Weekend Edition: How we become 130M Democrats

The work of party building is always ongoing, but emerging from our current dysfunction to build something new requires a deep commitment to transform a party that has been stuck for...a while.

Last month, in the first wave of reflection and reckoning post-2024, I wrote about the need for more ambition in the Democratic Party and how that might guide and reshape the work ahead. Since then, I've gotten a lot of questions that sound something like “sure, but how…” or “so it's just messaging…”

So let’s get clearer about what we are talking about so we can talk more specifically about how.

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Ultimately, if we have multiple challenges to confront and opportunities to embrace, we need to do them at the right altitudes and in the right orders and in an integrated way.

We have core ideological identity problems and we have an organizing model problem and we have a messaging problem and we have stale tactical issues to address. Each of these is (or is caused by) a distinct failure or missed opportunity or both and each has a set of solutions. There is no singular answer just as there is no singular failure or dysfunction. Importantly, we must accurately locate the altitudes at which we are diagnosing failures and align them with the right solutions at the same altitude. New (even better) messaging will not solve core ideological weaknesses. Better allocation of tactical resources via better tools will not create a better underlying organizing model. We have to solve each thing in its own way with the right processes that will produce the right kind of outputs and define the right ongoing processes that will support the right new paths forward.

If we are really talking about being different as a party, then that demands both a different definition and a different way of being.

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The ideological/brand/identity altitude: a refresh of liberalism

To build a bigger, broader, and more vibrant Democratic Party, we need to define ourselves in bigger, broader but also more specific terms so that we can provide clear, resonant moral leadership for the country.

This work is not a theoretical philosophical exercise. When we define ourselves at the wrong altitude that is too narrowly focused on specific policy prescriptions as the defining boundaries of our party, we unnecessarily narrow the conversation around how we deliver for people and unintentionally eliminate the possibility of creativity. A broader, more explicitly defined container actually enables a much more tightly connected, better-bridged community of communities that share priorities and see each other more clearly as allies and that accepts policy and tactical diversity as necessary to the ongoing creativity of a vibrant party building and becomes the mechanism by which we constantly improve and evolve our ways of supporting people and enabling vibrant communities.

Why we are?

• Because we are interconnected — we are kind — a commit to equal care and belief in equal worth for all

• Because we care about and rely on each other — we treat the ways we live in community as sacred

• Because we live in and invest in the ways we live in community, our communities are healthier and more vibrant. Healthy is whole — healthy communities are whole communities make healthy people, whole people — balanced, just, cooperative, diverse, free

• Because we can (and must) always improve, we expect and reach for regular transformation — constant, ongoing evolution of new and better ideas

What we are animated by?

• A vision for the agency of self-determination and the abundance shared prosperity

• A commitment to duty to others via shared ownership, shared power, shared responsibility

• The preservation of the natural systems we are part of, our shared systems and resources, our shared communities via vibrant self-government

• The joy of creative and abundant community

Who we are?

• “All people are different people” — those who align with our Why and our What will emerge differently in all different kinds of communities, and they will prioritize their identities in their own ways that we should not attempt to presuppose or prescribe. But they will emerge everywhere. Focusing on shared belief and believing in the power of disparate experience also creates the possibility for real magic and creativity in a much broader community of communities. That posture is enabled by stronger moral clarity and higher context in our containers so that we can safely engage with different and novelty with curiosity and expect it to be a source of creativity and strategic adaptability rather than the constant defensive crouch we have become habituated to adopt in our approach political conversations even with potential (and even actual) allies.

• Groups are not allies — shifting our attention toward the people who support us and seeing people clearly as complex humans who possess and inhabit and prioritize multiple identities also demands that we stop talking about aggregate communities as coherent, homogenous blocks. We believe that heterogeneity is our source of creativity and then consistently distill groups down to aggregates and averages and wonder why the individuals in them fail to meet our flawed assumptions and expectations. People are allies, and we should expect strong support and responsibility from allies who raise their hands in solidarity, but we should stop assuming members of groups are anything and be open to those who raise their hands and invite them in wherever they emerge.

How we are?

• Everywhere — there are people who share our worldview everywhere regardless of political geography or Cook Political Spreads. So we must create opportunities to engage and be of service everywhere. 3244 counties. All the countries around the world where like-minded Americans live and work. And all the places and spaces where people congregate and share culture. Everywhere.

• Always on — American civic life is too often centered on elections, but that’s a bug that represents a narrow, self-centered, power-oriented view of a political party’s role, not a feature of a focused understanding of political strategy. Yes, who runs and who wins matters. That our communities are led by a coherent consistent worldview that guides all of society at all levels is essential. And most of our civic life happens in the governing, in the service of others, and in the quiet every duty to each other that is not driven by TV ads and media coverage but by the constant dedication to serving our communities every day. In those moments, people need to feel gathered, bonded, and supported in their work and feel that the Party is a meaningful presence and enabler, not just when we call for votes or ask for the dollars to chase them, but in those moments of service to their communities all the time.

• Native — expecting all these different people in all the different places from all these different cultures to use all the same language to talk about our principles and to serve and to lead their communities is arrogant and limiting. It leaves people feeling unheard, disrespected, and disregarded rather than encouraged to embrace and lead. We articulate our worldview with moral clarity so that our members and leaders can speak in their native languages to the communities they serve and organize.

• Relevant — expecting people to focus on politics all the time is a misunderstanding of the role of civic life in community. We want people making every day choices and decisions about how they spend their time and how the engage in their communities based on our shared Why’s but that doesn’t mean they live and breathe politics especially not competitive electoral politics. It is up to us to tell stories about service and civic life and elevate the work of our members in community that reflect our worldview and create cultural power and momentum around them by telling those stories in relevant and regular ways that do not assume that anyone reads our emails, comes to our websites, or reads political news.

• Truthful — if we want to reinvest and bolster shared, fact-based reality, we have to be consistently and carefully truthful in our communications. That commitment means embracing nuance and admitting when we make mistakes. It requires that we not overstate our positions because extreme, declarative statements make better slogans. It means acknowledging when things are hard and when they are complicated and not confusing the two because it’s convenient. More ownership and more agency comes with more responsibility, and we should embrace that responsibility and lead confidently in the direction of service and not shy away from it because opposition is easier.

In a society and political environment where context collapse is the norm, we should never take these things for granted. If we are clear, consistent, and convicted at this altitude, the need for and the paths to reforming and transforming society and our economy get more clear, and importantly, engage and include more voices in the commitment to those necessary transformations. Clarity and power of belief also gives greater specificity and direction to the work of redesigning the core models and frameworks that we use to do the work and gives us more confident conviction when we are on and off track with our strategies and tactics.

The organizing model altitude: all good organizing is about relationships — all relationships exist in networks

How we understand information and networks of content and relationship must inform a modernization of graph or network as the fundamental architectural for how we organize people. The how's above point to a better posture for being in relations with rather than acquiring or empowering people in a hierarchical manner. If we adopt a network-oriented organizing model that better reflects modern life and modern information systems, it will guide us toward different tactics and tools for outreach, conversation, and for contact. A new model also will help us understand when and how we are coherently and intentionally building different types of power (cultural, community, political, institutional) and the applying that power to the right levers in the right contexts. That clarity will help us maintain a view of how each type of power is interrelated and mutually reinforces the others rather than misinterpreting and misapplying power in the wrong place to no effect or worse to performative effects that feel productive, but are ultimately wasteful at best or counterproductive at worst.

The strategic/messaging altitude: listen first and speak native languages

The who and the how above can point us in a better direction in terms of strategic posture and a broader more intersected and interconnected way of understanding the communities (plural) that our people (plural) belong to but listening is the only way to consistently and accurately understand how they prioritize their identities. Then we meet them where they are with the language that connects them to our why and what. Our messaging must be crafted in the vocabulary of the communities we are trying to engage, and it is our job to listen first and then accurately translate our values and beliefs and why's into as many native languages as necessary to engage everyone we can reach. Being in conversation is the only way we can ensure that our translations are accurate and working as we constantly assess and reassess with more clarity about where and how much of our content is being consumed.

The tactical/technical altitude: reinterpret what we mean by infrastructure then rebuild

The tools and tactics we consider necessary to these party building efforts must be designed, developed, built, and maintained as core party infrastructure not as one off’s or proofs of concept. Tactics ought to be freely creative and experimental so long as we are clear about outputs and goals so we learn what works where and when and for what. That means tools for each dimension of power building and for the effective application of that power to the right levers in culture, community, and government. The data and tools we use must reflect and reinforce our new organizing model, and the Party must take the responsibility for building and sustaining these tools at the scale required of the work. The privatization of innovation can be effective in some contexts and for some experimental and exploratory purposes, but supporting that community of innovation with an architecture and infrastructure that is integrated by default should remain a core Party function.

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“Ok… so how motherfucker?”

The work of examination, design, and building a more ambition modern Democratic Party is the work of the whole party, but it must be led by the DNC. And the DNC needs to lead this work broadly but carefully and with meaningful and consistent attention to who inside the building (do we have the right functional talent in the right roles) and outside the building (grassroots groups and volunteers) is involved in both the creation processes and the ongoing processes to lead us forward on these new foundations.

There are many processes and procedures we could adopt, and lots of smart folks have done work like this within state parties (and other similar kinds of organizations and institutions) that we might should learn from especially Antonia Scatton and her blueprint for a better party. But any process we embrace ought to have a few key components meant to include the right people in the right structures to be sure we get what we need for new foundations and for ongoing work.

Workstreams for each foundational altitude and then for each core party function (operations and experiences including local presences; always-on community outreach and engagement; communications, media, and content; organizer outreach, training, and engagement; candidate development; committee development including rules, processes, and practices) should be led by an internal responsible guide and include a coherent active participatory outside advisory group as well working members from across departments and across groups. In addition to inside team members and grassroots participants, we should include in the design and strategy processes, people from our essential platform and service partners so that we effectively locate and leverage talent wherever it is and where it will be most productive. Leveraging all of our talent and commitment requires a more open, more standardized procurement process that more clearly aligns contracts with outcomes and invites more talent into those pipelines. Regardless, we should not outsource core party functions out of habit or because it feels simpler, while we still find the right ways to take advantage of the exceptional professional talent and technologies all around us in service of our goals as a party, not those of investors, donors, or corporate owners.

These workstreams should clearly define short and long-term goals together and focus on both specific experiences (rituals and gatherings and conversations) that ensure that how we are doing our work is consistent with how we mean to be in the world and specific outputs (products and documents and curriculum and plans) that ensure our work is tangible, practically applicable, and easy to replicate at all levels of the Party.

While the DNC leads on these major structural reforms, we can in our direct fields of view locally begin to operate with these new models in mind, focusing on shifting our How’s in whatever ways big and small we can so that we are ready to meet a reinvigorated, more ambitious Party’s call to action with fresh energy and the beginning of new habits in place when that call comes.

Much of this work is never done. It is the work of party building — building (not built) — present and future of ensuring that the containers, conditions, and content of our civic life guide us toward our best ideals and ambitions shaped by a kind of powerful moral clarity about our commitments to each other that have gotten stale or lost in modern civic life. But regardless of what got us here (and it was a lot of mistakes, misalignments, and missed opportunities over a long period of time), we must recommit to what we need to be, what we must be and begin.

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