3 steps for Democrats to recover from the 2024 election
For my fellow Democrats, the stages of electoral grief have begun. First, the pulverizing shock. Then, the deep confusion. Finally, the burning questions, spreading across cable news green rooms like wildfire.
How could anyone vote for him? What kind of country have we become? What went wrong? And what country should I move to?
We’ve gone from a campaign of “joy” to the vacant humming of the old R.E.M. song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” — except without believing the parenthetical.
It has been said that societies and organizations confronting crushing defeats ask two variations of the same question: “What went wrong, and whom should we blame?” or “What went wrong, and how do we fix this?”
I prefer to fix it. Here are my three steps for how Democrats can recover from Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
First, stop feeding into the narrative about the end of democracy. The most important guardrail will remain intact: the midterm elections, which are historically brutal for the sitting president’s party.
This year's election was a referendum on the Biden economy. The midterm of 2026 will be a referendum on Trump. There will be fewer people like Gen. James Mattis, Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. John Kelly — who were able to manage an erratic, impulsive commander in chief — in place this time around. Loyalty to Trump will be valued over loyalty to democratic institutions. That means there is high likelihood of bad political decisions, leading the Trump administration to push beyond the tolerance of many voters.
So, Democrats, stop agonizing about 2024, and start organizing for 2026. Start recruiting, fundraising and targeting. It beats the wringing of hands and the pointing of fingers.
Second, “embrace the suck.” Two of the most important political books I have read are “Warrior Politics” by Robert Kaplan and “Meditations” by the Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Kaplan writes about the principle of “constructive pessimism” — understanding just how bad human nature and the course of events can be, in order to envision and implement effective responses. Joy and optimism don’t always work against the darkest laws of human nature.
On the morning after the election, I read an essay by John Krakauer that put my own despair into perspective. It applies the second law of thermodynamics to politics. The law stipulates that the entropy of a system will always increase. As Krakauer writes, “deterioration, disarray and disintegration are written into the cosmic bargain. Things fall apart. The center cannot hold.”
Feel better? Well, the silver lining in the dystopian principle is that it leaves room for resilience, adaptation, solutions. Krakauer’s example is that an ice cube must melt in a hot beverage, but always holds form in a freezer.
It may be that we’ve entered a political cycle where the norms of democracy feel as if they’re, well, melting. The convergence of 9/11, the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic may have halted a nearly century-long global political cycle of expanded rights, safeguarded liberal democracy and expanding efforts to promote economic fairness. Yes, the world is changing.
Refusing to adapt to reality is naive and counterproductive. Blaming voters for supporting melted ice (not necessarily climate-ravaged glaciers) is hubris. Preaching to them is condescending. It is vital to acknowledge and even embrace what is behind their anxieties when everything around them seems to be changing.
Master the cycle, Democrats. Not just the midterms, but the long, grueling, inevitable cycles of nature.
That brings me to my third step for recovery: Accept the lessons of defeat. When Democrats strum our “Ode to Joy,” it seems tone deaf to cash-strapped families struggling to handle everyday expenses.
Lecturing about democracy disregards a dark lesson of history: people usually choose economic security over democratic integrity. Trump knows a market when he sees one. He scans, targets and attacks the soft spots in our socioeconomic system. He gets the amygdala going by using our own words against us.
Call the problem anything you want — wokeism, liberal elitism, technocracy. Democrats need to relearn how to speak to these voters and make them feel we’re prepared to address their problems.
I get it that this all sounds bleak. And besides, the second law of thermodynamics and constructive pessimism seem, by themselves, abstract compared voter anxieties about inflation and immigration.
But there are real-world examples of Democrats following these lessons to success — embracing the suck and running races that won the hearts and minds of voters.
Rep. Jared Golden (D) in Maine, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D) in Washington, Laura Gillen (D) in New York and Rep. Angie Craig (D) in Minnesota all managed to run ahead of Harris in strongly pro-Trump districts. They bucked the tide, and their resilience will help build resistance to the worst Trump has to offer.
That’s it, Democrats. Enough grief and second-guessing. Prepare to win the midterm cycle. Embrace the challenges of the longer-term cycle. Use the hard-fought lessons to fight more effectively in the future.
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
Steve Israel represented New York in the House of Representatives for eight terms and was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2011 to 2015.