Democrats were given a mandate this election as well

While different than Trump's it's a mandate the left can't afford to ignore

We spent the last few months discussing how the GOP would have to rebuild its party and move it toward the center when Trump lost. Between 2020 and 2024, Trump lost 1.7 million voters, while Democrats lost 13.4 million. Now, we find ourselves tasked with the challenging work we previously had expected from our opposition.

As we traverse the next 74 days toward chaos, listening to the right talk about the mandate that they have been handed (and they have been given one), it's important to remember that the left has also been given a mandate of its own: rebuilding the party and moving it more toward the center. We should elevate practical considerations over moral and ideological ones to accomplish this.

Trump won 46% of the Hispanic vote, up 14 points from 32% when he lost in 2020. Early exit polls indicate he did better with Hispanic men than white women. While it will be difficult to untangle where the Democrats went wrong, a few areas stand out.

Sex change operations for inmates helped sink us. Identity politics is alienating for political moderates. That doesn't mean that we need to abandon our trans allies, but we need to take a step back from biological men in women's sports. We must step back from the idea that people should advertise their pronouns and use acronyms like AMAB/AFAB. And it may be time to re-evaluate the availability of puberty blockers.

Israeli-Palestinian policy is another undeniable area in which we can improve. We tried to make both sides happy, but we couldn’t do that. Israel is our ally in the area. I understand that initially, after October 7th, they made it very difficult for us to support them. However, at this point, we have little option; a lack of support would be more detrimental than strengthened support, especially since Palestine and its allies have turned their back on Democrats and embraced Trump. Israelis at least vote for us. Let's chase their support instead; it's more realistic.

The border. Many on the left think of immigrants as Americans who are just finding their way home. While there's nothing wrong with this, we have to change our border policies regardless of whether or not it hurts people. The open/closed border debate revolves around parole policy. Immigration parole policy is the discretionary authority of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to allow certain noncitizens to temporarily enter or remain in the United States (based on the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)). We need to reform parole practices; that simple. 

With the party suddenly in ideological ruins, we have the opportunity to build something better in its place. This means chasing moderate voters even if it costs us the voters who don’t seem to turn out for us anyway. Framing and messaging are entirely different posts, but they will also be vital to the success of the Democratic Party in the future. 

I’m not claiming I have the perfect ideas. I’m just one person. If you take anything away from this, it’s that we have to do it eventually.