No, both parties are not extreme. It's the GOP that is a maximalist, winner-take-all cult that leaves no room for middle ground.
Our job is to help break through the lies and the propaganda so voters better understand exactly what today’s GOP promises to do in a second Trump term.
I have been traveling and speaking to voters I don’t normally meet. I met many who are all in for Kamala Harris, who understand the threat that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement pose to our nation. But I also met many people who told me that both parties have become extreme. I met others who describe themselves as moderates, who said Democrats do not understand business and are lax about law and order- whether that’s in our cities or on the border. I wondered whether the things I hear represented something important or were merely a kind of sampling error.
Any doubts vanished when NBC released a new poll this weekend showing voters think Donald Trump would be better than Kamala Harris on the economy, securing the border, the cost of living, and dealing with crime.
Nor can we take comfort that Kamala Harris is leading in national polls or that it has been twenty years since a Republican has won the popular vote for President. Doesn’t matter. The electoral college system is a flaw in our democracy that gives large advantages to the GOP. That’s why it will not be sufficient just to turn out our base.
Taken together, the need to win votes beyond our traditional base and public opinion that seems to trust the GOP more on big issues like the economy, you can expect pundits and operatives alike to urge Democrats to tack to the middle. In today’s world, that is dangerous counsel.
America no longer has left of center and right of center political parties. Instead, we have a Democratic Party organized around policies and interests that could once have been described as left of center and a GOP organized as a cult of personality. There is no middle between them. The polling, and much of what I heard talking to voters, is an artifact of the most powerful propaganda machine ever built. Instead of pretending there’s a middle we can find, it is time to break through the lies.
Let’s start be asking if it would be a good idea for Democrats, and for Americans generally, to adopt some of the GOP’s positions to get to this fabled middle ground. It would not. The GOP’s plans for the economy are appalling. They amount to this: let corporations decide how to regulate themselves, let corporations and the wealthy pay less tax than workers. Their ideas on border security are radical beyond words. Instead of passing legislation to fund border security and to hear asylum cases in a timely manner, they plan to raid homes and workplaces to find undocumented immigrants, to put them in concentration camps, and ultimately to expel 11 million people. There is no middle ground between our ideas and these.
It’s a myth to think of today’s GOP as a right of center party. It is a maximalist, winner take all cult that leaves no room for a negotiated middle ground that balances all our interests. Just consider the difference between the last Democratically controlled Congress and the current GOP-led one. When Democrats were in charge, they compromised with Republicans where possible and we got an infrastructure bill, the CHIPS Act, and more. Republicans gave Democrats not a single vote on things like Inflation Reduction Act. When Republicans took charge of the House . . . well, this session is the least productive, in terms of legislation, than any Congress in modern times. That’s because their legislative agenda is about locking in power rather than lifting people up. There is no middle.
Many of the people I talked with see Donald Trump as deeply flawed, but say they are voting for his policies, not him. Before you boil over with indignation, recall that it was not that long ago that many Democrats were saying that Joe Biden might be too old, but governing is a team effort, and the policies he championed were what mattered. It is okay to worry about your candidate without abandoning your party.
There is nothing wrong with the logic. The problem is the information.
Too many voters do not know what today’s GOP promises to do. Many will head to the polls innocently assuming the GOP plans cannot be as destructive as those of us who study them know them to be. They will cast ballots not knowing what Democrats promise to do, or even what Democrats have done.
Educating voters is hard in a normal environment. This cycle is far from normal. We have made some progress damaging the GOP’s firewall of propaganda and lies, but it is still a powerful machine. Instead of pretending there’s a middle, we should redouble efforts to reclaim the truth for Americans.
So what does this mean in practical terms?
First, even though it will not be enough just to turn out our base, it is imperative that we all show up and vote:
Check your own registration and make a plan to vote as early as you are allowed.
Volunteer to help with turnout. Click here for ways to do that.
Next, help the rest of the country break through the lies and the propaganda.
Reach out to news organizations - NY Times, Washington Post, and your local news organizations - to demand that they drop their paywalls between now and the election. As flawed as their coverage has been, these organizations still deliver a great deal of important information voters need.
Contribute to Courier News Room and States Newsroom. These organizations have news outlets across America doing important local and national coverage, and they are not pay-walled. Their mission is to get the news to people who need it.
Remind major American brands not to support disinformation with their online ads. You can do this easily at Check My Ads.
Make a list of 43 people- 1 for each day between now and the election- and call one each day. If there are some on your list who are not eager to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot, listen to them, and help them find access to the information they need to learn the facts. If, on the other hand, they are eager to help, share all of this with them.
Don’t wait. Do it now.