Resistance or Opposition: Which Route Should the Democrats Take? (From the Honestly Archives)

Summary

Breaking History: Episode Summary
Title: Resistance or Opposition: Which Route Should the Democrats Take?
Host/Author: The Free Press
Release Date: January 14, 2025

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Introduction: Trump’s Resounding Victory

The episode opens with a dramatic projection from Eli Lake, highlighting Donald Trump's unprecedented electoral triumph. Fox News Decision Desk officially projects Trump as the 47th President of the United States (00:06). Trump declares his victory as “a sweeping and stunning victory unlike any in our history” (00:18), emphasizing its profound and lasting impact on the nation.

Rachel Scott, who has been following the Trump campaign closely, underscores the magnitude of the win, noting Trump's control over the Senate, sweep of seven swing states, and significant support among Latino men (00:30). Trump himself attributes the victory to overcoming unimaginable obstacles, dubbing the election as “this crazy delirium” (00:52).

The Democratic Dilemma: Resistance vs. Opposition

Eli Lake shifts focus to the Democratic Party's predicament post-Trump victory. The traditional approach of mere opposition is deemed insufficient in the face of Trump’s unconventional and unpredictable leadership. Instead, Democrats have gravitated towards a strategy of resistance, integrating it deeply into their party’s DNA. This resistance approach has permeated all facets of liberal and progressive society, from talk show hosts to political figures like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was recently asked to leave a Virginia restaurant for her affiliations (02:58).

Lake draws a chilling parallel to 1939, comparing Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden to a pro-fascist rally supporting Adolf Hitler, highlighting the dangers of resistance politics morphing into authoritarianism (03:05).

Historical Context: The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) of the 1980s

Transitioning to history, Lake recounts the Democratic Party's near-collapse following Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in 1984 over Walter Mondale, where Mondale only won his home state of Minnesota and D.C. (07:16). Mondale's inability to transcend the demands of his own party's factions, such as the nuclear freeze movement, led to strategic missteps, including attacking Reagan's missile defense initiatives (08:43).

Enter Al Fromm and Will Marshall, who in 1985 founded the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) to steer the party towards the center. Fromm explains the creation of the DLC as an "entrepreneurial insurgent operation" aimed at unifying moderate Democrats and focusing on pragmatic policies rather than ideological extremes (09:31, 12:34).

Bill Clinton and the Revitalization of the Democratic Party

Bill Clinton emerges as the DLC’s champion, embodying the blend of policy expertise and charismatic communication needed to appeal to the working class. Clinton’s strategic rebuke of Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition during the 1992 election, known as the "Sister Soldier" moment, exemplifies his ability to distance the party from perceived radicalism and appeal to a broader electorate (20:07, 22:22).

Despite Clinton’s political maneuvers, his administration faced criticism for policies that ultimately sowed the seeds for future electoral challenges. For instance, the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a mentally impaired individual, was a controversial move aimed at showcasing toughness on crime but raised ethical concerns (32:08).

Lessons for Today’s Democrats: Embracing Opposition Over Resistance

Drawing parallels between the 1980s and the present, the episode emphasizes the Democratic Party’s need to shift from resistance politics to a more constructive opposition approach. Representative Richie Torres criticizes the far left’s influence within the party, arguing that policies like defunding the police alienate working-class voters who bear the brunt of such initiatives (26:24, 30:19).

Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna advocates for pragmatic governance, highlighting the importance of working with policies that benefit the majority, even if imperfect, to foster unity and progress (28:33). He stresses that “the American people want that” (28:40), emphasizing the electorate’s desire for healing and forward momentum rather than divisive rhetoric (28:40).

The Path Forward: Relearning and Rebuilding

The episode concludes by urging the Democratic Party to heed the historical lessons of the DLC and Clinton era. By ignoring the loudest pressure groups and focusing on policies that resonate with the broader electorate, Democrats can rebuild their coalition and regain political ground. Congressman Khanna reflects on the economic shifts of the 1990s, acknowledging past missteps and emphasizing the need for accountability: “The first thing a Democratic politician needs to say is we messed up” (34:18).

Eli Lake reinforces that embracing opposition over resistance is crucial for restoring credibility and appealing to voters’ practical concerns. He warns against labeling Trump as a fascist, noting that such rhetoric undermines the party’s stance and alienates potential supporters (31:12).

Conclusion: A Crossroads for the Democratic Party

As the episode wraps up, Lake underscores the Democrats' critical juncture: continue the prevailing resistance politics or adopt a new, persuasive opposition strategy centered on substantive policy proposals. He calls for the party to offer an agenda that voters find compelling, rather than engaging in performative resistance that echoes past failures.

Eli Lake closes with a call to action, encouraging listeners to engage in conversations and support the podcast to spread its insights on avoiding historical repetitions in contemporary politics (33:20).

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Notable Quotes with Attribution and Timestamps:

• Donald Trump (00:18): “It is a sweeping and stunning victory unlike any in our history.”
• Donald Trump (00:52): “We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. And it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing.”
• Al Fromm (09:31): “You know, I think it was in October of 1983. He basically got every group. And so from that sense, you could say Mondale, the most unified Democratic Party ever. The only people who didn't support him were the voters. To me, that was a big problem.”
• Rachel Scott (26:24): “The far left is pressuring the party to take positions that are deeply unpopular with the American people.”
• Representative Ro Khanna (28:37): “They are desperate in this country for some kind of healing, some kind of moving forward. I hope the President does it.”
• Al Fromm (19:12): “We believe the Democratic Party's fundamental mission is to expand opportunity, not government.”
• Donald Trump (31:51): “I spoke with President Elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory.”

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This episode of Breaking History delves deep into the historical and contemporary strategies of the Democratic Party, using the lens of past triumphs and failures to inform present-day political challenges. By juxtaposing the 1980s revival through the DLC with the current resistance approach, the podcast provides a comprehensive analysis of what the Democrats must do to reclaim their standing and effectively counter Trump's presidency.

Transcript

[Eli Lake]

The FOX News decision desk can now officially project that Donald Trump will become.

[Donald Trump]

The 47th president of the United States.

[Eli Lake]

Many of you sitting at home right now digesting this news right now, some of them will be you. I wish I had better news for my daughter later this morning.

[Donald Trump]

It is a sweeping and stunning victory unlike any in our history. Will be studied and debated for generations. The impact broad and deep. A turning point for the country. Rachel Scott has been on the road with the Trump campaign.

[Eli Lake]

She starts us off.

[Rachel Scott]

Good morning, Rachel.

[Eli Lake]

Well, that was a walloping. Even your most optimistic Mar A Lago member didn't see Donald Trump winning the popular vote, controlling the Senate and sweeping all seven swing states. He came within five points of taking New Jersey. More than half of Latino men voted for him.

[Donald Trump]

As he said, we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. And it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing. Look, what happened is this crazy delirium.

[Eli Lake]

For Maga, devastation for Harris Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer and the rest. There's no doubt about it, they've lost the nation. So what on earth does the Democratic Party do now? One approach would be to keep doing what they've been doing. Resist. I am unafraid to be nasty because I am nasty. Like Susan, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Amelia, Rosa, Gloria, Condoleezza, Sonia, Malala, Michelle, Hillary. That's what they did the last time Trump won. And our pussies ain't for grabbing. In the Aftermath of Trump's 2016 victory, America was stunned. There had never been a president so immune to normal analysis and as such, so unpredictable. Every time he opened his mouth, it seemed Donald Trump explained political norms and the Democratic Party responded in kind. Being a mere opposition party, at least at that moment for the Democrats, was not strong enough for the situation that they believed they were in. Instead, they needed to become the resistance. They built this idea of resistance into their DNA and it inspired and infected every aspect of liberal and progressive society, from talk show hosts. You know, Ivanka, that's a beautiful photo of you and your child. But let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless to dining establishments. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

[Rachel Scott]

Was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant Friday.

[Eli Lake]

The co owner of the Red Hen.

[Rachel Scott]

In Lexington, Virginia, Stephanie Wilkinson, told the.

[Eli Lake]

Washington Post her decision to ask Sanders to leave was based on the concerns of several employees. They've pursued Donald Trump through lawfare following the historic conviction of former President Donald Trump on all 34 counts. In the criminal hush money trial Trump becomes. They have likened him to history's worst monsters. Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden comes days after his own former chief of staff went on record to describe his former boss as a fascist. But that jamboree happening right now, you see it there on your screen in that place is particularly chilling because in 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so called pro America rally, a rally where speakers voiced anti Semitic rhetoric from a stage draped with Nazi banners. And while the Democrats won in 2020, the resistance ultimately did not work. Democrats spent a decade telling Americans that Trump was an existential threat and they just voted for him in overwhelming numbers. Their goal was to scrub Donald Trump from future history. Instead, he now controls it. So clearly, being a political party in perpetual outrage and high dudgeon was not the path to power. Let's be real. It was a total, unmitigated disaster. They put on a pink hat, declared a sex boycott, and hollered constantly about fascism, and then gasped with shock when the nation chose the other law. It wasn't just poor strategy. Resistance politics turned Trump's opponents, in many cases, into the monster they claimed to be slaying. Just listen to former Republican strategist turned anti Trump extremist, Rick Wilson. I want to say something to you, Donald, and your little. And your little minions and your whole enabling class of the sort of MAGA influencer class. Donald, if you try to steal this election tomorrow and you're gonna, we know you're gonna try. I promise you one thing. You will die in prison alone. Your family will be broken, every property you've ever owned. So the party is in a pickle. Resistance has failed. And despite the warnings of Oprah Winfrey, if we don't show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again. There will be another election. And if the Dems want to have a shot at winning in 2028, then they need to look inward. The way losing parties survive is by figuring out why they lost and trying to win next time. In the meantime, they make the best of it and take wins when they can. They act like an opposition, not a resistance. This will require an entirely new approach. But the good news here is that the Democratic Party has been here before. And that brings us to the topic of today's episode. It's the story of how a few centrist renegades saved the Democrats 40 years ago from oblivion. The year was 1984. And if you were weeping over last week's electoral blowout, while Trump's victory was light stuff compared to the Reagan landslide against Walter Mondale, Democrats were not just in disarray, they were on life support and in real danger of vanishing completely. And yet, eight years later, they found their savior. A young governor from Arkansas named Bill Clinton. From the Free Press, this is honestly. I'm Eli Lake. After the break, the story of how the Democrats remade their party and took back the White House after being destroyed by Ronald Reagan.

[Donald Trump]

The day after one of the most impressive presidential victories in American history. President Reagan and George Bush won 59 of the vote, beating the Mondale Ferraro ticket.

[Eli Lake]

It's hard to overstate just how massive a defeat Ronald Reagan's win in 1984 over Democrat Walter Mondale really was. Mondale, who was Vice President during Jimmy Carter's one term presidency, lost everywhere except his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Reagan swept up everything else.

[Donald Trump]

Thank you.

[Eli Lake]

A conservative Republican. 1. Massachusetts, New York.

[Donald Trump]

Thank you all very much.

[Eli Lake]

Hawaii, for God's sake.

[Donald Trump]

Thank you. I think that's just been arranged.

[Eli Lake]

Mondale's loyalty to interest groups inside the Democratic Party left him open to attack. Gary Hart, a senator from Colorado and his chief rival in the primary that year, summed up the problem as have to reach those voters who don't feel represented by the afl, the NAACP now, or the Sierra Club. But Mondale could not see beyond the demands of the noisiest factions of his coalition. For example, his deference to the nuclear freeze movement was a terrible vote loser. His campaign actually attacked one of Ronald Reagan's coolest initiatives. Research into space based missile defense, Star wars, space lasers.

[Al Fromm]

Ronald Reagan is determined to put killer weapons in space. The Soviets will have to match us and the arms race will rage out of control. Orbiting, aiming, there is a bear in the woods.

[Eli Lake]

And Reagan countered people with one of the most effective ads in American political history.

[Al Fromm]

Others don't see it at all. Some people say the bear is tame. Others say it's vicious and dangerous. Since no one can really be sure who's right, isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear if there is a bear? What Mondale's appeal was to get the support of every interest group in the party.

[Eli Lake]

This is Al Fromm, the man who would eventually remake the Democratic Party after Mondale's defeat.

[Al Fromm]

You know, I think it was in October of 1983. He basically got every group. And so from that sense, you could say Mondale, the most unified Democratic Party ever. The only people who didn't support him were the voters. To me, that was a big problem.

[Eli Lake]

And you can see an echo of this problem today.

[Rachel Scott]

And my basic diagnosis is that we have allowed the far left to have outsized power over the messaging and policy making of the Democratic Party, which is causing us to fall out of touch with the working class.

[Eli Lake]

This is Richie Torres, a Democratic House Representative from New York on the lesson of the 2024 election, particularly working class.

[Rachel Scott]

Voters of color who have been the heart and soul of of the Democratic party.

[Eli Lake]

In early 1985, the Democrats were a big government soft on crime party, animated by nostalgia for FDR's New Deal and LBJ's War on Poverty. The party functioned as a coalition of unions, environmentalists, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, the National Organization for Women Peace activists, and dozens of other progressive tribes that believed that rallying under a common banner every four years was the way to win and hold power. But win they did not. Between 1968 and 1992, the Democrats won only a single presidential election, 1976, the one that followed the Watergate scandal and the fall of Richard Nixon. The Reagan landslide of 1984 was the final straw for Al Fromm. He got to work in 1985 with another Democratic staffer, Will Marshall, forming a new group that would bring moderate governors, senators and congressmen together to steer the donkey to middle ground. This was an insurgency led by people terrified that the Democratic Party would never again win the White House, that it would vanish into history. Like the Whigs, they knew the stakes were high and they were unafraid of playing hardball. And one of their first tricks was was the name itself. They called themselves the Democratic Leadership Council, even though the leadership of the Democratic Party didn't like them one bit. It was an audacious gambit that catapulted their group into the center of the political conversation.

[Donald Trump]

Creating an illusion is the right way to think about it. Al and I joked a lot about Smoke and Mirrors.

[Al Fromm]

We were an entrepreneurial insurgent operation.

[Donald Trump]

The Democratic establishment was not happy about the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council. And the premise on which it was based was that in some way the party establishment was failing.

[Eli Lake]

The first job of the Democratic Leadership Council, or DLC as it was known, was to focus on the Republican controlled senate for the 1986 midterms. And here they really did have success. This is former Senator and Governor Chuck Robb explaining how the DLC worked.

[Donald Trump]

We couldn't endorse candidates, we couldn't give money to candidates.

[Al Fromm]

But we could provide issues forums that were directed towards specific things that we.

[Donald Trump]

Wanted to have discussed publicly and invite them to participate.

[Eli Lake]

The DLC in these early years operated like a political policy shop. It published papers and articles that became talking points for New Democrats who weren't beholden to their party's orthodoxies. The DLC critiqued Reagan on his strongest national defense. Instead of slamming the hawkish president for bringing us to the brink of nuclear war, as Walter Mondale had, the DLC published a policy book on national defense that chastised wasteful Pentagon spending. They weren't saying stop building bombs. They were saying you're building bombs badly. The DLC began to germinate deeply undemocrat sounding ideas at this time. They wanted national service for young people who received scholarships. They became deficit hawks, which was threatening to their party's big spenders. And on crime, the DLC, unlike the mainstream of the Democratic Party in the 1980s, supported the death penalty and more police on the streets. In 1986, the DLC had momentum. The Democrats gained eight seats that year, wresting back control of the Senate for their party. Eight of the 11 new Democratic senators had run as DLC Democrats. Al Fromm and Will Marshall were ecstatic. After a strong showing in the midterms, the Democrats thought they were in great shape to end the Reagan era with victory in 1988. Just a few minutes ago, it didn't work out that way.

[Donald Trump]

I called Vice President Bush and congratulated.

[Al Fromm]

Him on his victory.

[Eli Lake]

And I wanna in fairness, the Democratic candidate that year, Michael Dukakis, made a point to say that he was not ideological. Nonetheless, his party was still vulnerable to the taint of excessive liberalism.

[Al Fromm]

Bush and Dukakis on crime. Bush supports the death penalty for first degree murderers. Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty, he allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison. One was Willie Horton who murdered a boy in a rock.

[Eli Lake]

And again, we see an Echo in 2024. Amala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for.

[Rachel Scott]

Prisoners, surgery for prisoners for prisoners.

[Eli Lake]

Every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access. It's hard to believe, but it's true. Even the liberal. Now we should say. Kamala Harris did not campaign on gender reassignment surgery for illegal immigrants in prison. She ran on keeping abortion legal in all 50 states and Trump's unfitness for office. But her past positioning as a senator from 2017 and her ill fated primary run in 2019 was enough for the Trump campaign to paint her as an out of touch elite who didn't care about common sense.

[Rachel Scott]

Kamala's for they them.

[Eli Lake]

President Trump is for you.

[Donald Trump]

I'm Donald J. Trump and I approve this message.

[Eli Lake]

Well, the same thing happened in 1988 to Mike Dukakis. And when he finally realized that the Bush campaign defined him for the voters, it was too late. Ronald Reagan is probably one American who.

[Donald Trump]

Will have a good night's sleep tonight. He's won two presidential elections in his.

[Al Fromm]

Own right and in effect helped George Bush win this one.

[Eli Lake]

Another Republican landslide. The DLC decided their party needed what Al Fromm would call reality therapy.

[Al Fromm]

We put together a four part strategy and the first part was what we called reality therapy. If you don't understand why you're losing, you're probably not going to make the strategic changes you need to win over the 1980s, the Democrats lost the three elections in landslides that were greater than any party has ever lost in history in terms of the electoral college. You know, if you continue doing that, I mean, that's the definition of insanity.

[Eli Lake]

How the Democrats got their mojo back with the help of a Southern governor with a silver tongue. After the break in 1989, the world changed forever. That is the year the Berlin Wall came down. The days of the Soviet Union were numbered. It was a vindication of Reaganism and the Republican brand. After three election blowouts, the Democrats were finally ready for a change. And the DLC was there to offer exactly that. And they had a secret weapon, maybe the greatest political athlete of the last 50 years. Bill Clinton. Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan were outstanding orators, of course, but no one combined the ability to think like a policy wonk and then sell those policies to everyday people like Bill Clinton. At a time when his party was wary of the police, Clinton would just amble up to cops and ask them about their jobs like it was shooting the breeze. He was obsessed with making schools better. And he would talk for hours and hours about his ideas for reforms. And he had a knack for presenting center right ideas in the language of a folksy liberalism. After all, it was Bill Clinton who promised and delivered the end of welfare as we know it. Here he is in 1991 at the Arkansas Governor's mansion announcing his bid for the presidency.

[Donald Trump]

To be sure, the collapse of communism requires a new national security policy. I applaud the President's recent initiatives in reducing nuclear arms. They're an important first step. But make no mistake about it, the end of the Cold War is not the end of threats to America. The world is still a dangerous and uncertain place. And the first and most solemn obligation of the President of the United States is to keep America safe and strong from foreign dangers and to promote democracy abroad.

[Eli Lake]

Bill Clinton's ideas didn't come out of the vapor. They were honed during his time as chairman of the dlc. And in that role, Clinton in some ways began his campaign. Before that announcement, he would travel throughout the country to spread the gospel of the New Democrats. Here again is Alfram explaining what these new values were.

[Al Fromm]

We believe the Democratic Party's fundamental mission is to expand opportunity, not government. We believe in the politics of inclusion. Our party has historically been the means by which aspiring Americans from every background have achieved equal rights and full citizenship, believed in being involved in the world, believed private sector growth was the prerequisite to opportunity. You know, we wanted to prevent crime and punish criminals. You know, and most important, in a sense, was we believed in the ethic that John Kennedy espoused, that every American had a responsibility to give something back to the country.

[Eli Lake]

Not everyone loved it. At the top of the list of prominent liberals who hated these New Democrats at the DLC was Reverend Jesse Jackson, a formidable figure within the Democratic Party. Like Clinton, Jackson was also a great talker.

[Al Fromm]

To assume that there may be equal opportunity and great gaps in results assumes that somebody is inferior and somebody is super, period. The assumption of that statement stinks.

[Eli Lake]

Now, a lesser politician would have continued to take potshots at the DLC in the media. But Jesse Jackson was a cunning strategist. He sought to kill the DLC with kindness. He asked to speak at the group's 1990 convention in New Orleans, where he delivered a speech in which he claimed at least that the DLC moderates were on the same page as his Rainbow Coalition. We are delighted to be united, Jackson said. And the reverend knew what he was doing. He knew that the entire mission at this point of the DLC was to distinguish itself from the kind of identity politics that the Rainbow Coalition was championing. Here's Jesse Jackson in 2016 in an interview for the documentary Crashing the Party.

[Al Fromm]

I gave a speech which was insulting to them, called Delighted to be United. They reacted to that. That was delighted to be United. I looked at the things that we had in common. But they wanted to draw a distinction between the Rainbow and the dlc. So Delighted to be United did not exactly fit their stereotype.

[Eli Lake]

Going into the 1992 election year, the relationship between the New Democrats and Jesse Jackson was frayed. It was about to get worse. After Clinton survived the first of many sex scandals in his political career. He came in second in New Hampshire.

[Donald Trump]

While the evening is young and we don't know yet what the final tally will be, I think we know enough to say with some certainty that New Hampshire tonight has made Bill Clinton the comeback kid.

[Eli Lake]

He would go on to vanquish his primary opponents. And just as he was preparing for the general election, Bill Clinton decided to deliver a little payback to Reverend Jackson. He decided to address the Rainbow coalition. This is five weeks after the LA riots of 1992. Racial tensions in America were at a boil.

[Donald Trump]

You had a rap singer here last night named Sister Soulja. I defend her right to express herself through music. But her comments before and after Los Angeles were filled with a kind of hatred that you do not honor today and tonight. Just listen to this. What she said, she told the Washington Post about a month ago, and I quote, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? So you're a gang member and you'd normally kill somebody. Why not kill a white person? Last year, she said, you can't call me or any black person anywhere in the world a racist. We don't have the power to do to white people what white people have done to us. And even if we did, we don't have that low down dirty nature. If there are any good white people, I haven't met them. Where are they? Right here in this room.

[Eli Lake]

And that was what became known in American history as a Sister Soldier moment. Today, it is shorthand for when a politician rebukes someone on their own side to appeal to a broader constituency. Clinton invented the tactic. In some ways, it was a cheap shot. Sista Soldier was a mediocre rapper, and she was invited to the Rainbow Coalition as one of several young black leaders. But it wasn't like Jesse Jackson was advocating armed struggle. He was a disciple of Martin Luther King. As a matter of politics, though, this was a masterstroke. George H.W. bush was trying his best to turn Clinton into Mike Dukakis in 1992. And Clinton actually gave him quite a bit of material. He wrote a letter, for example, in 1969, when he was a Rhodes Scholar, to the colonel in charge of the ROTC training program that he was obligated to attend. He reneged on his earlier commitment because of his opposition to the war in Vietnam. Bill Clinton was a draft dodger. He also smoked marijuana, although he incredulously claimed he had not inhaled. So when Bill Clinton took a shot at the Rainbow Coalition at their own event, it served as an inoculation he wasn't an out of touch liberal. He was a new Democrat fighting for hard working Americans that played by the rules. Now this tactic had a dark side as well. Bill Clinton presided over the execution of a lobotomized cop killer named Ricky Ray Rector. And here I want to quote from the late Christopher Hitchens. He no longer knew his own name and met most of the standard conditions for clemency. But Clinton left New Hampshire specifically to return to Arkansas and have him put to death. He did so in order to demonstrate or signal that he was not soft on crime. Rector's condition was such that as he left his cell for the last time, he saved the dessert from his last meal for later strapped to a trolley for a lethal injection. He actually assisted the executioners in their hour long search for a viable vein in which to place the lethal catheter. He thought they were doctors trying to cure him. End quote. Rector had the mind of a child. It's cruel to execute such a person, even if the messaging was brilliant. In 1992, Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. bush in a three way race with billionaire H. Ross Perot. The drought ended. The Democrats were finally back. The DLC had accomplished its mission. Way don't stop from thinking about tomorrow. Don't stop. So what can the Democrats learn from the DLC's journey out of the wilderness? Well, to start, it should stop caving to the loudest pressure groups.

[Rachel Scott]

The far left is pressuring the party to take positions that are deeply unpopular with the American people.

[Eli Lake]

This is Richie Torres again speaking about that killer ad the Trump campaign ran in the closing weeks on transgender health care for illegal immigrants.

[Rachel Scott]

So I saw the ad. It was effective because it weaponized the Vice President's words against her. And the question is, why did she feel the need to ever say that in the first place? Because the pressure from the far left on center left Democrats is overwhelming.

[Eli Lake]

Ignoring special interest groups was the first lesson the DLC ever taught the Democratic Party. It's worth listening to Congressman Torres and relearning that lesson today. But there are other lessons as well. To start, it's important to understand that resistance politics has taken over progressive discourse in recent years, whether it's climate change. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my.

[Rachel Scott]

Ch childhood with your empty words.

[Al Fromm]

And yet I'm one of the lucky ones.

[Eli Lake]

Black Lives Matter. Or trying to block the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The causes are different, but the style of discourse is the same. It's the shout downs, the screaming, the loaded rhetoric. And all of it makes the give and take of normal Democratic politics impossible. On rare occasions, resistance really is required. But most, nearly all political disputes do not revolve around existential threats. Most rely on compromise. And that means acting like a political opposition.

[Ro Khanna]

Donald Trump signed five of my bills the last time I was in Congress.

[Eli Lake]

This is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, California signed by him.

[Ro Khanna]

He's the President of the United States, or will be. He was elected by over 50% of this country. My job in representing my district is to first do what is best for America. They elected me to represent them in what is good for this country. And if there is someone who is president and I think he's proposing something that is good for America, even if it's not perfect and I could be part of the solution, that's my responsibility. That doesn't mean that when he proposes things that are bad for America, that I won't speak out. And I think the, the American people want that. And they are desperate in this country for some kind of healing, some kind of moving forward. I hope the President does it. I'm dubious of it. But here's what I do know, that there's going to be the opportunity for the next generation in both parties to work towards finding more of that common ground and lifting up our politics. So you don't have the ugliness of what we've had the past decade.

[Eli Lake]

Pretending that Trump will end our democracy is to deride the choice of the blue collar Americans who Clinton brought back into the party. It could also be a self fulfilling prophecy if Democrats return to lawfare, shunning their opponents and encouraging disruptive protest and street anger. Not only will this give Trump and the Republicans an excuse to use the same tactics themselves, but it also turns off the very voters a healthy political opposition should be trying to persuade right now. The Democrats have been too beholden to the well organized fringes of their party who seek to lecture the people globalism has left behind.

[Rachel Scott]

You know, I remember seeing a former colleague of mine come out in favor of defunding the police in the New York Times.

[Eli Lake]

This is Richie Torres again.

[Rachel Scott]

And so I called him and I said, let me get this straight. You want to conduct a social experiment known as defund the police on my constituents of color in the South Bronx. And my question to you is, what happens if that social experiment goes badly? What happens if it leads to an outbreak of youth violence and gang violence and gun violence? You live in Brownstone, Brooklyn. You have the luxury of advocating for defunding the police. But for my constituents, defunding the police is not a utopian ideal. It's a dystopian reality. It will lead to more violence, not less. And so for me, the lesson here is that working class voters of color have no interest in becoming guinea pigs for the utopian social experiments of the far left.

[Eli Lake]

Utopian social experiments of the far left is the stuff of resistance, not opposition. And opposition operates in political reality. And so the Democrats should criticize Donald Trump when he deserves it. And believe me, there will be plenty of opportunities for that. But they shouldn't go into his presidency calling him Hitler. It will only erode their credibility for later on. After all, one doesn't negotiate with fascists. One bombs them to smithereens. And Trump isn't Hitler. We know this because President Biden knows this, which is why last week he.

[Donald Trump]

Said, I spoke with President Elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory. And I assured him that I'd direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That's what the American people deserve.

[Eli Lake]

Now Biden deserves credit for acknowledging his party's defeat, something Donald Trump did not have the grace to do in 2020. Nonetheless, his concession speech last week also revealed his earlier fascism rhetoric to be a messaging strategy, not a bold plan to save half the country from the candidate they just elected. Because if Biden really believed that Donald Trump was a fascist and an existential threat to a democracy, why in the world would he be making his transition to power any easier? The other lesson, though from the DLC is. Is a little different. Bill Clinton's governing agenda planted the seeds of its eventual electoral rebuke. Clinton's tactics and political strategy are unimpeachable. Pardon the pun. But his actual policy did not deliver.

[Donald Trump]

I refuse to be part of a generation of Americans that fails to compete in the global economy and so condemns hard working middle class Americans to a lifetime of struggle without reward or security.

[Eli Lake]

That line worked really well in the 1992 election. But by 2015, as both Trump and Bernie Sanders were energizing a new wave of populism, public perception shifted. Donald Trump just won the 2024 election in part by promising tariffs. That's the opposite of free trade agreements. And his appeal to the forgotten man is a direct callback to those working class Clinton voters who didn't see their lives improve because of globalization.

[Ro Khanna]

There are a lot of great things that came out of that era. We have more wealth as a nation than ever before. There's $12 trillion of wealth, and we're the leading innovation hub of the world. We lowered the cost of things like phones and televisions. But in the process of doing that, both parties and economists had a blind spot.

[Eli Lake]

Again, this is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna.

[Ro Khanna]

We had a blind spot to what this was doing to destroy communities. I mean, we shipped off our steel industry, shipped away our aluminum industry, our textile industry. Towns were being hollowed out. We were giving condescending lectures to people to either train for jobs that they never had or to move miles away. And that was wrong. And I think the first thing a Democratic politician needs to say is we messed up.

[Eli Lake]

Congressman Khanna is onto something small. D Democratic politics are fluid. They are ever changing. The key to success in the 1990s, selling neoliberal policies to Joe Sixpack led to eight years of democratic rule, eight years of peace and prosperity. But it was also a kind of time bomb. The populist response to Clinton's neoliberalism began in that 2016 election, but it came to fruition in 2024. And in that sense, it is the bookend to 1992. 2024 is. Is the year when Clinton's working class coalition became Trump's. That's a tough pill to swallow for Democrats, particularly Democrats who were old enough to remember the glory days of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. But it should also be a cause for optimism for the Democrats of this generation. Trump's coalition looks formidable after last week's election. But coalitions change. And his policies today, particularly if he pursues the tariffs he promised on the trail, are likely to exacerbate the inflation that got him elected in the first place. If Trump alienates America's allies, he will make the wars he wishes to end last longer. Sometimes the best an opposition can hope for is to let the party in power make their own mistakes. And that brings us back to the theme of this episode. The secret to Clinton and the DLC's success is that they realized the voters were not buying what the Democrats were selling. So they offered them something else. They learned how to win in opposition. They did not continue to signal their virtues to the progressive mandarins who refused to listen to the electorate. Power is earned through persuasion in democracy, not cosplay. So the Democrats are at a crossroads. One path is the make believe of the last eight years. The other path is for the party to roll up its sleeves and offer the voters an agenda worth voting for. The midterms are less than two years away. Time to get to. I'm Eli Lake. If you like this episode. If you learned something, if you disagreed with something, or if it's simply sparked a new understanding of our present moment, please share it with your friends and family and use it to have a conversation of your own. And if you want to support Honestly, there's only one way to do it. Go to the fp.com and become a subscriber today. See you next time.

[Donald Trump]

Than before yesterday. God yes, go.