For those who don’t watch or care at all about football, hang with me a second. I am not really writing about sports. For those who do follow football, a prime example that will make the point I have been thinking about recently just happened this weekend. So what happened?
If you follow the Green Bay Packers at all, you could come up with a list of blown chances over the years. Games they should have won, but didn’t. I won’t list them here, but there is literally a “Top Ten” list, and they did it again this past Saturday. They get a huge lead, start playing conservative, and instead of playing to win, they start playing not to lose. And they lost. I am picking on the Packers here, but I know every team has their own list like this, and it doesn’t just happen in football.
The Democratic Party is doing this right now. Recent elections have shown how campaigning towards what the people are asking for can work. The Republican Party is in power, and because of the awful way they are leading this country, and many states, they are hugely unpopular. And those who have run campaigns that promote policies that actually would help the people voting have seen a lot of success.
New York City, New Jersey, Virginia, Miami, and even Des Moines Iowa have all had elections recently that prove the point. Every one of these races saw a very large shift to the left, which in the horse race dialog of politics is the same as saying the Democrats have a pretty good lead heading into the mid term elections later this year.
But the Democratic leaders are playing this like the Packers did this past weekend. Conservative, safe, trying to stay in some kind of center that I don’t think exists anymore. They are playing not to lose, and could end up costing all of us our country. Chuck Schumer never endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor. Hakeem Jeffries did, but very late in the game, after getting a lot of pressure. I read articles saying about Mamdani “sure he can campaign as a Democratic Socialist in New York, but he couldn’t do that in Virginia.” Ok, fine. He wasn’t running for office in Virginia, so what’s the point? He was running in New York, and he heard what the New York people were saying. And yet the Democratic establishment kept their distance, trying to hedge, playing it safe.
I would like to make a point here. The overlap between those who voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary in 2016 and Donald Trump in the November election the same year is not a small number. And many who voted for Trump in 2024 did so because they are not doing well in this country, and he promised them he would make their lives better. Yes, these are low information voters, and even though it is hard for many of us to understand since we fully know who Donald Trump is, and that he has no intention of helping anyone but himself, they voted for who they thought was going to do something for them. There are many who believe that Bernie Sanders would have beat Trump in 2016, if he had been allowed to run. But the Democratic party played it safe, and lost a close race. Just like the Packers.
I believe this country is ready for change. We are tired of the money in politics, tired of the top 1% getting richer every year while we tread water or worse, tired of getting the crumbs while doing all the work. “We The People” have been getting continuously lied to and cheated for the past 40 plus years, and even though the country is very divided about the cause for their anger, the anger is there across the political spectrum.
The Republican party is now a fully white nationalist Nazi party. They are not even trying to hide it anymore. So ask yourself, if that is one of your choices, what should the other one be? Something in the so called “center”, still largely beholden to the corporate class, not wanting to rock the boat at all by making promises that they never intend to keep because their donors won’t allow it? Or should we play to win, and try something that is committed to equality, justice, and prosperity for all? Make promises that could be kept about fairness in taxes, universal health care, improved social safety nets, and many other things that we know can be done because they have been done in so many other countries around the world.
In other words PLAY TO WIN! Demand your Democratic candidates stop playing it safe, and listen to what their constituents want. WE WANT CHANGE and if you won’t fight for that, then get out of the way and let someone else call the plays.
Source: Substack
Author: Todd Warren
About the author: Todd Warren is a lead organizer with Indivisible QC, helping plan local actions, support coalition work, and connect new volunteers to meaningful ways to participate. He writes about organizing, democracy, economic fairness, and how communities build power through sustained, nonviolent action.
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