“Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” — 2024 Trump Campaign

The good news there’s a few glimmers of hope for a Democratic comeback. Just one hundred days into President Trump’s second term, voters are finding out that he’s not for them after all. His team is filled with crooked elites who have governed abysmally. The economy is crashing and fear of resurgent inflation grows. Trump’s coalition is cracking and his political capital is disintegrating — although Democrats may be in even worse shape. (Voters describe Democrats as weak, corrupt, and ineffective.)

The seeds of a Democratic comeback have been sown, but the conditions that swept right-wing reactionaries into power still remain. Democrats may do well in 2026 and 2028, but nothing has happened that would stop and reverse the longer-run, secular decline in popular support for liberals. Democrats remain feckless; and any remnants of an authentic left-wing remains in disarray.

Liberals must address the conditions that drove working class, less-than-college educated people out of their sphere. That money in politics distorts and undercuts an authentic left-wing, with broad economic appeal and practical solutions for working people. That the slide into fashionable militancy and paternalism (especially on college campuses) has liberals culturally out of step with most Americans. That people of color no longer vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. And that social media elevates toxicity and deceit, and pushs liberals into a spiral of self-defeating self-righteousness.

What we need to do?

I have argued in this blog series that liberals need to seriously reassess and course correct. A revitalized left-wing would deliver for working people, aggressively fight political corruption and oligarchy, and address the toxicity of social media and hardships of modern life.

• Running cities and states better. Liberals need to do a better job governing and earning the trust of voters. The steepest drop-offs in Democratic support came in urban cores in 2024, especially within higher poverty neighborhoods. People are tired of the blight, crime, homelessness, and dysfunction. The largest liberal bastion, California, now resembles a medieval fiefdom that’s divided between surfs, who can barely afford rent and food, and landowners, who benefit from the windfall of multi-million dollar homes, passive rent money, and low property taxes.
  
  Democrats should build more housing and modernize infrastructure, cutting through red tape and NIMBY-ism. They should lead in creating clean, alternative sources of energy, rather than lagging behind red states. They should make cities attractive and safe again. They should moderate on issues like decriminalization of hard drugs and petty crime.

• Restoring democracy. Since the ruling of Citizens United, American politics has devolved into corruption and kleptocracy. Liberals themselves have a watered-down economic agenda, in avoiding positions that offend corporations and the wealthy. They pander to special interests and identity groups. They funnel billions to Ivory Tower consultants and flimsy non-profits. They bend to the military-industrial complex and have an affinity for forever-wars.
  
  Liberals should harness the frustration and ire Americans have toward heartless and greedy corporations — the glee at seeing Luigi Mangione murder a healthcare executive being case in point. Liberals should make repealing Citizens United, and preceding Supreme Court rulings, their singular focus (just as right-wing Christians crusaded to repeal Roe). They should advocate for a constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and are not entitled to free speech. And they should push public campaign finance in states and cities.
  
• Battling alienation and toxicity. More broadly, liberals need to champion policies that combat the conditions that tear fabric of society. I’m most concerned about young men, whose support surged for President Trump in 2024. This recent shift could prove costly as more Gen-z men become politically active.
  
  The insidious nature of social media is at the heart of this gender divide — and I think it’s long past time for serious regulation. Democrats need to advance rules that ban social media for underage people (under 16). Regulators should hold media responsible for removing AI bots and dishonest actors, and discouraging anonymous posts. Platforms should treat community members as customers, not products. Rules should push towards companies like Meta towards a subscriber-based model, that incentivizes quality content over addictive, poisonous “engagement.” Democrats should push a slew of safeguards for privacy, data sharing, algorithm transparency, and user rights.
  
  But beyond the tech world, liberals need to address deeper cultural crosscurrents that fuel dissatisfaction among young men and less-than-college-educated Americans. Chief among these is the need to bridge the education divide. Investments in community college and improved opportunities for the less-educated are a first, necessary step. But liberals need to develop a positive agenda for young men. If we’re not returning to 1950s jobs and family, then what’s the future look like for young men who work hard and play by the rules?

If we fail…

Without radical change to the political system and liberal elite, I sense the U.S. may be facing a fall from grandeur. The U.S. may be at that moment when it reaches its apex and then lurches toward decline and collapse. Just like when the Romans suffered the rule of capricious and cruel emperors, eventually seeing their empire split in two and carved up by invaders. We may be at that moment.

Is that so bad? A lot of people would suffer. Persecution and scapegoating of minorities would worsen. That said, many individuals and regions may opt into something better than the a decaying U.S. — they may migrate or accede to the likes of Canada and the European Union.

Time will tell. What do you think? Will you unite behind my vision of a revamped Left for the 21st century? Or will you leave the future in the hands of fate?

Dissenting Democratic Defeat Blog Series

Part I: 25 Years Mired in Stalemate

Part II: A Full-Blown Trouncing

Part III: Where Did We Go Wrong?