Mike Lux - How To Democrat In The Age of Trump

HOW TO

DEMOCRAT

IN THE AGE OF TRUMP

Copyright 2018 Mike Lux

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form,without written permission from the author.

Requests for permission to reproduce selections fromthis book should be mailed to: Strong Arm Press, 1440 G St NW,Washington, D.C. 20005

Published in the United States by Strong Arm Press,2018

www.strongarmpress.com

Book Composition by Strong Arm Press

.

ISBN-13: 978-1-947492-14-1

ISBN: 1-947492-14-4

Praise for How To Democrat In the Age of Trump

Few people understand the American left as well asMike Lux. Only someone with his deep roots in progressive actioncould write a book this smart, this timely and this important. Ifyou care about where the country is headed, you should read everypage.

-Raul Grijalva

Mike Lux has given us a thought-provoking andpractical guide with an important message: promoting a boldprogressive vision to expand economic opportunity will resonatewith every American. If we come together around that vision andfollow Luxs wise advise Democrats will win and our country willwin.

-Jan Schakowsky

Mike Lux argues that Democrats need to return to acore message aimed at working class families, Black, Brown andWhite. Fighting Trump cant be the primary focus for our politicalwork. Progressive means forward ever on economic and socialjustice, not simply opposition.

-Larry Cohen, Board Chair Our Revolution, formerPresident, Communications Workers of America

Mike Lux draws on his decades of experiencefighting for progressive causes and his rare insider's view of theDemocratic Party to give us an incisive analysis of the Party'srecent failures and a clear and inspiring path back to durablegoverning power. His forceful argument for the Democrats to returnto their roots as the party of the people - on the side of theworking class and those fighting for freedom from injustice - needsto be heard and heeded. His message to grassroots forces outsidethe beltway that our time is coming if we're willing to do themessy work of politics is right on time.

-Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community ChangeAction

To go from Resistance to resurgence and resurgenceto renewal, we dont need pundits and pollsters to show the way. Weneed progressive populist organizers like Mike Lux, a guy who notonly knows what it means to be a Democrat but how to win toughelections across America. This book ignites the conversation weneed to have in the Democratic Party.

-Jamie Raskin

Mike Lux speaks the hard truth to all progressivecandidates interested in winning elections. You can not and shouldnot ignore rural voters. A progressive economic agenda can andshould be the roadmap to increased family incomes, expanded accessto quality health care, and an improved infrastructure.

-Tom Vilsack, former Iowa Governor and Secretary ofAgriculture in the Obama administration

How To Democrat in the Age of Trump is a must readfor anyone who cares about the future of the Democratic Party.

-Joel Silberman, President, Media Talent 2.0

Prologue

Introduction

Chapter One: How We Got OurselvesTo Messed Up

Chapter Two: The End Of Top-DownPolitics

Chapter Three: The 55% GoverningMajority

Chapter Four: Small TownValues

Chapter Five: Pro-BusinessDemocrats

Chapter Six: Draining The Swamp andBuilding A House

Chapter Seven: The DefinitionalFight Over Freedom

Chapter Eight: The Party of ThePeople

Postscript

Bibliography

About TheAuthor

Writing a book on Democratic Party strategy in thisparticular moment of American history is fraught with tension. WhenI told one friend I was doing it, he said, Wow, how does it feelto be walking through a minefield? I know everyone who reads thisbook will no doubt have strong opinions on everything I will say,so it will be a wild ride. Additionally, because I have friends ina lot of different sectors of the Democratic Party, and I do notreligiously adhere to any one dogma, Im sure I will be hearing alot of grumbling from my friends. Apologies to all in advance if Ipiss you off too badly. I hope not to burn any bridges beyondrepair. That is certainly not my intent, but one never knows howfolks will react.

The idea for this book has been marinating in mybrain for a long time now, but the advent of the Trump era spurredme on more than ever. When my old friends Alex Lawson and Ryan Grimstarted Strong Arm Press, an idea formed in my head. Strong Arm isa progressive publishing house that can turn books around andpublish them quickly, as opposed to the yearlong process typicallyrequired by a traditional publishing house. I got inspired and cuta deal with them early this year to get this book out this spring.For one thing, in times like these, so much is going on so quicklythat writing a political book with a long lead time doesnt makemuch sense. But in addition, the hope was to have a book that couldstir up some debate in the party leading up to the 2018 elections,and be the opening salvo in the 2020 cycle about what kind ofpresidential campaign we should be running. Strong Arm has been awonderful partner to work with on this project.

Our decision to move this quickly on the book meansthere will be some things we missed -- important data, analysis,and ideas we left out, as well as the little typos and sentenceglitches you will no doubt find here. Apologies for thoseerrors.

Whenever a political party comes away with a loss inan election, there is a lot of soul searching, as there should be.But when you lose an election everyone is expecting you to win, andyou lose it to one of the most repulsive men in the history of thecountry, the post-mortems are brutal -- again, as they should be.Fortunately, even in the midst of all the blame-gaming andhandwringing, there are some really constructive ideas and projectsthat emerge. I want to note three of the most important ones, allof which had an influence on my thinking as I wrote this book.

The first project was one that my colleague LaurenWindsor and I have been involved in from the beginning. As thesmoke cleared from the 2016 debacle, and people shifted from beingobsessed with the presidential results and started thinking abouthow much we had cumulatively been losing over the last decade, itwas evident that the very word Democrat, the brand and definitionof the party itself, was badly damaged. A diverse group of leadersfrom across the party informally came together to explore ways ofRebuilding Democrat as a concept. We did a lot of research whichstrongly indicated that Democrats had an opportunity to capture thehijacked word of freedom from the right-wing and that voters didhave some trust in Democrats to build a better future for theirfamilies. We also came to the conclusion that a focus on fairnessand the future are two essential concepts that would create a clearcontrast with Republicans and Trump.

Having been involved in a lot of differentdiscussions of what the Democratic brand, message, identity,slogan, etc. should be over the last quarter century, most of whichturned straight into mush, I was impressed by this project. Theresearch and thinking that went into it is reflected strongly inthis book.

A second new project I want to mention is called DemLabs. It was the brainchild of my friend Donnie Fowler, who ismentioned multiple times in this book. The idea of Dem Labs was tobring together some of the best people from the worlds ofart/entertainment, politics, and technology to germinate solutionsto problems facing the party. Discussions focused on how to giveDemocratic candidates at all levels, especially the local levelwhere far too little attention has been paid, the tools they neededto run modern campaigns and tell compelling stories. Donnie askedme to be one of several people organizing three conferences, two inSF and one in NYC. After the conferences were over, ideas continuedto develop, and Dem Labs started coming up with new tools and ideasfor campaigns. The whole process was invaluable, and the emphasison local campaigns and building from the ground up is right ontrack.