When you touch a heated pan, you usually know not to try it again by the piercing pain in your hand. Democratic strategists touch the pan, feel the pain, and think the reason for their pain is because they haven’t touched the pan enough.
Or so it seems, based on the words of a former Harris aide on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out” with Joy Reid.
Former Kamala Harris strategist Alencia Johnson joined Reid to discuss how the DNC’s leadership needs real change. The solution? Get rid of the aged white men running the party and replace them with “young women of color.”
MSNBC: “The Democratic Party should be led by young women of color.” pic.twitter.com/ABYgN1Fyax
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) December 18, 2024
Johnson made a point of making it clear that the squad members were good communicators, pointing out that AOC had won over Trump voters in the past.
According to Reid, the “gerontocracy” needs to retire, recalling a time when Barack Obama pushed aside the DNC and formed his own organization within the party. She notes that the party is run by donors and consultants who don’t want to engage with the fresh world media, and provided a good example of AOC’s ability to reach people in this regard.
WATCH: MSNBC’s Joy Reid criticizes the Democratic Party for being run like a “gerontrocracy” of consultants and donors pic.twitter.com/htc65zc7Jj
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) December 18, 2024
“Kamala Harris represented the generational change that the Democratic base voters were demanding, and yet when you go to the House and the Senate, there is no generational change,” Reid continued. “Does that make sense to you?”
No, that is not the case.
The election of Donald Trump showed that people care about racial politics and the social/corporate fad of “diversity, equity and inclusion.” DEI has had its day and has proven to be more harmful than helpful in almost every way. It is this attitude that got the Democratic Party into trouble in the first place, forcing the selection of leaders and advisers alike who are completely disconnected from the people.
The choice of Johnson as an advisor is a good example of this. The choice of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s vice president is another.
I agree with the assessment that the Democratic Party needs better communicators in this fresh era, as Republicans have already done this and it has paid off in a substantial way. However, it’s pretty clear that too many in the Democratic Party are still blind to what an effective communicator looks like. “Young Women of Color” isn’t going to cut it, and the lack of movement from AOC and “The Squad” on almost anything lately is proof that it takes more than melanin levels and plumbing to be “effective.”
If the DNC wants to improve, it will have to give up its addiction to racial politics, but since that is not at all likely, it will keep making the same mistake until it becomes irrelevant.
And that won’t be so bad.
Yet I find it strange that there is still an obsession with race and identity, even though that focus was soundly rejected in the last election. The left has long seen something not working and has concluded that it didn’t work because it didn’t go far enough. That’s why there are outright racists in the party who say and do blatantly racist things, and many on the left nod along as if there’s nothing in the world wrong with it.
But that is also the reason why many Democrats have left the party in recent years.
