Heart Me Out, part II

How an unpopular president can still win the fight against fascism, and what that has to do with the queens of classic rock.

This is the second, and final, piece in a series about Democrats’ strategy in the 2024 election cycle. In part one, I detailed the Biden administration’s successes, shortcomings, and one noteworthy area of horrifying ethical malpractice. Despite an all-but-guaranteed reelection matchup against the twice-impeached, four-times-indicted, racist, misogynist, traitorous, rapist, buffoon Donald Trump, the current president finds himself underwater in the polls. How can Democrats fend off the authoritarian aims of MAGA Republicans with an unpopular incumbent at the top of the ticket? In a weird way, this reminded me of growing up in the 1980’s - the peak of the MTV era - when video producers used every trick in the book to hide Heart lead singer Ann Wilson after she gained a few pounds. Again, for the record, I think such misogynistic body-shaming was both wrong and unnecessary - Ann Wilson is a rock goddess. But if you think about this November’s Democratic ticket as a rock & roll band, and OUR frontman’s greatest offense - aiding Netanyahu’s genocidal offensive on Gaza - is FAR more consequential than gaining a little weight, getting voters to look at everything but the man at the top becomes imperative.

This shouldn’t be close. According to a CNN article from a few years ago, “polling shows the majority of the public usually backs policy positions preferred by the Democratic Party.” On the environment, taxes & wealth inequality, gun control, immigration & border policy, healthcare, abortion, and LGBTQ+ rights, the progressive position is more popular. Republicans were favored only on crime and this nebulous idea of “the economy.” Moreover, even on those issues, Biden and his surrogates can point to violent and property crime falling to near 50-year lows while the US economy has appeared to achieve a “soft landing,” avoiding a recession and growing faster than any other advanced economy in the world.

With Donald Trump as the leader of the party, Republicans have underperformed in the last three general elections. Democrats captured the House of Representatives in 2018 with massive turnout, flipping 40 seats. In 2020, a record 81 million voters came out for Biden, while Republicans again lost the House and this time gave up their advantage in the Senate - squandering two seats in historically-conservative Georgia. Finally, Trump dragged down Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms, costing the GOP the Senate by endorsing extreme candidates and preventing an expected red wave in the House. The former host of The Apprentice is a proven loser at the ballot box, his belligerent brand of faux populism toxic to the overwhelming majority of Americans.

With Republican policies and personalities so unpopular, Democrats should be set up to romp in November. Yet, between the never-ending questions about his age, and his complicity in the Gaza genocide, Biden could very well drag the whole ticket down this fall. Should he change his mind and drop out now? Should the party replace him at the convention? No and no. Look, if Old Joe was going to step aside and turn leadership over to a new generation, the time to announce it was last year. It’s far too late to launch an effective national campaign. As Gene Hackman’s Coach Norman Dale said in Hoosiers, “my team is on the floor” and our job, as people who give a damn about democracy, is to guide that shorthanded team to victory - and we damn well better get it right because our republic itself is on the line. Already wounded by attacks from within and without, our institutions flail. The predator autocracy lurks like a…

Barracuda

Trump’s merry band of traitors and insurrectionists caused bloodshed on January 6, 2021. Now, the oligarchs and Christian Nationalists behind this movement are circling our wounded democracy, ready to pick its bones for profit and power. These bloodthirsty beasts do not kill with razor-sharp teeth, but with a systemic plan to remake the federal government in an authoritarian image.

Project 2025 - concocted by the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing’s biggest think tank - is a multimillion-dollar scheme to “recruit, train and plant MAGA operatives throughout the government, and arm them with clear marching orders.” The plan, which has been described as a “fast road to fascism,” contains four major elements:

• Mandate for Leadership is a nearly 1,000-page document with plans to overhaul every department and agency in government.

• A personnel database of potential staffers and appointees, pre-vetted by questionnaires “designed to test the sincerity of someone's MAGA credentials and determine ‘when you got red-pilled,’ or became a true believer.”

• A presidential administration academy, an online training module for those red-pilled true believers, “to prepare and equip future political appointees now to be ready on Day One of the next conservative Administration.”

• The Playbook is a secret compendium of executive orders intended to be used in the first six months of a second Trump term.

First, Dictator Donald would reinstate the “Schedule F” executive order, which he signed in October 2020 and President Biden rescinded shortly after assuming office. This order would redesignate up to 50,000 federal employees as political appointees, rather than nonpartisan civil servants, allowing them to be fired and replaced with loyalists - the ones in their personnel database, who had gone through their academy. This new class of lackeys would be responsible for implementing the policy recommendations made in the Mandate for Leadership. Career bureaucrats thwarted Trump’s most egregious plans during his first term. Project 2025 would remove those roadblocks. According to GOP strategist Russell Vought, “what we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” scrapping the merit-based order in favor of the old “spoils system” and fully implementing the “unitary executive theory” popularized by Vice President Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration.

If this sounds horrifying - it should - and the people of this country object and protest in any kinds of numbers, Trump, his closest advisors and allies already have plans to invoke the Insurrection act - “a law that gives the president nearly unchecked powers to use the military as a domestic police force.” These people are so horny for power they’ve lost their damn minds. They want to kill Americans. They’ll start with immigrants and trans people; they’ll come for Muslims and atheists; eventually, they’ll go…

Crazy on You

So, with dissent eliminated and an army of loyal footsoldiers installed throughout government, what are their marching orders? Historian Thomas Zimmer describes the seemingly-contradictory objectives of the Mandate thusly,

“Broadly speaking, there are two dimensions to what “Project 2025” envisions: On one level, this is a radical program to dismantle the modern state. Certainly, the Right wants to rob the executive and the administrative state of any kind of tool that might be used to install boundaries for moneyed interests or help create a fairer pluralistic society. At the same time, however, they are also planning to weaponize and mobilize certain parts of the state.”

Again, these goals appear to conflict at first glance, but Zimmer goes on to explain that the two major factions of the modern American right would each get what they want. The economic libertarian, free-market fundamentalist faction gets to dismantle the regulatory agencies that would constrain their worst impulses, while the reactionary, racist, Christian nationalist faction gets to turn the rest of government against their perceived enemies - women, racial minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, non-Christians, and their allies.

Project 2025 targets the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI for - God forbid - doing their jobs. These independent agencies - that presidents of both parties worked hard after Watergate to depoliticize - have prosecuted Trump and his fellow insurrectionists. The conservative solution: bring them under direct control of the president, allowing the executive to quash justified investigations into their corruption and turn the agencies against their political rivals and perceived enemies. Among those enemies, anyone sending abortion medications by mail.

Hostility to women’s freedom permeates the entire document. A politicized Food & Drug Administration (FDA) could deem the drugs used for medication abortions unsafe and illegal while encouraging “fertility awareness–based methods” of birth control instead of, you know, effective medications. The authors of Mandate would turn the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) into, “the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care” and task the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with promoting “family formation,” producing medical misinformation about the health and psychological effects of abortion, and collecting data on “abortion tourism.”

The CDC would further be neutered by dividing it into two separate agencies and reducing their input into policymaking. Conservatives, still upset the agency attempted to SAVE THEIR LIVES in the early days of COVID, would turn the organization tasked with providing sound public health information into an Orwellian upside-down farce unable to recommend masking or vaccines. In true “2+2=5” fashion, these far-right agitators accuse the CDC of trampling human rights and medical choice by advising people to avoid crowded indoor spaces - including churches - in the early days of the pandemic, while not being concerned enough with “souls saved”.

As much as the project drips with hostility to women’s rights, its tone regarding the LGBTQ+ community is downright eliminationist. The authors advocate “deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (‘SOGI’), diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive right […] out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” They would write gender binarism into the federal code, codify the “nuclear family” as the only acceptable environment for child-rearing, ban gender-affirming care, and criminalize anything they deem pornographic- a wide definition including everything from hardcore porn all the way to drag performances and children’s books that include gay characters.

Federally-endorsed discrimination wouldn’t end at the queer community. Racial minorities will also find themselves in the crosshairs. Project 2025 frames all DEI efforts as “vehicle[s] with which to advance race, sex, and other classifications and discriminate against conservative and religious viewpoints,” and calls to eliminate such programs throughout the federal government. The Mandate also demands and end to “Racial Classifications and Critical Race Theory (CRT), the elimination of all Equal Employment Opportunity protections, and the banning of “anti-American ahistorical propaganda” (i.e. actual American history with all the unsavory parts included).

Scary stuff, but I could go on and on. The authors of this manifesto would aggressively use the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to basically put evangelical Christians above the law so as not to interfere with the “free exercise” of their religion. They would use military force to implement hardline immigration policies (e.g. camps, the kind where large numbers of people are concentrated), end any and all policies designed to mitigate climate change, destroy public education in favor of for-profit and religious education, and make the US a global pariah by withdrawing from the UN, WTO, IMF, and OECD.

This extreme, Christian nationalist vision for the future should be enough to scare every American who values real freedom and democracy to the polls in November. But, fear alone is not enough. Biden and the Democrats need to present a contrasting positive, aspirational vision for the future.

These Dreams

The brilliant communications strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio, analyzing President Biden’s recent State of the Union address on CNN, implored Biden’s team to make this election “a confrontation between two different futures.” Her testing suggests framing this election as a contest between the individuals Trump and Biden doesn’t move the needle - here are two flawed, elderly men. What does flip the switch for voters is presenting them with two contrasting visions for their future, their children’s future, the country’s future.

With Project 2025, the authoritarians at the Heritage Foundation have done half of the work for us. They’ve painted a vivid picture of the dystopian future they envision - one where a cadre of white, wealthy, nominally Christian men dominate the rest of us. Democrats MUST put forward an answer to this extreme platform, and you won’t believe who I suggest they borrow from.

In 1994, Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich introduced the Contract with America. This document detailed a set of reforms and bills Republicans promised to introduce if given a majority in that year’s midterm election. All but two GOP House candidates that year signed the pledge. Never mind that the Contract was full of terrible ideas, that most of the plan was never implemented, and that Gingrich is more responsible for the toxic state of modern American politics than just about anybody else. That’s not the point here. The point is electoral success. It was a brilliant political gambit and Republicans flipped both chambers of Congress that year.

This year, Democrats should do something similar. If Biden is unpopular, hide him behind an ambitious party platform. Highlight the extremism of Project 2025 and run against it. Present, like Shenker-Osorio said, two competing visions of the future. Offer the American people the future of their dreams instead of the fascistic nightmare envisioned in the Mandate for Leadership.

I even have a name for the platform: Freedom 250. Our nation’s 250th birthday is just two years away and the best gift we can give her is renewal. In the years leading up to her 100th birthday in 1986, the National Park Service undertook a major restoration of the Statue of Liberty. The foundations of our very democracy are crumbling and in need of similar repair. Republicans plan to blow the whole thing up and rebuild a dictatorship where it once stood. Democrats must present the blueprint for a thorough remodel, and it must address all of the following:

• Freedom to Vote: the aptly-named Freedom to Vote Act is a good framework here. It would set national standards for guaranteed early voting, automatic voter registration, vote-by-mail, hand-marked paper ballots, and prevent voter purges. Additionally, it would mandate fair maps for Congressional districts and end gerrymandering forever. It also seeks to reduce the influence of money in politics by prohibiting secret contributions, upgrading transparency in ads, creating a small-donor matching system, and strengthening the FEC. Furthermore, freedom for one’s vote to count equally in a presidential election should be included as a call to eliminate the Electoral College.

• Freedom over one’s body: it is imperative the next administration move to protect both women’s rights and LGBTQ rights. Framing it this way does both, and has the added benefit of having broad support. Freedom to choose one’s own reproductive future is incredibly popular with the citizenry. Over 60% of Americans think overturning Roe v. Wade was the wrong decision, that abortion should be legal in most circumstances and over 90% support access to birth control. Eight in ten support no-fault divorce and over 70% support same-sex marriage. Even on the contentious issue of trans rights, 57% of Americans support gender-affirming care for transgender adults. Pushing to finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment also wouldn’t hurt.

• Freedom from gun violence: a comprehensive gun control bill including nationwide background checks, red-flag laws, an assault weapons ban, and concealed carry laws. Even gun owners overwhelmingly support most of these.

• Freedom from medical and educational bankruptcy: we must finally go all-in on universal healthcare like every other advanced country in the world and go back to the kind of free public higher education we had until the late 1960’s. Neither medical debt nor student loan should exist.

• Freedom from economic domination: the federal government must work to reduce economic inequality, which is a threat to democracy in its own right. To do this, policies should include a wealth tax and/or reverting to pre-Reagan top marginal tax rates, aggressive antitrust enforcement, re-outlawing stock buybacks, and empowering labor unions by passing the PRO Act. Additionally, the major components of Build Back Better that were left out of the Inflation Reduction Act (paid family & medical leave, universal pre-K, subsidized childcare, expanded child tax credit) should be implemented.

It is my firm belief that a campaign built on these incredibly popular policies would appeal to the vast majority of Americans, especially if the platform itself is centered, rather than Biden himself. The problem is, far too many of the citizens of this country don’t understand how government works. They don’t understand that a president can’t snap their fingers and make law, that Congressional action is required, that so many of the policies that affect our daily lives are set at the state and local levels. Therefore, the most important part of this entire gambit is Democrats being honest with the electorate about these limitations and using this to drive turnout in down-ballot races.

Straight On

Recall the debate over the Affordable Care Act in 2009 when Connecticut Senator (and former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee) Joe Lieberman single-handedly killed a public health insurance option. Then, as I mentioned waaaay back at the beginning of Part I, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema spiked the most ambitious parts of Biden’s agenda in 2021. Disillusion with Democrats is understandable - it seems they always overpromise and underdeliver. It is important the party acknowledge this publicly, apologize, and then make it right.

Just as Republicans all signed on to Gingrich’s Contract with America in 1994, Democrats up and down the ballot must commit publicly to support the full Freedom 250 plan. And, they must vow to fight for the entirety of the plan using ANY LEGAL MEANS NECESSARY. Filibuster reform, replacing the parliamentarian, admitting new states, changing the composition of the Supreme Court - all must be on the table in order to save democracy. We must convince the population there aren’t more Liebermans, Manchins, and Sinemas sneaking in under the Democratic banner who then double-cross their voters.

Only with everybody on board can Democrats run as a bloc with this bold platform at the center. Biden and the DNC have a massive cash advantage over Republicans, who are hemorrhaging money on Trump’s legal troubles. Don’t waste this trying to convince everybody they love Biden. Use this money to advertise the Democratic brand, promote the visionary Freedom 250 agenda, and hide the unpopular incumbent behind it But there is one final component: tell the people exactly what we need to enact each piece.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Biden said, “if Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again!” This is an okay start, but let’s tell the citizens of this country exactly what we to achieve each goal.

If parts of the platform can be enacted by executive order, say so. Other parts probably require legislative action. Admit this and say that’s why we need a Democratic Congress. Would a filibuster prevent our ambitions? That’s why we have to have 50+ Senate candidates signed on, committed to ditch that old parliamentary relic, or 60+ otherwise. Ratifying the ERA or eliminating the Electoral College require amending the Constitution. Fine! Go big! Ask the American people to give Democrats a two-thirds majority in each house of Congress and challenge them to deliver three-fourths of state legislatures. Is that achievable? Probably not. But I am convinced it would increase turnout, increase straight ticket voting, and deliver enough wins at the state and Congressional levels to meaningfully change the balance of power. I’m not a fan of Norman Vincent Peale, but his quote, “shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars," applies here.

The Road Home

Let’s bring this thing home. In summary, Democrats have a Joe Biden problem. Just as Heart’s management team fretted over how to hide their slightly-overweight lead singer in the “image is everything” era of 1980’s MTV (for the last time - she’s a goddess, the industry is needlessly cruel, and they shouldn’t have done this), liberals fret over Biden’s poll numbers and must find a way to make this election about something other than him.

I’ve laid out the stakes - conservatives have a detailed, aggressive plan to remake the country in their Christian nationalist, patriarchal, plutocratic image - and proposed a solution. We can’t hide Old Joe with camera trickery, flowing black dresses, and funhouse mirrors. Democrats can’t just park Biden behind a piano and ignore him - this is the President of the United States. But, we can focus the crowd’s attention on something sexier - in this case a bold, progressive, small-d democratic future.

And I think this would be a winning strategy no matter the circumstances. Look, Biden’s accomplished a lot of good things so far in his term. He’s an accomplished frontman, and his overall body of work should stand on its own. But, damn, it’s hard to overlook that big, fat, ugly ethnic cleansing he’s aiding and abetting. I’m resigned to the fact Democrats head into perhaps the most consequential election in this nation’s history with an unpopular Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. I’ve offered what I think is winning strategy. But still, it wouldn’t hurt to drop the weight.

THE WEIGHT