Hopium Chronicles

In my talk I offered some thoughts on things we need to do together in the coming years (all still very much an early sketch of what comes next). Some highlights:

• Finding More Voters, Forging A New Majority – The dramatic gains Trump made with Hispanics and young people (particularly young men) unraveled the coalition that had gotten us 51% of the vote on average over the last four Presidential elections. We will need to imagine and build a new majority coalition now and need a concerted party wide effort to make gains with voters of all kinds – working class, rural, Hispanic, young men, etc.
• Getting On The Right Side Of Opportunity/Winning The Big Economic Argument – As I wrote the other day, we need a deep and long conversation about how we can win the big economic argument with MAGA in the coming years.. 3 consecutive Dem Presidents have left the country far better than we found it. 3 consecutive GOP Presidents have been economic and societal wrecking balls. We should not be losing the economic argument to these guys, or losing ground with working class voters given our economic track record. There needs to be urgency about finding a better path here, and it is very possible that Trump’s dangerous economic plans – tariffs, mass deportation, huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans, spending cuts for everyone else – will give us a big opportunity to make our case very soon.
• Getting Louder/Building A 24/7/365 Politics – This is a familiar topic for Hopium readers, but there is real urgency here too. For background see my post-election posts on the need for us to get louder here, here, here and most recently this one on how we need to get far smarter in how we strategically contest the right’s information superiority in our campaigns themselves. I am going to be talking a lot about the need to see the millions of people supporting our campaigns as “partners in the fight, not donors to the cause” and help unlock not just the financial or volunteer potential of our family but also its capacity to become information warriors and amplify.
• Advancing A New Reform and Renewal Agenda – In a recent post I discussed the need for Democrats to develop a broad agenda for renewal and reform, a topic we’ve been discussing here for many months and one central to my February New Republic essay, Biden Must Reinvent What A Presidential Campaign Is. In this period of opposition we must not only oppose, but must also propose.
• While Focusing On Kitchen Table Issues, We Cannot Leave Behind The Harris-Walz Campaign’s Powerful Embrace of Freedom and Patriotism – We can both be focused on improving the lives of everyday Americans and lean hard into the powerful love of country themes the Vice President advanced during her campaign. This is particularly true in the fights for our personal freedoms and rights of all kinds including reproductive freedom.