In Order To Win We First Have To Save Ourselves From David Hogg and Gavin Newsom

I think it’s safe to say that everybody went a little bit nuts on November 5. The country was divided straight down the middle and the unthinkable happened. Now, with Trump back in office, the unthinkable is a way of life and every single day, like Alice In Wonderland, we’re expected to believe at least six impossible things before breakfast. And many more during the course of the day. So there is a panic among Democrats. That part makes sense. But what some of our leaders are coming up with as a solution is only going to make things worse.

I hate to disparage David Hogg in any way. He survived a school shooting massacre and that incident informed a lot of his subsequent decisions and his worldview. How could it not? That said, his most recent decision, to primary safe Democratic incumbents is pure batshittery. Let Charlie Pierce explain it to you.

David Hogg is exactly what we expect from a citizen touched by unthinkable tragedy. Having survived the 2018 massacre at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, he immediately dived into constructive political action, first on serious gun reform and then within Democratic party politics, rising to his present position as DNC vice chairman. Which makes it difficult to point out that his latest project couldn’t be more ill-advised and, worse, incredibly ill-timed. It is a perfect example of something that is in the right place but at the wrong time. From Politico:

Leaders We Deserve, which Hogg co-founded in 2023, announced plans on Tuesday to spend $20 million in safe-blue Democratic primaries against sitting House members by supporting younger opponents. In an interview with POLITICO, Hogg said the group will not back primary challenges in battleground districts because “I want us to win the majority,” nor will it target members solely based on their age. “We have a culture of seniority politics that has created a litmus test of who deserves to be here,” Hogg said. “We need people, regardless of their age, that are here to fight.”

The one thing that this time in history doesn’t need is a well-financed primary campaign against safe incumbents. In the first place, opening primary campaigns opens them to everyone, including well-financed nuisance candidates and, worse, outright ratfcking operations. It will force safe incumbents to raise more money, much of which must come from sources distant from Hogg’s own purposes. Second, it will divide the only viable opposition to a genuine established threat to American democracy. It will provide the robot army of the elite political media with their favorite narrative on a national basis.

Even a stultified Democratic House majority is preferable to any kind of Republican majority, now that the GOP has gone completely mad. Only then can the serious work of renovating the creaking Democratic party machinery truly begin.

Hogg argued that backing primary challengers is in line with what he ran on for his DNC role. “I am not in this position because I want to bank my political capital. I just want change. I want to see a stronger Democratic Party,” he said. He acknowledged “there are going to be people who are very, very upset about this” but argued Democrats “are in a crisis right now,” citing a recent CNN poll that found the party’s approval rating at 29 percent, a record low for the party. “Our base is craving dramatic change,” Hogg said. “We need to show our base we’re here to fight for them. We need to show there are younger faces stepping up.”

Unfortunately, last November proved that the entire country is not the Democratic base, not by a long shot. This reeks of being an untenable shortcut to the real work that needs to be done.

Both parties are stifled with octegenarian leadership. That’s a side issue, not the main issue. The main issue as I see it is messaging. The right-wing media is a well oiled machine, cranking out responses in real time 24/7. Trump’s only strong suit — and it has been enough — is that he understands television and so he has made the presidency into reality TV. Every day is a new episode, rife with spectacle. Meeting this challenge and overcoming lies with truth is what really lies before us.

And while this is going on, Gavin Newsom is off on his own ill-advised tangent, putting Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk on his podcast. Newsom is so far out of touch that it’s frankly becoming terrifying. He’s got some notion that we shouldn’t resist Trump anymore. I would articulate it better if I understood it better.

The best that I can grasp is that Newsom thinks that currying favor with far right-wing lunatics is some kind of “new” Democratic party and a winning stance. I wish him luck with that one. All the Democrats I talk to are jumping ship on Newsom right now, shaking their heads in disbelief as they do so. Rarely do you see a politician in scoring position who chooses to self-immolate like he is. Josh Shapiro’s star looks to be rising higher and higher all the time. Newsom has missed the boat altogether and it’s so obvious that even David Brooks sees it for what it is. Wow.

What is happening now is not normal politics. We’re seeing an assault on the fundamental institutions of our civic life, things we should all swear loyalty to — Democrat, independent or Republican.

It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.

“The way to achieve a national civic uprising — the way to achieve an uprising that does more than heighten polarization — is to refuse to get baited by reporting that portrays the momentous events we’re living as nothing more than the disputed actions of a political party. That way lies failure,” says Emptywheel and I agree with her.

Shitty DC reporting will continue to treat the challenge before us as just another partisan horse race. So will shitty “operatives” quoting anonymously.

But letting that kind of punditry frame how we understand these developments deprives important action of the nonpartisan appeal of ethical and moral clarity.

Both David Hogg and Gavin Newsom are misframing what is going on right now. That would be unfortunate in any era, but in this era where it’s no longer a battle between a two-party system but a battle for our way of life as America, these off point distractions can be deadly.

The Democratic party needs to not fragment. We need to stand unified. And we need to unify behind the cause of fighting Trump’s destruction of the status quo. Any other side shows or distractions need to be put to the side.

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