Reich is right that affordability and corruption are the same story. But the memo has a weak spot, and Republicans will drive a truck through it.
The frame assumes voters reward the party that names the disease. They don’t. Hungary is instructive but not the way the memo uses it. Magyar did not win by cataloguing Orbán’s graft. He won by being a defector from inside the machine, someone whose biography proved the rot was real. The message worked because the messenger was credible. Democrats do not have that. They are the incumbents of the old system, and “our record on corruption is not perfect” is the kind of line that tells a swing voter you already know the counterpunch lands.
Here is the deeper problem. Outrage at oligarchs is not the same as belief that anyone will stop them. Voters in low-trust conditions do not sort politicians into clean and corrupt. They sort them into competent thieves and incompetent ones, and then they pick the competent thief because at least something gets done. That is the actual mechanism of Orbán’s durability, and of Trump’s. A memo that lists fifteen bribes without explaining why the other side keeps winning anyway is just feeding the cynicism it needs to defeat.
So the test for every Democratic candidate is brutally simple. Not “can you name the corruption.” Voters already know. It is “why should I believe you are different, and what will you have actually delivered in my life within twelve months.” Item five of the memo, the policy list, is where the campaign lives or dies. And it is the shortest section. Reverse that. Lead with the deliverable, close with the corruption. People do not vote against a villain. They vote for a result they can picture.
I plan to summarize this post from Robert and send it to my political group. We are about 75 strong. I'm going to urge them to write one or two postcards a week, choosing a couple of items from this list and asking them to elaborate with their personal feelings. OR call the main switchboard and ask for their representatives and leave a message about what they want their legislators to do.
If as a group, we all (including readers here) can create a few thousand cards or calls, it could grab someone's attention. Maybe a lot of legislators' attention. I don't care if your legislator already is on board. Give them backup so they can say, "I heard from many constituents, and they agree with my votes." They need proof that you're behind them.
There are a few Republicans (like Alaska's Murkowski) who may well abandon the Republican path to destruction. Let's be sure to include them in this campaign to emphasize the points made here!
Somehow we need to get this whole thing in front of the Dems in Congress and the State Democratic Parties. It is long but well worth their time to read. The problem is that comment forms for my Rep and Senators won't allow me to add a link. Anybody got any ideas beyond printing it and mailing it to them?
Stephen, when I want to re-send something to my senator who has a character limit, I cut in the best most direct parts, send that, then make another post that has more, also the most important points of that part of the item. I always indicate where I got the information. Sending 2 or 3 notes from the same post does work. I get three identical responses, but I am hoping staffers will read it and pass on at least some of it. My Republican senator doesn't care what I write, though because he is a stooge, I believe put into office by the Musk algorithm insertion, but my pseudoDemocratic senator Fetterman sometimes gets the point that we are not pleased. It doesn't change his loyalty to Trumplandia, but there is some tiny hint of something related to his oath of office left and maybe it will get him to do something for the people.
Why summarize it? Send the whole thing. Readers Digest version doesn't tell the whole story. If Dr Reich wanted to post a "summarized" version of his "memo" he would have. At which point, would you have fully understood what he's saying? By sending a summary, you're not giving your group the ability to understand his details.
Were the responses the same prefabricated thanks for your thoughts & about how your representative is working hard for the citizens in their district to make life safe, affordable & prosperous? Did it include their determination to support president tRump's agenda as mandated by his landslide win in 2024? That's the crap I get from my congressman, John Rutherford, in Jacksonville, FL.
Maybe you and other people who have contacted GOP representatives and get insufficient replies should write a comment in your local newspaper about how they didn't answer your question.
Yes, the deliverable is key. But a laundry list of policies won’t inspire a movement. The policies have to be themed, and have to clearly contrast versus the competition. As Simon Sinek argues, “ People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” So in my view, the policies in item 5 can be packaged within the universal American value of FAIRNESS (versus corruption). Democrats should fight for fair taxes, fair elections, fair healthcare, etc. because voters across ideological and class boundaries believe in fairness (accountability, level playing field, transparency…). Republicans’ greed and corruption invite an easy contrast.
And… Yes, the Dems have a trust problem, a weak spot that “Republicans can drive a truck through”. If the party and our candidates are smart, they will follow the advice of @AdamBonica (On Data and Democracy):
“…when pollsters ask voters to describe the Republican Party, the most common response is “corrupt.”
Yet Democrats can’t capitalize on this vulnerability because they lack credibility. When party leaders condemn big money while courting billionaires to fund their Super PACs, when they decry corporate influence while taking millions from industries they regulate, voters see hypocrisy.
Most voters don't differentiate between large campaign donations and outright bribes. While legally distinct, in public opinion, they're functionally the same. Voters see a system where wealth buys access and influence, and they're not wrong.
The conventional wisdom insists Democrats need big money to compete. This is demonstrably false. As I’ve detailed elsewhere, Democrats have structural advantages they’re failing to leverage: Republicans depend on mega-donors for 56% of their funding versus only 18% for Democrats. Democrats maintain robust support from small and mid-sized donors, fueled by professionals and overwhelming support from younger generations—an advantage they are arguably squandering.”
Dems should swear off big donor $$, whether from “good” billionaires or bad. From corporate PACs and dark money groups. Walk the talk. To quote Simon Sinek again, “What you do proves what you believe.”
We in Canada, and other democracies, are also suffering the consequences of this criminal Republican fascist regime. A sweeping Democratic win is a win for all democratic countries.
Unfortunately, it appears that Chuck Schumer and Hakim Jeffries have become liabilities, not assets, for the party. When addressing the public on urgent matters (which is rarely), it's painful to watch them. They come off as ineffective, low-energy, out of touch, and slow, like they're on tranquilizers - no urgency in putting out the blazing fascist dumpster fire that is raging out of control.
Simply put, no passion, no fight, no rocking the boat. Accepting big donor money is also not helping, especially AIPAC money - another huge anchor weighing down the ship.
Agree. I'm a school teacher and even my little kids all understand and promote the notion of fairness. A corrupt government hurts all the people. That's not fair!
What's fair is EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL UNDER LAW! And what's wise is to follow the true economic assessment of fair and practical vs. unfair and stupid economic and human rights record, which clearly shows the Democrats as far above the alternative trumpian fools, murderers and traitors.
No party and no individual is perfect. And tens of millions of voters will never agree on what would be "perfect" solution to this dilemma. It's a choice between which side will continue to lead to total destruction, and which side will continue to make progress toward survival and enact policies that will "float all boats" as JFK used to say.
People don't vote against a villian. They vote for the lesser of two villians. The secret to winning the midterms is no secret. Whoever does a better job of painting their opponent as a villain will be the winner. Thanks to Professor Reich for the can of paint in today's article.
Voters are attracted by what they will get from a change in government. Give them something positive to vote for, and look forward to, not just the unknown of swopping one corrupt regime for a not much better regime.
Thanks, Carolyn W. If one takes a careful look at the Biden/Harris administration's record, economic and otherwise, one will find that continuing on that Democatic administration's trend will be an excellent decision for the electorate to make. It was a hell-of-a-lot better than that of Repubs in recent decades, though not perfect, of course...
That's assuming, of course, that the Democrats offer a clear alternative to the electorate which looks to the future and doesn't rely on the past, particularly a recent past which is so ridiculed by Trump. The temptation, when one party is in the ascendant offering far right policies, is for the opposition to offer Trump light or whichever demagogue is in power. Two wrongs don't make a right as my mother used to say!!
Agree wholeheartedly. The last paragraph of Professor Reich's article is the most important. Lay out what the Democrats plan to do differently if they regain Congress.
Republicans win selling hate. Democrats lose selling policies. The difference isn't the economy or the issues — it's the product being sold.
Polling tells you what people want. It doesn't tell you what moves them. A laundry list of affordability fixes and corruption charges is a policy platform. It is not a vision. And vision is what wins elections.
The Democrats need to sell reform — not as a program, but as a promise. A common grassroots benefit. Something felt in the gut, not processed in the head.
Bring back our pride. Restore the power of the vote. Sell democracy itself as the product.
That's not a policy. That's a cause. And causes beat hate only when they burn just as hot.
Johan, I believe you’re being a bit too cynical about voters. You are overlooking the deliberate deception republicans orchestrated over the years in order to manipulate voters.
The Trump Kleptocracy 2 has opened their eyes to what many democrats have known for years and they are finally seeing DT for who he really is &
connecting the dots between their reduced circumstances & republican
fecklessness.
The lack of deliverables from dems is due to republican intransigence and that fact isn’t lost on voters either.
Granted, democrats must call it out, illustrate it and drive it into the voters consciousness, and I think they are up
to the task of doing that. They have created evidence by forcing votes on the War Powers Act and Epstein files.
Bottom line—voters don’t like to be deceived and taken advantage of by
Magyar also hit the pavement. He put in the time for a couple years and connected. I have seen aoc, mamdani, huffman and many more do this, but dems as a whole can barely connect even with many of us on this thread. We are fighting handcuffed and blind, with an adversary that appears more committed. I do not think it bodes well.
Thanks, Johan, but the U.S. is not Hungary, and I believe Democrats will overcome the perception by some that we are representative of the "old system." The economic facts of the last 90 years show a definite advantage to the progressive policies over the old ultra selfish, brutal version of capitalism that does not need to be the characterization of all capitalism. We've come through the "Great Depression" & the "Great Recession" and through 4 years of recovery from the first trumpian fiasco under the leadership of Democrats. The Biden/Harris economic record is clearly superior to Republicans in recent decades.
I trust that you are not trying to divide and conquer with your comments. I think you have made some suggestions that are well worth serious consideration by myself and others. But I think people will vote against this demonstrably destructive gang of murderous traitors who follow a totally incompetent, unethical nincompoop who is leading us to the destruction of all humanity with his anti-science delusional self-importance...
You are right, Johan. What each voter will be asking of his representative is what has s/he done for me and the country. Democrats must go on the offensive; they have to link past efforts to future promises to fight the forever shifting cost of living from the super rich to the rest of the population. Tax cuts, tariffs, slush funds, ventures abroad drive up the treasury deficit, which means that we all have to pay higher interest rates on the public debt, consequently, there is less money for education, health care, infrastructure. Trump's corruption is a major driver of this theft of the nation, but he is the tip of the iceberg..
Yep, it worked in Hungary to get rid of Orban. The technique is sound and logical, tie the Trump regime's corruption to the country's many economic problems. Trump is constantly blaming presidents Biden and Obama, but that probably won't hold up well with most people when the facts are laid out. Hard to argue with the much higher cost of liviing
Well said - voters do not reward a party for discovering or naming a disease. They do get rewarded for identifying the majority's pain points, and offering a solution.
Removing the competition is the first thing Trump endeavors to do when dealing with his adversaries. He secretly entered the Country of Venezuela and kidnapped its President and his wife. He aided Netanyahu in removing the head of Iran's government. Now he wants to arrest Fidel Castro's 94 year old brother. He seems to have a severe dislike for foreign leaders. He belittled Zelenskyy because he felt his cards held nothing of importance. He abused the relationship with King Frederik X of Denmark, and President Mulino of Panama wasn't left out of the fray as well. It would be fitting for Mr. Trump to take the walk of shame through the streets of Westeros..While the Democrats desperately search for John Snow...
Dorothy--A main character in the best drama ever filmed--The Game of Thrones..John is the caliber of individual we need to run for the Presidency in 2028.
Higher taxes on rich people and on rich corporations. Tax churches. Americans For Tax Fairness org.
Wealth tax. Higher estate taxes. Close tax loopholes for people and for corporations.
Raise the Social Security tax cap on high earning people. Prohibit stock buybacks by publicly traded companies.
End tax breaks for professional sports teams. End offshore tax avoidance.
Pay off the national debt. Create a national surplus instead of having a national debt.
The top 1% of America holds 40% of the wealth. It's time the public understands how this happened and what we can do about it. Inequality Media org, Robert Reich.
American Promise net. Reasonable limits on money in politics. Free Speech For People org.
Defend Our Courts com. The Voting Rights Act. End voter suppression. Ranked choice voting. Fairvote org. Vote org.
Gaslighting is when scotus says there is no voter suppression and we don’t need The Voting Rights Act.
Statehood for DC, Puerto Rico and for US Territories. DC Vote org, DC Statehood Pac com, PR51st com , prstatehoodcouncil org. Universal health care. Medicare for all. Eliminate for profit health care companies.
Why Congress Lets Drug Companies Rip Us Off. Legalized corruption: pharmaceutical edition. Jon Ossoff. The Powell memo. The Heritage Foundation. The Federalist Society. Unitary Executive Theory. The Existentialist Republic.
Automatic voter registration option through every DMV. Universal voter registration. Universal mail in ballots.
Why does every right wing solution for poverty, hunger, health and employment involve giving rich people more money?
We have to create jobs by cutting taxes and reducing regulations. Make businesses more competitive so they can send jobs overseas, use ai, make more money for executives and shareholders.
Reduce or eliminate protections for the environment, health, safety, workers, wildlife, endangered species.
Privatize gains, share losses of economic meltdowns, destruction of the environment. That is what the government is for, to help rich people and rich corporations. Offshore income and profits to tax havens.
Oligarchs are a cancer on society. The grift.
trickle down is a golden shower. Change my mind. The 100 bumper sticker project. Peel here >
Not many checks and balances, but we have corruption in every branch, executive, congress, supreme court (scotus) ,
Greg Palast com, investigative reporting.
who the f goes bankrupt running a casino? may the odds be ever in your favor.
Cognitive test. I did a puzzle that said 3 to 4 years on the box. I finished it in just two months. - djt .
a visionary sex worker with an einstein visa. a freak pickleball accident.
Low IQ Donald J Trump is a thug and a clear and present danger to our country and the World. He is a convicted felon of 34 counts of felony. He is in the Epstein files. He was found guilty by a jury of his peers of sexual abuse.
FOTU$ (Felon of the United $tates) , djt , Susie T. Buell, The Rising.
did someone say epstein files? Look at the UFO files instead. Start a war to distract the peasants.
I don't agree about taxing churches. Unless they tell people how to vote or express opinions like, "You're going to Hell if you vote Democratic, etc." Churches are non-profit organizations, and many of them live on small budgets while doing a lot of good social work and avoiding direct political statements. By contrast, those mega-churches, which have pastors living in sprawling homes and flying in their own jets, should pay taxes. Those definitely are NOT non-profit!
Donna, Thank you. That was my reaction as well. As trustee president of my church, I know how difficult it is to pay the bills. But even so, we run a foundation that provides social services to immigrants and others in the community that reach a lot of people. And I agree, the mega churches are a problem.
Many of our untamed churches do tell you how to vote and for whom to vote. Tax "churches" like that. I have a friend who is mentally challenged and he goes to a church that tells you how to vote and for whom to vote. He is obsessed with voting. His parents tell him who he will vote for, regardless of anything I tell him or show him. He can not understand politics or voting. He shows up to mark his maga ballot and get a sticker. It makes me ill that this happens.
Ok - then just tax mega churches - they are the only ones making money for themselves - they already hurt local churches who are losing their parishioners, and are less able to help the poor in their own community.
I agree, Donna. Mostly churches are a force for good. Mine houses all sorts of anonymous meetings and serves soup twice a week to homeless and whoever,
I agree with everything you say but this is what really scares me these days. Despite his bluster, Trump knows he, his administration and his policies are deeply unpopular and yet he continues down the same path. He doesn’t seem at all concerned about the midterms. It makes me wonder if he and his corrupt toadies have already put in place a plan to rig the midterms and are so confident in that plan that he feels absolutely invincible. I fear this will be the ugliest and ostensibly the most corrupt election in American history. Jan 6th proved that he is capable of anything.
ROBERT, you need to add the arms industry that is directly profiting from the war and finally ..... investors and gamblers with insider knowledge making big profits from the chaotic Trump way of governing by making bets on the roller coaster of decisions, conflicting information, and i am sure Trump gets his share in all of this.
One of the things that angers me about Democrats (and I usually vote for Democrats of more progressive or socialist bent) is that they do not name what they want to do. When you emphasize the opposition to a politician or policy voters lack a real choice. Just saying you oppose a weak, silent MAGA Republican like the one in my district, doesn't tell me what you will do instead. Democrats need clarity of intent. So your number 5 should come first. Real health should come first. This includes universal health care like they have in Europe, paid for with income tax money. It includes environment environmental health: clean water, clean air, healthy forest, protected sensitive areas of beauty, like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Bristol Bay, Oak Flat, already protected National Monuments and Wilderness Areas, and more. It includes energy health that addresses climate change. We need to stop burning fossil fuels and increase solar, wind and battery systems. It includes healthy, available and affordable housing. It includes a strong education system from preschool to graduate school. After stating what Democrats want to do, then you can attack what government should not do, which the Trump administration demonstrates in spades.
At least it’s not just us that T hates. It’s reported that his son is getting married this weekend in the Bahamas and T used the excuses of possibly not attending as the “optics wouldn’t look good” and he is dealing with “a little thing called Iran”. Since when does he care about optics or dealing with Iran? Instead he will be at his summer home in NJ and most likely playing golf.
My youngest is going to be getting married in August and I’d be damned if I wouldn’t do everything that I could to be there. Housebound or not I’ll be there. I guess Donnie Jr didn’t rake in as much money as T wanted this year especially since T just got away with no tax audits and a 1.8 billion dollar slush fund. No, T is going to ignore the wedding, and his own child, the same as he ignores the rest of us and the “excuses” are just a convenience.
Just because someone has a (D), (R) or (I) behind their name doesn’t mean that I blindly elect them. I do my research on the position, the candidate and what they are running for and then I make my decision. Why others vote blindly because of party affiliation is beyond my comprehension. Hopefully your message will get through to people so they don’t vote against their best interests. After T’s latest stunt how can anyone believe that the GOP has their best interests at heart? They are literally spending our money on things that none of us wanted. Please don’t make it all about T because he will eventually be gone. Give us the examples but also the answers to what you can do better if you are elected.
It's a measure of how effective the extreme right's propaganda machine is that many voters are now so brainwashed that they can't see the people and the class that are responsible for their despair, nor the fact that fifty years of neoliberalism have corrupted capitalism beyond repair.
The triumph of the right has been to assign blame for the current crisis (and therefore its cause) in a way that ensures that the responsibility for this immoral chaos is not assigned to the individuals who are actively pursuing it.
'Move fast and break things' Who cares if what you are breaking is a decent society.
Extreme wealth has now become so concentrated in a few hands that it corrupts everything it touches.
The ultimate expression of the notion that it's ok to buy anything if you've got the money to do so is, of course, the Epstein grooming gang, the ultimate expression of ruling class contempt for the poor and vulnerable.
In the neighborhoods I have canvassed it is the poorer ones where would be voters have too often given up--" nothing ever changes" they say. With a good amount of truth. In a nearby upscale hood the voters are primed and ready to go.
The uncomfortable part of modern American politics is that corruption accusations no longer shock anyone because people increasingly assume every institution is compromised.
That changes democracy psychologically.
When citizens stop believing clean governance is possible, they stop choosing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ candidates. They start choosing between:
- people who feel culturally loyal to them
- people who seem effective,
- or people they think will punish the other tribe harder.
That’s an extremely dangerous societal shift because it turns politics from civic management into emotional warfare.
Do you think Americans still genuinely trust any major institution anymore: media, government, corporations, universities, courts, public health, Wall Street?
Thank you Professor Reich. This is an excellent compilation of all the results to this day that our Corrupter and Thief and his Guardians of Pedophilia have bestowed upon all of us. The Democrats have to bring back Law and Order and Justice for ALL of the corrupt perpetrators. They must pay for their crimes!
Reich’s core argument lands because Americans across the political spectrum increasingly believe the system is rigged for insiders. The disagreement is over which insiders. Democrats blame billionaires and corporate capture. Republicans blame bureaucracies, media, academia, and global institutions. But underneath both narratives is the same collapsing public trust. A country can survive disagreement. It struggles to survive when nobody believes the referees anymore.
The AI Data centers and regulating them from eliminating 80 million American jobs should be issue number 1. A red district of Missouri had a council who voted to build a data center against the peoples wishes there. Every incumbent who voted for the data center lost his seat in the election by a large margin. If Americans constantly vote Republican because they fear change, make them afraid of the change of AI and vow to regulate and slow it down. Make it our benefit and not the oligarchs.
I recall trump during the campaign sitting out front of the white house with a table of groceries behind him . How did he keep a straight face ? He knew he couldn’t care less about food prices nor was he gonna do anything about it if he won. The great con-artist fooled the gullible suckers again. The only think trump is doing is stuffing his pockets with tax payer $ and with bribes from billionaires.
Reich is right that affordability and corruption are the same story. But the memo has a weak spot, and Republicans will drive a truck through it.
The frame assumes voters reward the party that names the disease. They don’t. Hungary is instructive but not the way the memo uses it. Magyar did not win by cataloguing Orbán’s graft. He won by being a defector from inside the machine, someone whose biography proved the rot was real. The message worked because the messenger was credible. Democrats do not have that. They are the incumbents of the old system, and “our record on corruption is not perfect” is the kind of line that tells a swing voter you already know the counterpunch lands.
Here is the deeper problem. Outrage at oligarchs is not the same as belief that anyone will stop them. Voters in low-trust conditions do not sort politicians into clean and corrupt. They sort them into competent thieves and incompetent ones, and then they pick the competent thief because at least something gets done. That is the actual mechanism of Orbán’s durability, and of Trump’s. A memo that lists fifteen bribes without explaining why the other side keeps winning anyway is just feeding the cynicism it needs to defeat.
So the test for every Democratic candidate is brutally simple. Not “can you name the corruption.” Voters already know. It is “why should I believe you are different, and what will you have actually delivered in my life within twelve months.” Item five of the memo, the policy list, is where the campaign lives or dies. And it is the shortest section. Reverse that. Lead with the deliverable, close with the corruption. People do not vote against a villain. They vote for a result they can picture.
Johan🐌
I plan to summarize this post from Robert and send it to my political group. We are about 75 strong. I'm going to urge them to write one or two postcards a week, choosing a couple of items from this list and asking them to elaborate with their personal feelings. OR call the main switchboard and ask for their representatives and leave a message about what they want their legislators to do.
If as a group, we all (including readers here) can create a few thousand cards or calls, it could grab someone's attention. Maybe a lot of legislators' attention. I don't care if your legislator already is on board. Give them backup so they can say, "I heard from many constituents, and they agree with my votes." They need proof that you're behind them.
There are a few Republicans (like Alaska's Murkowski) who may well abandon the Republican path to destruction. Let's be sure to include them in this campaign to emphasize the points made here!
Somehow we need to get this whole thing in front of the Dems in Congress and the State Democratic Parties. It is long but well worth their time to read. The problem is that comment forms for my Rep and Senators won't allow me to add a link. Anybody got any ideas beyond printing it and mailing it to them?
Stephen, when I want to re-send something to my senator who has a character limit, I cut in the best most direct parts, send that, then make another post that has more, also the most important points of that part of the item. I always indicate where I got the information. Sending 2 or 3 notes from the same post does work. I get three identical responses, but I am hoping staffers will read it and pass on at least some of it. My Republican senator doesn't care what I write, though because he is a stooge, I believe put into office by the Musk algorithm insertion, but my pseudoDemocratic senator Fetterman sometimes gets the point that we are not pleased. It doesn't change his loyalty to Trumplandia, but there is some tiny hint of something related to his oath of office left and maybe it will get him to do something for the people.
Succinctly summarize.
Frank, a good idea!
Why summarize it? Send the whole thing. Readers Digest version doesn't tell the whole story. If Dr Reich wanted to post a "summarized" version of his "memo" he would have. At which point, would you have fully understood what he's saying? By sending a summary, you're not giving your group the ability to understand his details.
You can’t leave messages for any Republicans - they have turned that off in the DC offices citing that they are “ overloaded with volume of questions”
I would give up trying; I have . Rather I am starting to work in person to support local Dem candidates
OK, thanks for that info, Susan Beal! I will try to find an old-fashioned mailing address to each of their home state offices - and send an email.
Perhaps, but my MAGA House member's staff HAS responded to two of my emails in the past month.
Were the responses the same prefabricated thanks for your thoughts & about how your representative is working hard for the citizens in their district to make life safe, affordable & prosperous? Did it include their determination to support president tRump's agenda as mandated by his landslide win in 2024? That's the crap I get from my congressman, John Rutherford, in Jacksonville, FL.
ditto Ann ( banality of evil) Wagner MO2D. They know how to sing on the same tune -little fascistic sticks in the bundle.
Maybe you and other people who have contacted GOP representatives and get insufficient replies should write a comment in your local newspaper about how they didn't answer your question.
Yes, the deliverable is key. But a laundry list of policies won’t inspire a movement. The policies have to be themed, and have to clearly contrast versus the competition. As Simon Sinek argues, “ People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” So in my view, the policies in item 5 can be packaged within the universal American value of FAIRNESS (versus corruption). Democrats should fight for fair taxes, fair elections, fair healthcare, etc. because voters across ideological and class boundaries believe in fairness (accountability, level playing field, transparency…). Republicans’ greed and corruption invite an easy contrast.
And… Yes, the Dems have a trust problem, a weak spot that “Republicans can drive a truck through”. If the party and our candidates are smart, they will follow the advice of @AdamBonica (On Data and Democracy):
“…when pollsters ask voters to describe the Republican Party, the most common response is “corrupt.”
Yet Democrats can’t capitalize on this vulnerability because they lack credibility. When party leaders condemn big money while courting billionaires to fund their Super PACs, when they decry corporate influence while taking millions from industries they regulate, voters see hypocrisy.
Most voters don't differentiate between large campaign donations and outright bribes. While legally distinct, in public opinion, they're functionally the same. Voters see a system where wealth buys access and influence, and they're not wrong.
The conventional wisdom insists Democrats need big money to compete. This is demonstrably false. As I’ve detailed elsewhere, Democrats have structural advantages they’re failing to leverage: Republicans depend on mega-donors for 56% of their funding versus only 18% for Democrats. Democrats maintain robust support from small and mid-sized donors, fueled by professionals and overwhelming support from younger generations—an advantage they are arguably squandering.”
Dems should swear off big donor $$, whether from “good” billionaires or bad. From corporate PACs and dark money groups. Walk the talk. To quote Simon Sinek again, “What you do proves what you believe.”
https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/how-to-fight-gop-corruption-the-empirical?r=27igv1&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
We in Canada, and other democracies, are also suffering the consequences of this criminal Republican fascist regime. A sweeping Democratic win is a win for all democratic countries.
Unfortunately, it appears that Chuck Schumer and Hakim Jeffries have become liabilities, not assets, for the party. When addressing the public on urgent matters (which is rarely), it's painful to watch them. They come off as ineffective, low-energy, out of touch, and slow, like they're on tranquilizers - no urgency in putting out the blazing fascist dumpster fire that is raging out of control.
Simply put, no passion, no fight, no rocking the boat. Accepting big donor money is also not helping, especially AIPAC money - another huge anchor weighing down the ship.
I agree. Do people want to be elected to serve or to get rich and set themselves up as lobbyists?
Agree. I'm a school teacher and even my little kids all understand and promote the notion of fairness. A corrupt government hurts all the people. That's not fair!
Agree. Problem is dems aren’t apple, a few maybe, like mamdani, but the dnc couldn’t find a why to save our lives.
What's fair is EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL UNDER LAW! And what's wise is to follow the true economic assessment of fair and practical vs. unfair and stupid economic and human rights record, which clearly shows the Democrats as far above the alternative trumpian fools, murderers and traitors.
No party and no individual is perfect. And tens of millions of voters will never agree on what would be "perfect" solution to this dilemma. It's a choice between which side will continue to lead to total destruction, and which side will continue to make progress toward survival and enact policies that will "float all boats" as JFK used to say.
Mamdani has provided the recipe for success by doing what he promised to do.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/19/when-i-look-zohran-mamdani-jealous-of-new-yorkers
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/may/18/heres-a-list-of-things-zohran-mamdani-has-done-in-just-four-months
And yet senior Democrats don't want to acknowledge his success.
Forget success, they seem unwilling to accept he even exists. Says a lot when trump pays him far more attention than dem "leadership".
You are so right. And it makes me furious.
I assume they are afraid to talk much about him for fear of getting labeled socialist. Those socialist Democrats!
People don't vote against a villian. They vote for the lesser of two villians. The secret to winning the midterms is no secret. Whoever does a better job of painting their opponent as a villain will be the winner. Thanks to Professor Reich for the can of paint in today's article.
Many are beginning to realize that the only villain is the continuously lying trump-the-terrible, first American Dick-tater-wannabe.
Voters are attracted by what they will get from a change in government. Give them something positive to vote for, and look forward to, not just the unknown of swopping one corrupt regime for a not much better regime.
Thanks, Carolyn W. If one takes a careful look at the Biden/Harris administration's record, economic and otherwise, one will find that continuing on that Democatic administration's trend will be an excellent decision for the electorate to make. It was a hell-of-a-lot better than that of Repubs in recent decades, though not perfect, of course...
That's assuming, of course, that the Democrats offer a clear alternative to the electorate which looks to the future and doesn't rely on the past, particularly a recent past which is so ridiculed by Trump. The temptation, when one party is in the ascendant offering far right policies, is for the opposition to offer Trump light or whichever demagogue is in power. Two wrongs don't make a right as my mother used to say!!
Oh my goodness! You hit the nail on the head!
Agree wholeheartedly. The last paragraph of Professor Reich's article is the most important. Lay out what the Democrats plan to do differently if they regain Congress.
You are so right. Keep it simple, stupid.
Republicans win selling hate. Democrats lose selling policies. The difference isn't the economy or the issues — it's the product being sold.
Polling tells you what people want. It doesn't tell you what moves them. A laundry list of affordability fixes and corruption charges is a policy platform. It is not a vision. And vision is what wins elections.
The Democrats need to sell reform — not as a program, but as a promise. A common grassroots benefit. Something felt in the gut, not processed in the head.
Bring back our pride. Restore the power of the vote. Sell democracy itself as the product.
That's not a policy. That's a cause. And causes beat hate only when they burn just as hot.
Johan, I believe you’re being a bit too cynical about voters. You are overlooking the deliberate deception republicans orchestrated over the years in order to manipulate voters.
The Trump Kleptocracy 2 has opened their eyes to what many democrats have known for years and they are finally seeing DT for who he really is &
connecting the dots between their reduced circumstances & republican
fecklessness.
The lack of deliverables from dems is due to republican intransigence and that fact isn’t lost on voters either.
Granted, democrats must call it out, illustrate it and drive it into the voters consciousness, and I think they are up
to the task of doing that. They have created evidence by forcing votes on the War Powers Act and Epstein files.
Bottom line—voters don’t like to be deceived and taken advantage of by
the people they elected in good faith,
and there will be a reckoning, if there
is a fair election.
Magyar also hit the pavement. He put in the time for a couple years and connected. I have seen aoc, mamdani, huffman and many more do this, but dems as a whole can barely connect even with many of us on this thread. We are fighting handcuffed and blind, with an adversary that appears more committed. I do not think it bodes well.
Mayor Pete is doing just that - every day hitting the pavement mostly in Republican areas where truths are needed
Thanks, Johan, but the U.S. is not Hungary, and I believe Democrats will overcome the perception by some that we are representative of the "old system." The economic facts of the last 90 years show a definite advantage to the progressive policies over the old ultra selfish, brutal version of capitalism that does not need to be the characterization of all capitalism. We've come through the "Great Depression" & the "Great Recession" and through 4 years of recovery from the first trumpian fiasco under the leadership of Democrats. The Biden/Harris economic record is clearly superior to Republicans in recent decades.
I trust that you are not trying to divide and conquer with your comments. I think you have made some suggestions that are well worth serious consideration by myself and others. But I think people will vote against this demonstrably destructive gang of murderous traitors who follow a totally incompetent, unethical nincompoop who is leading us to the destruction of all humanity with his anti-science delusional self-importance...
“why should I believe you are different, and what will you have actually delivered in my life within twelve months.”
Gold...... pure gold....
Robert spends a lot time naming trump's crimes. Not news any more.
You are right, Johan. What each voter will be asking of his representative is what has s/he done for me and the country. Democrats must go on the offensive; they have to link past efforts to future promises to fight the forever shifting cost of living from the super rich to the rest of the population. Tax cuts, tariffs, slush funds, ventures abroad drive up the treasury deficit, which means that we all have to pay higher interest rates on the public debt, consequently, there is less money for education, health care, infrastructure. Trump's corruption is a major driver of this theft of the nation, but he is the tip of the iceberg..
Yep, it worked in Hungary to get rid of Orban. The technique is sound and logical, tie the Trump regime's corruption to the country's many economic problems. Trump is constantly blaming presidents Biden and Obama, but that probably won't hold up well with most people when the facts are laid out. Hard to argue with the much higher cost of liviing
- Karen Cooper
so, would finding the plans for an incinerator in the bunker of the ball room make trump weaker or stronger?
Well said, Johan!
Well said - voters do not reward a party for discovering or naming a disease. They do get rewarded for identifying the majority's pain points, and offering a solution.
Trump's Game of Thrones--
Removing the competition is the first thing Trump endeavors to do when dealing with his adversaries. He secretly entered the Country of Venezuela and kidnapped its President and his wife. He aided Netanyahu in removing the head of Iran's government. Now he wants to arrest Fidel Castro's 94 year old brother. He seems to have a severe dislike for foreign leaders. He belittled Zelenskyy because he felt his cards held nothing of importance. He abused the relationship with King Frederik X of Denmark, and President Mulino of Panama wasn't left out of the fray as well. It would be fitting for Mr. Trump to take the walk of shame through the streets of Westeros..While the Democrats desperately search for John Snow...
John Snow?
Dorothy--A main character in the best drama ever filmed--The Game of Thrones..John is the caliber of individual we need to run for the Presidency in 2028.
Higher taxes on rich people and on rich corporations. Tax churches. Americans For Tax Fairness org.
Wealth tax. Higher estate taxes. Close tax loopholes for people and for corporations.
Raise the Social Security tax cap on high earning people. Prohibit stock buybacks by publicly traded companies.
End tax breaks for professional sports teams. End offshore tax avoidance.
Pay off the national debt. Create a national surplus instead of having a national debt.
The top 1% of America holds 40% of the wealth. It's time the public understands how this happened and what we can do about it. Inequality Media org, Robert Reich.
American Promise net. Reasonable limits on money in politics. Free Speech For People org.
Defend Our Courts com. The Voting Rights Act. End voter suppression. Ranked choice voting. Fairvote org. Vote org.
Gaslighting is when scotus says there is no voter suppression and we don’t need The Voting Rights Act.
Statehood for DC, Puerto Rico and for US Territories. DC Vote org, DC Statehood Pac com, PR51st com , prstatehoodcouncil org. Universal health care. Medicare for all. Eliminate for profit health care companies.
Why Congress Lets Drug Companies Rip Us Off. Legalized corruption: pharmaceutical edition. Jon Ossoff. The Powell memo. The Heritage Foundation. The Federalist Society. Unitary Executive Theory. The Existentialist Republic.
Automatic voter registration option through every DMV. Universal voter registration. Universal mail in ballots.
Environmental Vote Project, Environmental Voter org. Search voting rights. Prison reform. Prison legal news org.
Human Rights Watch, HRW org.
Why does every right wing solution for poverty, hunger, health and employment involve giving rich people more money?
We have to create jobs by cutting taxes and reducing regulations. Make businesses more competitive so they can send jobs overseas, use ai, make more money for executives and shareholders.
Reduce or eliminate protections for the environment, health, safety, workers, wildlife, endangered species.
Privatize gains, share losses of economic meltdowns, destruction of the environment. That is what the government is for, to help rich people and rich corporations. Offshore income and profits to tax havens.
Oligarchs are a cancer on society. The grift.
trickle down is a golden shower. Change my mind. The 100 bumper sticker project. Peel here >
Not many checks and balances, but we have corruption in every branch, executive, congress, supreme court (scotus) ,
Greg Palast com, investigative reporting.
who the f goes bankrupt running a casino? may the odds be ever in your favor.
Cognitive test. I did a puzzle that said 3 to 4 years on the box. I finished it in just two months. - djt .
a visionary sex worker with an einstein visa. a freak pickleball accident.
Low IQ Donald J Trump is a thug and a clear and present danger to our country and the World. He is a convicted felon of 34 counts of felony. He is in the Epstein files. He was found guilty by a jury of his peers of sexual abuse.
FOTU$ (Felon of the United $tates) , djt , Susie T. Buell, The Rising.
did someone say epstein files? Look at the UFO files instead. Start a war to distract the peasants.
I don't agree about taxing churches. Unless they tell people how to vote or express opinions like, "You're going to Hell if you vote Democratic, etc." Churches are non-profit organizations, and many of them live on small budgets while doing a lot of good social work and avoiding direct political statements. By contrast, those mega-churches, which have pastors living in sprawling homes and flying in their own jets, should pay taxes. Those definitely are NOT non-profit!
Donna, Thank you. That was my reaction as well. As trustee president of my church, I know how difficult it is to pay the bills. But even so, we run a foundation that provides social services to immigrants and others in the community that reach a lot of people. And I agree, the mega churches are a problem.
Many of our untamed churches do tell you how to vote and for whom to vote. Tax "churches" like that. I have a friend who is mentally challenged and he goes to a church that tells you how to vote and for whom to vote. He is obsessed with voting. His parents tell him who he will vote for, regardless of anything I tell him or show him. He can not understand politics or voting. He shows up to mark his maga ballot and get a sticker. It makes me ill that this happens.
Ok - then just tax mega churches - they are the only ones making money for themselves - they already hurt local churches who are losing their parishioners, and are less able to help the poor in their own community.
I agree, Donna. Mostly churches are a force for good. Mine houses all sorts of anonymous meetings and serves soup twice a week to homeless and whoever,
I agree with everything you say but this is what really scares me these days. Despite his bluster, Trump knows he, his administration and his policies are deeply unpopular and yet he continues down the same path. He doesn’t seem at all concerned about the midterms. It makes me wonder if he and his corrupt toadies have already put in place a plan to rig the midterms and are so confident in that plan that he feels absolutely invincible. I fear this will be the ugliest and ostensibly the most corrupt election in American history. Jan 6th proved that he is capable of anything.
Yes - they are fixing the ballot counting machines - as they did in 2020 and 2024. It's been proven now in almost every swing state election.
Paper ballots and immediate verification of the count are VITAL.
ROBERT, you need to add the arms industry that is directly profiting from the war and finally ..... investors and gamblers with insider knowledge making big profits from the chaotic Trump way of governing by making bets on the roller coaster of decisions, conflicting information, and i am sure Trump gets his share in all of this.
Thank you for making the connection between Trump's corruption and affordability so clear.
And I notice you have over 100000 followers. Probably much more. You are huge success.
Connection vivid. Effective solution seems elusive with the mara lago mafia / con man in control.
One of the things that angers me about Democrats (and I usually vote for Democrats of more progressive or socialist bent) is that they do not name what they want to do. When you emphasize the opposition to a politician or policy voters lack a real choice. Just saying you oppose a weak, silent MAGA Republican like the one in my district, doesn't tell me what you will do instead. Democrats need clarity of intent. So your number 5 should come first. Real health should come first. This includes universal health care like they have in Europe, paid for with income tax money. It includes environment environmental health: clean water, clean air, healthy forest, protected sensitive areas of beauty, like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Bristol Bay, Oak Flat, already protected National Monuments and Wilderness Areas, and more. It includes energy health that addresses climate change. We need to stop burning fossil fuels and increase solar, wind and battery systems. It includes healthy, available and affordable housing. It includes a strong education system from preschool to graduate school. After stating what Democrats want to do, then you can attack what government should not do, which the Trump administration demonstrates in spades.
At least it’s not just us that T hates. It’s reported that his son is getting married this weekend in the Bahamas and T used the excuses of possibly not attending as the “optics wouldn’t look good” and he is dealing with “a little thing called Iran”. Since when does he care about optics or dealing with Iran? Instead he will be at his summer home in NJ and most likely playing golf.
My youngest is going to be getting married in August and I’d be damned if I wouldn’t do everything that I could to be there. Housebound or not I’ll be there. I guess Donnie Jr didn’t rake in as much money as T wanted this year especially since T just got away with no tax audits and a 1.8 billion dollar slush fund. No, T is going to ignore the wedding, and his own child, the same as he ignores the rest of us and the “excuses” are just a convenience.
Just because someone has a (D), (R) or (I) behind their name doesn’t mean that I blindly elect them. I do my research on the position, the candidate and what they are running for and then I make my decision. Why others vote blindly because of party affiliation is beyond my comprehension. Hopefully your message will get through to people so they don’t vote against their best interests. After T’s latest stunt how can anyone believe that the GOP has their best interests at heart? They are literally spending our money on things that none of us wanted. Please don’t make it all about T because he will eventually be gone. Give us the examples but also the answers to what you can do better if you are elected.
It's a measure of how effective the extreme right's propaganda machine is that many voters are now so brainwashed that they can't see the people and the class that are responsible for their despair, nor the fact that fifty years of neoliberalism have corrupted capitalism beyond repair.
The triumph of the right has been to assign blame for the current crisis (and therefore its cause) in a way that ensures that the responsibility for this immoral chaos is not assigned to the individuals who are actively pursuing it.
'Move fast and break things' Who cares if what you are breaking is a decent society.
Extreme wealth has now become so concentrated in a few hands that it corrupts everything it touches.
The ultimate expression of the notion that it's ok to buy anything if you've got the money to do so is, of course, the Epstein grooming gang, the ultimate expression of ruling class contempt for the poor and vulnerable.
In the neighborhoods I have canvassed it is the poorer ones where would be voters have too often given up--" nothing ever changes" they say. With a good amount of truth. In a nearby upscale hood the voters are primed and ready to go.
The uncomfortable part of modern American politics is that corruption accusations no longer shock anyone because people increasingly assume every institution is compromised.
That changes democracy psychologically.
When citizens stop believing clean governance is possible, they stop choosing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ candidates. They start choosing between:
- people who feel culturally loyal to them
- people who seem effective,
- or people they think will punish the other tribe harder.
That’s an extremely dangerous societal shift because it turns politics from civic management into emotional warfare.
Do you think Americans still genuinely trust any major institution anymore: media, government, corporations, universities, courts, public health, Wall Street?
Bingo!
Thank you Professor Reich. This is an excellent compilation of all the results to this day that our Corrupter and Thief and his Guardians of Pedophilia have bestowed upon all of us. The Democrats have to bring back Law and Order and Justice for ALL of the corrupt perpetrators. They must pay for their crimes!
Keith - “ They must pay for their crimes!” - Just as long as they don’t take so long to get to the convictions next time.
Democrats have a lot to talk about for sure. Let's get on with it.
Reich’s core argument lands because Americans across the political spectrum increasingly believe the system is rigged for insiders. The disagreement is over which insiders. Democrats blame billionaires and corporate capture. Republicans blame bureaucracies, media, academia, and global institutions. But underneath both narratives is the same collapsing public trust. A country can survive disagreement. It struggles to survive when nobody believes the referees anymore.
The AI Data centers and regulating them from eliminating 80 million American jobs should be issue number 1. A red district of Missouri had a council who voted to build a data center against the peoples wishes there. Every incumbent who voted for the data center lost his seat in the election by a large margin. If Americans constantly vote Republican because they fear change, make them afraid of the change of AI and vow to regulate and slow it down. Make it our benefit and not the oligarchs.
This is a great summary of all that Trump has accompished after being elected President a second time. I just cannot think who to send it to.
Half or the people already are quite aware of all of these things and the other half are determined not believe any of it.
I recall trump during the campaign sitting out front of the white house with a table of groceries behind him . How did he keep a straight face ? He knew he couldn’t care less about food prices nor was he gonna do anything about it if he won. The great con-artist fooled the gullible suckers again. The only think trump is doing is stuffing his pockets with tax payer $ and with bribes from billionaires.