The Democratic Party Has Lost Touch With What Its Constituents Want and Need
By: Cameron Craig
Tags: DNC, Politics, Trump, Joe Biden, Election 2020

In 2013 I was in the process of getting out of the military, and I had a political ideological dilemma. I was starting to branch away from the conservative values I was taught since childhood and found myself intrinsically agreeing with neoliberal policies and philosophy. I wasn’t educated or versed enough in political nuance to have strong stances on almost any policy issue, but I found myself giving the Democratic Party a second look.

The Democratic Party fully captured me with Barack Obama’s second term and their grand promises of a better future. They felt so antithetical to conservatism — the very thing I realized I was distancing myself from.

The Democratic Party promised that a vote for them is a vote for the people. They promised to stick up for immigrants and undocumented workers, protect health care and the Affordable Care Act, workers’ rights, unions, promote better schooling and create better opportunities for their constituents. I had found the party that stood for the same values and wanted the same future that I began to want. But as the years went on I found myself distancing myself from the Democratic Party, realizing the promises, enthusiasm and optimism were nothing more than empty platitudes.

The recent Democratic National Convention reminded me how out of touch the Democratic Party is with its constituents and how willing they are to leave behind the progressive vote. I came to the harsh realization that the Democratic Party cares more about appearing to support progressive change rather than actually supporting it.

The DNC was quite the four day event. It had performances from artists like Leon Bridges, Billie Eilish and John Legend. Countless Hollywood celebrities talked about the necessity of beating incumbent president Donald Trump in the upcoming November election and stressed the dire consequences if we fail. As a film lover, it’s neat to see all the actors and actresses I like share the same goal — defeating Donald Trump. But beyond that, they failed to mention any of the progressive ideas and policies that their constituents desperately need.

2016 all over again

There were plenty of vague calls for unity, such as the second night’s national roll call. “No one has ever watched or cared about the roll call vote except the people in the convention hall. Tonight, it told a story of unity and it just worked in this moment,” claimed a senior Democratic official. I’d love an explanation on the importance of unity compared to proposed policy with quantifiable outcomes of positive change.

If I’m supposed to be inspired by fruitless calls for choosing love over hate and light over darkness, I’m afraid they’ve desperately failed their mission.

These fruitless platitudes undoubtedly work for some audiences. If you’re wealthy enough to not see any material consequence of a Donald Trump presidency and are shouting about unity and love, you likely never cared about progressive change in the first place and treat the presidency as a symbolic office.

I tried to approach watching the DNC as if I was a first-time voter or someone who wasn’t very politically literate. I wanted the Democrat Party to give me something to vote for, something that would excite me, something that showed me they understood the struggles of their constituents. The purpose of the DNC is to select a candidate and sell that candidate to their constituents. If I was a first-time voter or someone that abstains from voting, the DNC didn’t do nearly enough to excite me to get off my couch and vote.

Not a single time did a democrat at the convention mention that the country wasn’t great before Trump became president. Outside of one mention of the public option for healthcare, we never heard about proposed fixes to America’s broken healthcare system, worker’s wage growth being destroyed by inflation, 66% of filed bankruptcies are because of medical bills, college tuition more than doubling since the 1980’s, America’s renting crisis, the top one percent owning 40% of America’s wealth, or any of the other countless problems plaguing American citizens.

There wasn’t a single moment or message from the Democratic Party about failed policies in the past, how they plan to make up for such failures and how they understand the wants and needs of their constituents. There was lots of symbolic messaging throughout the event surrounding the fight against injustice and their support of Black Lives Matter, such as Elizabeth Warren’s subtle tribute in the background where she spelt ‘BLM’ out in blocks of a classroom background. I really wish sometime in the near future we can raise the bar — even just an inch.

Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers recently knelt for nine minutes to honor the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. But this sympathy and empathy toward victims of racial injustice is new. This sympathy and empathy wasn’t initially showcased when Colin Kaepernick first knelt during the national anthem in 2016. Pelosi stayed away from the topic, claiming “I love the National Anthem… and I love the First Amendment and I’ll leave it at that.” I don’t believe the party has radically shifted its views on the subject in four years. They’re only paying lip service now because it’s finally the popular position to take.

Biden’s history in politics won’t do the Democratic Party any favors

The DNC failed to acknowledge that Joe Biden’s 1994 crime bill was largely responsible for that very racial injustice we are protesting today. It added 100,000 cops to the streets, increased funding by $9.7 billion for prisons and played a significant role in mass incarcerations in the African American communities. Biden would later work with segregationists to oppose school integration.

There’s no apology or admission of guilt or failure. No admission of having made an unfathomable mistake. Bill Clinton admitted it was a mistake while Biden lies and claims it did not increase incarcerations, despite countless evidence pointing to the contrary.

Biden would also lie about being arrested while trying to see Nelson Mandela. If Trump had lied about being arrested while trying to see Nelson Mandela, I have a really hard time believing Biden supporters would shrug it off like they shrugged off this lie.

During the four day event there were plenty of montages of how Joe Biden fights for women’s rights and will protect them against domestic violence. Except there’s nothing really to suggest he would do so. Throughout his career, he has been accused of sexual harassment and has been criticized for his handling of the 1991 case in which Anita Hill accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Though he would cosponsor the Violence Against Woman Act bill, there’s a troubling long history with women that’s near impossible to ignore and makes me believe his intrinsic beliefs are not in favor of the people.

Show us you’re at least trying

Just look at Biden’s stance on Medicare for All. Medicare for All offers comprehensible coverage to all Americans, saving two trillion dollars over 10 years and 87% of Democratic voters supporting Medicare for all. While it is true Medicare for All likely doesn’t have the support to pass, especially in the Senate, Joe Biden advocating for such a policy in the midst of a pandemic in which 184,000 Americans have died could likely convince a lot of his supporters of its necessity and lay the groundwork for the future of American healthcare.

I am currently without healthcare coverage due to financial hardship. The anxiety of knowing any moment could result in financial ruin or bankruptcy is an enormous burden on my shoulders, especially during a pandemic. Not supporting Medicare for All doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the party that is supposed to represent and fight for me.

Medicare for All isn’t the only instance in which the Democratic party isn’t fighting or representing the people. Biden still isn’t in favor of legalizing marijuana even though the majority of voters (even Republicans) support its legalization. In the midst of nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism that Biden was largely responsible for, he doesn’t support defunding the police despite considerable support for it. For a party that was supported by 88% of African American voters in 2016, picking Biden as the candidate to champion the people doesn’t make me believe he values the votes of the black community even though Biden had a wide lead of black voters over other candidates in the Democratic Primary.

Vice President candidate Kamala Haris is almost of equal blame in alienating large sects of their supporters. Harris, the first Senator to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan, walked back her support after dropping out of the presidential race. She tried damage controlling criticism of her decision to walk back her notion of eliminating private health insurance claiming she interpreted the question differently.

And to her credit, the definition of Medicare for All has changed from the 2018 midterms to the 2020 presidential election. Medicare for All was an ambiguous blanket term used to indirectly say America’s health insurance industry needed an overhaul. However, Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan hadn’t changed, and what was proposed in the 2018 plan has been the definitive progressive platform since 2018 and is identical to the plan now. This is a prime example of only wanting the appearance of change without actual fundamental and systemic change.

Harris isn’t likely to win over progressive voters with her laundry list of moderate policies that disproportionately affected marginalized communities. Harris was criticized during one of the presidential debates for acts such as jailing 1,500 people for marijuana violations then laughing about it when asked if she’d ever smoked marijuana. Harris’ father, a Marxist economics professor at Stanford University, would later criticize her for leaning into the stereotype of pot-smoking Jamaicans. Harris also blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row, kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California and fought to keep the cash bail system in place — a system that disproportionately impacts marginalized communities.

Harris also supported a 2008 bill that reported undocumented juveniles to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they were arrested and suspected of committing a felony, whether or not they were convicted. Harris would later apologize for this California truancy law that led to arrests of parents.

Though Kamala Harris is likely the most ‘progressive’ nominee the party has had in modern history, she’s not going to excite the progressive base. She’s only the most progressive because the bar has been set so low.

It’s understandable these failures wouldn’t be mentioned at the DNC. It would be great if they were and there were apologies and proposed legislation to correct these mistakes, but I didn’t expect them to be addressed. I also didn’t expect the strange optics used to pitch Joe Biden as the nominee. These optics included mentioning how the great losses Biden has suffered throughout his life somehow makes him a good candidate to be president. The intent is obvious — Biden both receives and displays empathy and sympathy. While it is sad that Biden has suffered a lot of loss in his life, it doesn’t speak to his ability to be president. It doesn’t speak to what he can do for the people. And I don’t care about the fruitless platitudes from Hunter and Ashley Biden about how caring Joe Biden is.

I don’t care about former President Barack Obama’s speech where he claims Biden and Harris really care about the American people. I don’t want to listen to a man who drone-striked innocent civilians and tortured people. And frankly, I don’t believe him anyway.

Incompetency and lack of reflection will haunt the Democratic Party

It’s maddening to see how far the bar has fallen in the post-Trump era. The DNC was an insulting reminder of how incompetent the Democratic Party is during the most important election of my lifetime. They ran on defeating Donald Trump in the 2016 election with Hillary Clinton and I’m afraid they’re making the same mistake again. If they want to energize the youth vote they need to run on more than defeating Donald Trump.

One of the reasons Trump won the 2016 election was because of his anti-establishment stance. In a time of frustration and uncertainty, people selected to take the risk with Donald Trump over lifelong politician Hillary Clinton. Biden has conceded the anti-establishment ground, and his calls for a return to normalcy completely miss the mark on the frustrations people have toward the status quo.

The return to normalcy isn’t a good selling point to progressives when normal isn’t good enough. Especially when we factor in the negotiation process with Republicans regarding Biden’s proposed policies. Biden and Harris will swing to the middle just like Obama did once in office. It’s not dangerous to run too far to the left. Obama ran further to the left of what was considered electable at the time, and went on to serve two terms in office. The problem is getting a left candidate to stay left — and Biden and Harris’ career have not convinced me they will.

Where does this leave the progressive vote?

This is the most important election of my lifetime and likely the most important in the past thirty years. When authoritarianism is tightening its grip on democracy, I’m afraid fruitless platitudes about love, unity and hope while propping up the candidate largely responsible for the economic and racial injustice we face today, isn’t going to inspire the future of the Democratic Party and the progressive vote. We especially won’t be thrilled when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, likely the loudest progressive voice in congress, was limited to a mere sixty seconds while we heard from former Republican governors for much longer.

I watched the DNC looking for any reason to vote for Biden. I just wanted to feel moved and heard. I wanted to have something to believe in and a better future to look forward to. I wanted to believe people in the party that is supposed to represent me actually cared about me by showing proposed policy. Instead I got a bunch of baseless claims, fruitless platitudes and a rehash of the same 2016 strategy that failed.

Though I am thoroughly disappointed with the Democratic Party, I will be voting for Biden. I do understand and realize the necessity of defeating Donald Trump and the material consequences of Biden failing that I can’t ignore. But the progressive vote, myself included, are going to be voting for harm reduction. We won’t be voting for Biden, but rather against Trump.

The Democratic Party better pray Biden wins and they get the party back on track with a newfound sense of competence before the 2024. If they think cleaning up Trump’s mess is bad, wait until they lose against a more competent and even more authoritarian version of Trump because they’ve failed to understand their constituents’ wants and needs.