What Are the Dems Doing Wrong?

What Are the Dems Doing Wrong?

Since the 2008 election, the Democratic Party has steadily lost momentum. How did that happen? On Democracy Now!, Ari Berman and Nate Silver explain.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

As election day draws near, progressives are looking anxiously to the polls, trying to gauge whether Congress will really take a huge rightward swing after November 2. 

This morning on Democracy Now!, Nation contributing writer Ari Berman explained the dynamics at work behind the Democratic Party’s loss of momentum since the 2008 election. Berman makes the case that the Democrats aren’t doing enough to address the needs of their core voters—minorities, young people and women—at a time when conservatives are profiting from a newly energized base.

Alongside FiveThirtyEight.com’s Nate Silver, Berman spoke with Amy Goodman about what to expect in the next few weeks, the changing tone of the national political conversation, and how the rent is just too damn high.

Ari Berman is an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute. He is the author of the book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics.

—Braden Goyette

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x