the fact that all our presidents have been white, straight, male Christians, save one. I have my eye on Andy Beshear and Chris Murphy, in that order, both qualified, naturally talented people who can win, assuming they ignore the failed Dem consultants.
I just saw you and your intelligent and engaging son Andrew on By The Numbers. Couldn't agree more about making corruption the Dems' killer app for the midterm. And yes, first we have to get our own house in order. I loved Generalissima Pelosi like nobody's business (somebody here blocked me for calling her that but I've always meant it as the highest compliment), yet the one thing she did that made me want to metaphorically smack her upside da head was when she was asked about Democratic insider stock trading and she goes "we're a capitalist country." As if being opposed to corruption is socialist. No, it's as American as Teddy Roosevelt.
We ought to call for blind trusts / index funds for all Democratic House stock holdings (no more day trading) and challenge Republicans to do the same. This helps neutralize some of the more toxic aspects of the class warfare that AOC and Bernie are having so much traction with. We're not against people getting rich, we're against people taking unfair advantage because it hurts you.
“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
Part 2; Now that we’ve all expressed well earned righteous rage - I think we need a more constructive follow up with: okay , step by step here’s specifically what’s needed. You did throw out some points but they were meshed in the overall rant. So please let’s pull together a better step by step outline to move forward
Thanks!
Thinking more deeply about the core issue you discussed, how to talk to disaffected young men, is making my poor little educated liberal brain hurt. We can't do it with programs and focus-tested bullet points, okay I get that. But how do you get through to weaponized assholery?
The MAGA GOP says to young men "You're an asshole? That's _awesome._ The most successful and dominant societies in all of human history were chock full of assholes. Celebrate your assholery! You deserve it! And anybody who doesn't like assholes -- be an asshole to them!"
I mean, it's not like the MAGA GOP is doing the Jordan Peterson clean your room thing.
My question desiccated in a hot kiln: Can Democrats afford to embrace assholery?
Hey Rick. You know me by now as a strong postwar liberal and I've had many respectful disagreements with you on matters of ideology. I think I triggered you a little, unintentionally, on Memorial Day by ranting against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I apologize if I didn't make it clear enough that we should always support our troops, no matter the mission given to them.
I don't disagree with a word of this, brother. I, too, loathe the consultant class. Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias make me puke. I listen to The Bulwark, not Pod Save America. As a son of children of the Great Depression, I have a visceral connection to the populist left. As nerdy as I am about political theory, I left my Marx-curious days in early adulthood and consider my ideal politics social democratic, which means a full integration of social support with a market economy.
I have to differ with you on one point that I know you were being tactically rhetorical about. You may not be a progressive, Rick, but you're a small-l liberal. You're a strong civil libertarian and there's a huge Venn overlap with liberals and progressives there. You're not a social conservative; your values aren't driven by religion or patriarchy and you don't itch to shove your brand of morality down throats. Your arguments about getting back young men are tactical, not essentialist.
And as a former American studies guy, I completely share you view of America as a work in progress, as Joe Biden says, the only nation in human history founded on an _idea._ That doesn't mean whitewashing the sins of the past, but it also doesn't mean wallowing in them, either.
With this out of the way, there's a conundrum that your analysis leads to. That is, to harness the anger the MAGA GOP is so successful at, we have to drastically simplify our message and find a class of demons we can scourge. Politics Ad Hominem. That's not as easy as it looks; the immediate answer is just to go after MAGA as sociopathic assholes who want to wreck our future. But even Chuck Schumer does that. There's a group of nominal Democrats who seem to already have a handle on this, who are taking a streamlined populist message out into the red states.
That's, of course, Bernie and AOC on the Fighting Oligarchy tour. AOC is currently leading the straw polls for '28 nominee. On one hand, I couldn't be happier for them that they're drawing big crowds in places the party has all but written off. On the other had, I fear the mother of all train wrecks when the primary season rolls around. I get emails from AOC on the daily. She's still pushing Medicare For All and the Green New Deal. Six months back, she was saying that trans girls are girls and she dropped that. Heh. But mainly, they're all about Eating The Rich. If that includes the Democratic consultant class, I say have at it. Forget specific policies, they have a vision of a future that, say what you will about the moral hazard of demanding "free stuff," resonates.
I'm also ambivalent about David Hogg. Yes, our party is a sclerotic gerontocracy; Democratic House members are dying off like Trumpers during covid. But I don't know if DINO hunting is any less cannibalistic and destructive than RINO hunting is for Republicans. I'm ambivalent about dumping big money into hopeless marquee causes like taking out Lindsey Graham and MTG.
I don't have answers here, just expressing gut-level concerns.
In any case, I've become an activist for my building. I talked to our building manager and I'm going to be workshopping with staff ways to get our residents to push back on the coming HUD cuts. I'll be at events with them and hopefully we can take a few of them to our congressional offices.
That's not the same thing as talking to disaffected young men. It's talking to cranky, checked out white seniors who lived their entire lives believing that nothing bad could ever happen to them.
It will be quite a learning experience and a test of my abilities to get through to those who don't already agree with me. It's not about elections. It's about trying to save our homes.
I’m with you. Borrowing from Tolkien: we have been: one party to destroy the nation and one party to destroy itself.
There’s a tipping point opportunity that Dems need to take if they can take tough love. People are seeing that trump is too extreme and even cruel but they need an alternative that can connect. It begins with ramming the message over and over that trump is using them, stealing from them. Then a follow up of getting their issues and speaking plain and with a backbone. Keep at it Rick.
How can we help? Say more
Are the consultants lost, misguided, or just following the money?
Let's be honest. Political consultants are sales people, first and foremost. Selling ideas and selling themselves. Unfortunately, that often means convincing the hiring entity (those with power and/or money) that you are their kind of people. So they forge their ideas around what will sell to the clients. In case you haven't noticed, just like the Republicans, the people with power in the Democratic party are either rich and/or OLD. I'm not being ageist here, I'm 72. Young blood is necessary.
I doubt most in power really get what younger folk want, and perhaps not even what they need. I can't say I do much of the time. But the Republicans see anger and hone in on seizing it and then making it theirs to use. Take Charlie Kirk, please. Little POS that he is. Isn't even young (relative) any more. But he has built a dangerous following that far too closely resembles the Hitler Youth.
Too often the Democrats aren't listening to their own youthful leaders. "Too radical", "not realistic", "unmanageable", etc. But they have heart. Listen to them. Embrace them, and try to offer them ways of furthering their goals. Not all goals fit into what EVERYONE in our big tent wants, but that's always the case.
But let's remember that consultants are human beings with their own directions.
Finally, can we get past the "Rick Wilson was one of THEM memes" and accept that he may not always agree with us, or we with him, but he does stand for what we all want, the Rule of Law and a Constitutional government not run by a bunch of lunatics.
Expectations:
Young folk, especially men, during the eighties, started thinking that at 20 they should have all the goodies that their parents didn't achieve until they were 40. That's naive to the extreme, and yet they believe it. Changing perceptions has to happen, and that means pain. Unfortunately, the aversion to pain is deep, and denial is serious.
I graduated from high school in 1971. I came from a very working class family. We lived week to week most of the time. My dad died when I was 18, and I went to college. But things didn't work out and I went into industry as a blue collar worker. Wasn't easy, but I knew I could succeed. I went back and got my degree after a debilitating accident at age 30. But I ended up in an industry where continuous employment wasn't the norm, aerospace. So throughout my career I saw ups and downs. But I put away money and tried to better myself. Today, I have a comfort level my folks could only dream about; and though I'm better off than many, it would only take a) the loss of Social Security and/or b) a major real economic downturn to have me and the wife lose everything.
What I'm saying is that there's some really effed up values out there today; and I'm saying this coming from the 'hippie' generation. The young 'disaffected' youth want it all and people are willing to sell them a dream without foundation, and they're willing to grasp it.
We need to design a practical, reachable dream that not only promises but delivers. Because in the end, Trump will turn on this young cannon fodder that is following him; especially the minorities, whom he will never accept or respect. Maybe, just maybe, the only way to reach them is when all our worlds fall apart and they finally get that they were used and betrayed.