Elections Aren't About Compromise— They're About Power... Let the Consultants Burn

We Don’t Need Permission to Fight for What’s Right

“The people who really decided the 2024 election, wrote Kali Holloway, are the ones who didn’t vote at all— and they could hold the key to a Democratic comeback. Holloway urges Democrats to dump the consultant class, which has gotten spectacularly wealthy and delivered disaster to the Democrats who generally only win despite them— in blue wave elections. “Ignore party grandee James Carville’s lashing out at what he derisively mislabeled as the Democrats’ ‘identity shit,’ she wrote. Print out— then soak in gasoline and set aflame— the memo by Seth London,   adviser to rich Democratic donors, demanding a ‘complete rejection of race-and-group-based identity politics’ in favor of ‘a politics centered on delivering the American dream through simple, concrete action.’ What, with all due respect, the fuck are these people talking about? Harris already ran the ‘un-woke’ campaign her critics wanted. Her downplaying of race and gender was so pronounced, it became a theme of campaign reporting. She bent over backwards to court ‘Cheney Republicans’ and other supposed swing voters. In the end less than 6 percent of self-identified Republicans voted for her,” Democrats having spent their resources “chasing voters who fled the party as the ink was drying on the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

Holloway’s point is that “The Democrats’ takeaway from Trump’s victory should be that a party’s political priorities must resonate with the identities of its base. But they have fundamentally misunderstood this assignment, yet again. The consequences of that misunderstanding— or refusal to understand— were reflected in 2024’s turnout, when, by some estimates, a staggering 19 million people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 stayed home. It’s not that Dem voters became Republican en masse this election. In fact, in ‘nearly a third of the top 50 counties that flipped from Democrat to Republican, Trump’s vote actually declined from his 2020 numbers,’… Trump increased his vote total by just 2.8 million over 2020. The far bigger problem was Harris’s nearly 7 million vote shortfall compared with Biden four years ago.”

Every four years, our politics come to revolve around the elusive “swing voter,” who is presumed to be white, right-leaning, and moderate. Democrats spend untold amounts of time and money chasing this cohort, and the media spends equally large amounts of time covering it.

But these numbers prove that the real swing voters aren’t white independents who switch parties every four years. They’re voters who swing between going to the polls and staying home— and they are disproportionately from groups that form the Democratic base. That’s why Democrats’ lack of commitment to that base— and, by extension, to multiracial democracy— is a fatal mistake.

…The lack of curiosity about these voters’ choices reflects an assumption that white voters are thoughtful actors making discerning political choices, while voters of color are rote and unthinking. It also lends itself to the neglectful treatment that helped cost Democrats the election.

…This isn’t about chasing well-off, college-educated white liberals at the expense of anyone else. It’s about a coalition that spans race and class, uniting white liberals and working-class voters of all races who share economic and social priorities. It is entirely possible to forge a political movement that not only honors diverse identity groups but also creates solidarity across difference— and then gets those groups to the polls. This isn’t pandering; it’s strategy. It’s also how you build a movement that can win elections and maybe even change things for the better.

…All in all, nearly 90 million people didn’t vote in the 2024 election. That’s roughly 36 percent of eligible voters— more people than voted for either Harris or Trump, and in line with rates of non-participation going back nearly a century. Studies have found that almost half of Americans are inconsistent in whether they show up to vote from one presidential election to the next. There are also chronic nonvoters, who have voted in, at most, only one of the past six national elections. Sixty-two percent of them have less than a college degree, and 44 percent earn $50,000 or less. 

…Studies have repeatedly failed to find that TV and online ads, robocalls, or postcards boost turnout or sway voters in any real sense. A 2017 study from political scientists David Broockman and Joshua Kalla estimated that campaign ads had— wait for it— zero effect on voting decisions.

Instead, research dating back to 2000 shows that the most effective way to get people to the polls— including chronic nonvoters— is with direct personal contact. Even a single in-person conversation with potential voters can increase turnout by up to nine points, according to political scientists Alan Gerber and Donald Green. But these conversations need to be “high quality,” as Broockman and Kalla put it—not rote deployments of canned lines.

Political scientist Melissa Michelson wrote in 2020 that “for low-income citizens of color, it is very rare to have someone knock on the door for the sole purpose of urging them to vote. When such an unexpected interaction occurs, it can be very meaningful.” The effect can also be contagious, increasing turnout among other household members by as much as 60 percent. The Harris campaign, though, took a traditional approach— one centered around targeting presumed “likely voters” with expensive ads. Most of the more than $1 billion Harris raised was spent on advertising. Salon found that ad buys cost the campaign nearly $700 million; outside groups spent a staggering $2.5 billion on ads.

But, as a string of reports show, even that outreach was hampered by the Democrats’ apparent lack of interest in their base. In September, NOTUS reported that while Biden’s 2020 campaign had spent over $70 million on Black media, the Harris campaign was on track to spend “considerably less.” (Harris, the outlet said, had instructed her staff to increase funding, but with little response.)

…Utilizing identity politics isn’t about reducing people to their race, gender, or sexuality. It’s about recognizing, and speaking to, the ways identity intersects with entrenched economic and social realities. This doesn’t distract from “real issues.” For plenty of marginalized groups, the way institutions and systems respond to their identities is a very real issue; their existence is itself politicized, and thus deserves political attention. Identity politics aren’t a diversion. They’re actually essential to any hope we have of addressing inequality.

Democrats have long tiptoed around this reality, chasing some elusive “middle” instead of directly engaging the communities that make up their base. But history proves that ignoring identity doesn’t erase inequality— it just defers to power. Vague calls to unity mean nothing. But you know what does? Fully supporting policies that acknowledge the specific struggles of marginalized communities and include them in a shared vision for the future.

“We have a lot of people for whom identity is a very important part of what animates our politics. Why are we hedging? Lean into it loud and proud,” Allison told me. “The way we heard white nationalist rhetoric from Trump and MAGA? They leaned heavily into the worst kind of identity politics. But there is a far better, more inclusive, more representative alternative.”

We saw this in 2020. Black women organizers, especially in the South, were finally recognized for the years of tireless, thankless groundwork they had laid to ensure a Democratic presidential victory. Georgia not only swung to Biden but also handed Democrats the Senate. The many Black women organizers who had carried this heavy load— like Aimee Allison, LaTosha Brown, and, most prominently, Stacey Abrams— were hailed as heroines in endless, borderline-patronizing retrospectives.

…The right’s ground game feeds into church networks, media ecosystems, and college groups— all spaces that reinforce belonging year-round. Democrats should be doing the same, embedding in the places where supporters live, work, and socialize, ensuring that identity-driven outreach isn’t just cynically performative but woven into the heart of their political movement. This work happens at the grassroots community level. The party should support it in every way, including with its dollars.

Conventional wisdom, even when repeatedly proven ineffective— combined with good old white supremacy— quashes innovation and risk-taking. But campaigns are more than just political operations; their messaging reverberates beyond the ballot box, shaping the broader culture.

A retreat from advocacy for equality and justice, which is exactly what so many Dems are suggesting is the “safe” path right now, doesn’t just weaken the political fight— it signals that those values are negotiable.

The reports about the Harris campaign’s priorities and expenditures suggest that much of what was learned from the success of Abrams and other organizers in 2020 has already been forgotten. The NY Times reported that organizers in Georgia were warning about a return to form among moneyed Democratic Party forces, with donors pulling back funds. In January 2024, The Times reported that Fair Fight, the Abrams-founded voting rights organization, was “laying off most of its staff and scaling back its efforts in response to mounting debts incurred by court battles.”

That does not bode well. Neither does a March 2025 report from Politico about a group of “moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders” who gathered that February to chart the party’s future— but instead drafted a backward-looking blueprint for its demise. The strategy included proposals to “embrace patriotism,” “be more accepting of masculinity and male voters who feel alienated from the party,” and, at the top of the list, “move away from identity politics.”

Billed as a “Comeback Retreat,” the whole event was hosted by the aggressively centrist Third Way, a think tank bankrolled by corporations, billionaires, and finance titans that spends most of its time attacking progressives. It would have been less time-consuming to draft a memo that simply said “Merge with MAGA,” but I guess everyone enjoys a nice off-site.

Progressives don’t win by pretending to be moderates. We win by offering people something real. Not consultant-approved slogans or vague appeals to “norms,” but policies that actually change lives: a livable minimum wage. Medicare for All. A ceasefire and a free Palestine. Student debt cancellation. Green union jobs. Housing as a human right. The kind of platform that makes people believe voting is worth it.

We don’t inspire turnout by chasing mythical swing voters who still miss Reagan or even Clinton— we do it by making working people feel seen. We do it by standing for justice, not triangulation.

Ignore the scolds telling you to sit down and wait your turn. We need to run, organize, primary, fight. Otherwise we’re stuck with the crap we have now. This is the time to take the wheel back from the grifters and the ghosts of Clintonism. We don’t need more “middle-of-the-road” campaigns that drive straight into a ditch. We’ve seen where that road goes— record inequality, climate collapse, endless war, and the rise of fascism wrapped in a flag.

We need a movement. One that listens more to the picket line than the donor class. One that welcomes people in instead of writing them off as “too idealistic.” One that doesn’t apologize for giving a damn.

And it starts in the primaries.