The moment in our history is unique; the backlash against Donald Trump is growing louder, more durable, and more widespread. At some point, the country will say enough is enough and kick this crew out of office. In politics, people want public service, not self-service.
There seems to be a window of opportunity opening for reasonable, law-abiding leaders in both parties who bring stability and honesty. There is only one organized opposition party to the status quo. The Democratic Party can only seize this opening if, as an institution, it makes some changes.
I don’t think the House of Democrats needs to be burned to the ground. I will probably never be in that camp. I’m for significant renovations, like tearing down a few walls, adding a modern kitchen and bathrooms to function better. Better landscaping for curb appeal, for sure. The bones of the house are still strong. Kamala Harris lost by less than two points in 2024. New stars in the party are rising all over the country.
However, almost no one likes the party. The brand is in the toilet.
Dems have had trouble connecting with everyday Americans. It’s struggling in the media arena compared to the GOP — both building its own and operating in the current one. Donors are funding the wrong things, at times.
The current debate between the party moving toward the center or more progressive is the wrong question. It’s stale, lazy, and irrelevant to this moment. Except for its massive, multi-level legal strategy, the party is generally fairly weak.
Pollster Elliott Morris: “Democratic brand is not predominantly woke, but weak. Respondents to our survey associated the Democrats with traits like honesty and caring about the working class, but they are seen as weak and not particularly effective. The Republican brand, by contrast, is a strong brand that a majority of the country finds extreme.”
The party as an institutional brand has done little to redefine itself. But the challenges, of course, go deeper than just how they position themselves to the country. You need a quality “product” or, in the case of politics, a quality set of ideas and vision upon which to build a brand.
A few high-profile individual Democratic leaders have already begun a de facto rebrand by publicly admitting and addressing the negatives on people’s minds. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has been blunt: “Gone are the days when Democrats are the party of ‘no’ and ‘slow.’ We must be the party of ‘yes’ and ‘now.’” There’s no better way to begin the rebrand than admit the mistakes and fix them. Trust is the most vital commodity.
This briefing memo begins to outline what to change, how to change it, and what to leave alone.
Vision + Policy Priorities for the Future
The starting point for any new strategic plan are values.
The values of the Democratic Party — economic fairness, diversity, and freedom — don’t need to change. The emphasis does. Of the three, freedom is the one most underused — that’s where the reemphasis needs to happen.
Everyone already knows the party believes in diversity. That’s probably the only thing the country is crystal clear on what the party stands for.
That’s not enough. It doesn’t meet the moment for most of the country, which is struggling financially.
Everyone should have a realistic chance again to pursue the American Dream and their pursuit of happiness. It speaks to financial success and freedom to live their lives as each person sees fit, without penalty or peril.
Democrats are putting the economy top of mind, and it’s working. They’re beating the drum hard to amplify Trump’s high gas and grocery prices and exorbitant tariffs.
But freedom is less discussed. When it is, it’s framed as “rights” — a relic of the 1960s/70s. “Freedom,” instead, speaks to more people and gets to the heart of the nation’s values. The vast majority of Americans, like our ancestors 250 years ago under British monarchy, again yearn for liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Today, we’re bumping up against elements of tyranny and extreme corruption coming out of our own government.
To animate Democrats’ values, they need some sort of charter or vision document — call it what you will — but a compass for the next decade.
A Two-Pager
The party’s last platform was 92 pages with 9 chapters and 26,000 words. By comparison, a much bigger project — the U.S. Constitution — was a mere 7,500 words. The 2024 platform turned into an accomplishments document for the Joe Biden Administration — self-serving to one man.
The roadmap I’m proposing isn’t about one person or people or wing of the party. It’s about new ideas for the 21st century that speak to Gen X down through Gen Z. Middle-age and young vibes.
It’s also not an ideas dump of 100 priorities from 1,000 interest groups. You end up with nothing that’s clear and nothing that’s a priority. Sometimes centralized leadership works.
Serious leaders in the progressive and left-of-center wings need to, at least, take the reins and say here’s where we’re going.
A simple two-page memo — that’s it — is what I’m talking about. Every elected official across the country must do and say what’s best for their state and race. But building a renewed party requires speaking in unison on one major narrative that connects with the largest number of people.
There are four policy buckets in this two-pager.
The Economy
Focus on growing wages and quality of jobs (and re-skilling for AI). Bring down the cost of food and bills to be manageable again. Health care costs, which the Dems are already strong on, should be part of this. I saw a simple proposal from the Searchlight Institute that calls for:
(1) Making primary care free for all Americans, regardless of coverage source. (2) Creating a nonprofit public option, the American Health Gateway, to be available to all Americans in need.
AI Guardrails
Policy needs to speed up quickly on AI governance. I’ll let the policy people work out the details on this one, but the gist is to prevent the bad impacts and boost the good, like innovation. The public is on board with responsible regulation that doesn’t stifle innovation. Cramming AI — data centers, the ability to mass produce misinformation, and so on — down our throats is the problem. The public needs to have some say and control. We know Silicon Valley doesn’t want any public debate.
A civil rights movement for the 21st century
This is where “freedom” as message and “rights” as policy connect: the framing up front should lead with freedom, but the substance underneath is still a civil rights agenda.
The party still has to live up to its long-held value of equality. The old-but-always necessary civil rights movement needs a new roar. The goals are ending gerrymandering and restoring Black voting rights, which the Supreme Court essentially rescinded in 2013 and again in 2026.
Democrats continuing — doubling down on — its decades-long push on civil rights has to deliver results. At times, there’s been lip service, but Democratic presidents and members of Congress have without question delivered over time.
Part of the new equality movement, looking toward 2050 not 1950, should probably also take into account the odd fringe effort to keep rolling back women’s rights, including the right to vote. (Remember: the policies that once sounded absurd have become realities.)
Operating System Flaw
Constitutional scholars and political scientists have been busy over the past 18 months diagnosing how someone like Trump slipped through the cracks. From the New York Times:
The framers believed that the threat of impeachment and removal would be a decisive check on the president... But they failed to anticipate a development that would make impeachment improbable: the rise of political parties.
...the founding generation may have been unduly optimistic about the power of norms and expectations, grounded in part in Washington’s sterling character. “I do think that they expected that the president would be bound by a sense of duty to the law and to the Constitution,” Professor McConnell said.
I don’t see how the only opposition party in America can ignore this and other autocratic loopholes to prevent it from happening again. Democrats should own this diagnosis with actual fixes — legislative proposals to strengthen independent oversight of the executive, close self-pardon and emergency-powers loopholes, and restore teeth to congressional subpoena enforcement — rather than only describing the problem.
What this isn’t
The Project 2029 effort that’s underway — shaping up, from what’s been reported, as a comprehensive policy platform in the mold of Project 2025 — is premature, actually. I say focus all of that time on four policy buckets. Do the 900-page book once you get a foot in the door somewhere, like winning the House this year or the presidency in 2028.
To be clear, however, a widely promoted roadmap — whatever that looks like — is needed yesterday. People want leadership and direction. Now. The two-page memo is that near-term roadmap; the 900-page book is the follow-on once the party actually holds power to execute it.
The Reality
Having a policy plan that reflects the general public’s priorities isn’t enough. Voters need to like Democrats. The likability factor is a topic for another day. And there’s this: Before any of this has a chance in hell, Dems have to win elections. That begins, in theory, this fall.