Accepting responsibility for failure is the only path to victory

The existential threat of a failure to act right here right now.

Here’s the thing. We’ve now clearly established that public confidence in the Democrats has tanked. That’s not right wing media telling us that. Polls are, and have been saying it for some time. However, the Democratic establishment is in denial

I was talking about the problem when few others dared to, but it can no longer be ignored. We can fight amongst ourselves all day every day. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but it won’t change a thing. Democrats don’t like me when I say they failed America. ‘Nonsense’ they say, ‘it was the stupid voters. We warned them and still they voted for Trump’.

I spend a great deal of time highlighting the arrogance of Republicans in this new dystopian world they’re creating. But I ask you this. What could be more arrogant than blaming voters for YOUR own failure to deliver a coherent proposition that resonated with the American people?

I was there at the beginning, At my own expense, I played my small part to help Biden deliver hope with LOTS of Ads. So I ask you to consider these Ads as my qualification to have an opinion.

While we won in 2020, I FAILED in 2024. I was part of that failed message delivery system. I failed even worse though, because I knew the messaging was flawed, but I daren’t speak up or raise a red flag. What’s more, I absolutely know for sure, other people knew too but chose to ignore it. I don’t flatter myself thinking a guy from the other side of the pond, would have had any impact on a deluded juggernaut that had convinced itself Trump was about to be fired from the political arena.

The big crowds, the adulation for a woman of color on her way to the White House. It was intoxicating, it was the ultimate Hollywood movie, where the good guys triumph over evil. How could a celebrated prosecutor, former State Attorney General and Vice President lose against a man convicted of 34 felony charges. Right?

I was long on record saying Kamala Harris would not be my choice for president. However, there is absolutely no question she rose to the occasion and surprised me big time. Believe it when I say, that’s not easy to do. I think my excitement showed in the Ads I produced for the campaign. The reality was however, she was given just 100 days to sell a proposition that required much longer to deliver. Even with over a billion dollars spent, Democrats lost the House, the Senate, the White House and the popular vote. In anybody’s book, that’s an EPIC FAIL.

To be clear, I don’t believe Kamala Harris failed. I think SHE was failed by her party. The catastrophic damage was inflicted directly after the 2022 midterms. I said at the time, this is the opportunity to turbocharge the remarkable Biden economic achievements, by doing what he said he would do in 2019. Be the bridge to the next generation of Dem leaders. That was the moment right there. It provided the opportunity for a primary process to engage the base and get them invested in the future leadership of America.

When I raised the issue privately, I was told I didn’t understand US politics by some senior Dem strategists, citing the power of having an incumbent as the candidate. As Biden began to visibly decline even to non political observers, the writing was on the wall. The love of my life of 45 years who knew how invested I was in the campaign, kept coming to me and saying ‘Are you sure Joe Biden is up to this? He is looking jaded and frail’. Now I’ve made it a rule in my life to know Jill is rarely wrong and this was no exception.

There was time to correct course after the midterms. The Democrats had a deep bench of leadership talent. Instead, hubris delivered us to where we are today and Joe Biden has to take some responsibility for that. One thing Republicans have always been exceptional at, is controlling the narrative. They were so good at it, they turned an act of insurrection into a tourist day out and millions bought what they were selling. Democrats simply had no answer in the face of an open goal. It was so bad, Trump managed to create the false narrative that the now strongest economy in the world was a failed economy. The response from Democrats, ‘Don’t vote for the other guy he’s a fascist’. While they were right, it failed to address that people were suffering and finding it difficult to put food on the table. It demonstrated deafness to their concerns and Trump jumped on it to create the illusion only he could fix it.

They had great messaging shops with very talented writers testing messages to within an inch of their life. I know, I sat in on some of the zooms, but the fundamental mistake they made was treating Trump as a ‘traditional’ political opponent AGAIN!. They had learned nothing from 2016, when he won with a new style of insurgent politics built on lies, which had no rules of engagement.

This time Trump HAD learned from the mistakes he made in his first term. Democrats were up against a campaign that had normalised the lie and were prepared to use a Russian style disinformation strategy to win. It was a win at all cost campaign. This time it was well planned, well funded and managed in the shadows by the Heritage Foundation.

The rest is history and here we are, facing the biggest existential threat to representative democracy since the inception of the American experiment. They say in times of crisis we are capable of performing at our best. I’m still waiting. Aside from people like Bernie Sanders, AOC and a handful of others, we are witnessing the Democrats circling the wagons around a dead flogged horse. Is that incompetence or an attempt to preserve the status quo? Neither are acceptable, but it’s the latter that terrifies me.

In this moment, there appears to be no coherent proposition for the American people to hold onto. Their base just sees them as MIA and that’s unconscionable. This election was not lost on January 20th, it was lost last November, almost five months ago, yet here we are devoid of ideas. That’s totally unacceptable, so much so, even their own base is outraged.

I believe this is an inflection point for the Democratic Party. If there is not radical change, it simply can’t protect the American people from the march to a Christian Nationalist Theocracy. A society where counterfeit Christian values will be used to create a Darwinistic monarchy, in which the word of Trump will be regarded as the word of God.

While Democratic leadership are drowning in an ocean of self pity and paralysed by indecision, the people who voted are taking the fight to their elected representatives. None more so than in deep red districts. Why are Dems not arriving in those districts to connect with those people and fill the void left by Republicans who are running scared from the voters who elected them?

Bernie Sanders is the only political voice prepared to walk into the lion’s den and do the single most important thing in this moment. LISTEN TO VOTERS where they are and learn from THEM how to fight this tyranny.

America is not what Trump and the Oligarchs represent. They are using 30% of those eligible to vote to dictate the lives of 70% of Americans. NOW is the time to act not to fold.

In part two, I’ll discuss options for a plan and a fresh proposition to the American people. The value I bring to this effort is pragmatic objectivity. I’m looking at this with fresh eyes from the outside. Technically I have no horse in this race. I have a much bigger responsibility as a citizen of the world. This president appears hellbent on destroying it. I will use every last breath in my body to stop this tsunami of hate, misogyny and racism from consuming the future world my grandchildren will inhabit. I’m prepared to die on this hill. What about you?