Daily Herald opinion: Advice to Democrats: The party's revival is dependent on sound policy and straightforward messaging, not extremism

As the 2024 election approached, it seemed obvious that Democrats had two overriding problems: Post-pandemic inflation, which they had failed to sufficiently curtail or explain; and the border, which they had failed to control in a policy that had no plausible explanation.

The party's challenges were and continue to be more complicated than that, of course, but those two issues essentially swung the election. Inflation. The border.

Inflation, we believed then and we believe now, was for the most part an inevitable consequence of the pandemic. Partly caused by supply-chain problems created by the pandemic. Partly caused by massive government spending to prop up the economy during the pandemic. It was not just a U.S. problem. It was global and mostly worse in the rest of the world. Democrats were afraid of the issue, so rather than empathizing and then relentlessly explaining the causes of that inflation, they more or less chose to not talk about it.

When it came to the border, Democrats had no choice. Their border policy was so impossible to justify or explain that they had no alternative but to avoid talking about it.

Today, many Democrats and party sympathizers have a tendency to hold up Chuck Schumer as the symbol of all that is wrong with the party. And granted, Democrats need a fresher and more energetic spokesperson than the New York senator. And a fresher and more energetic vision, too. And yes, the party needs to stand for something more than opposition to Donald Trump.

But if by that, Democrats and their sympathizers think the problem in 2024 was that the party was not progressive enough, well, let us offer some friendly advice that they think again. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez may have a role to play as worthwhile critic, but not as the party's identity.

That border policy, not Schumer, is the real symbol of what was wrong with the party in 2024. President Joe Biden was generally centrist, but vulnerable on his occasional acquisence to the far left. The border policy is one example. It was out of touch. It smacked of wishful incompetence and lacked rationale.

On Thursday, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote an intriguing piece, “The Democrats’ Problems Are Bigger Than You Think” in which he argued that we are in a new era of a global populism that resists elitism and traditional institutions. Brooks, being center-right, no doubt views things from a somewhat different perspective than most Democrats do, but his fundamental point is one they need to consider. For starters, Brooks argued, Democrats need to understand that their revival is not just about trust on the economy.

“Parties on the left can’t get a hearing until they get the big moral questions right: faith, family, flag, respect for people in all social classes,” he wrote.

Beyond that, Democrats need to focus on making institutions work, without the sacred cows, without the special interests, without chaos.

“If people rightly distrust establishment institutions and you are the party of the establishment institutions,” Brooks wrote, “then you have to be the party of thoroughgoing reform. You have to say that Trump is taking a blowtorch to institutions, and we are for effectively changing institutions.”

There was no landslide in 2024. Democrats lost what was a close election, but one where Democrats were identified by their fringe voices. They didn’t lose because they weren’t progressive enough. The numbers suggest that the country questioned whether they lacked common sense.

The key to their recovery, the key to unifying the country, is sane messaging and sane and honorable policy.