The Democratic Party Brand Is Broken — and Moving to the Middle Won’t Fix It

Some thoughts on the report that has sparked a massive intra-party debate

A new report released last week brought to the surface the never-ending battle over whether Democrats lost in 2024 because they were too liberal or not liberal enough.

Deciding to Win by Simon Bazelon — sponsored by WelcomePAC (an organization that argues Democrats must moderate to win) — is an extensive analysis of the 2024 election, the state of the Democratic Party, and the political environment. The six-month project involved polling hundreds of thousands of voters and consulting with operatives, activists, and elected officials at all levels.

The first press coverage of Deciding to Win framed it as follows:

Left-wing ideas have wrecked Democrats’ brand, new report warns

As anyone who has dabbled in the fight for the ideological soul of the Democratic Party can imagine, the reaction to this report has been polarizing to say the least. I’ve experienced some of that backlash because I am listed in the acknowledgements as one of the many people within the party that Simon et al. consulted with as they put the report together. Some took that as evidence that I endorse the report or all of its findings. In reality, I spoke with Simon several months ago to offer my thoughts.

I don’t agree with everything in the report, and I have a different take on the conclusions. Still, I appreciate the effort of anyone who is trying to dig into why Democrats keep losing elections to an unhinged, convicted felon with unpopular positions.

I am not convinced ideology is the right framework to analyze politics in 2025. The left/right axis has been scrambled as voters have become even more heterodox and Trump has changed what being a Republican means.

The answer to the complicated question of how to save our party before Trump destroys our country is more complex than “tack right or left.” At the risk of angering everyone and pleasing no one (which can be my specialty in the intra-party debates that enflame the internet), I want to dig into Deciding to Win because while I think it offers some essential data, tacking to the middle is a small-scale solution to a much bigger problem.

Voters See Democrats as Too Liberal

Whether you think Democrats need to moderate, get more progressive, or do something entirely different, you have to acknowledge that the Democratic brand is in the toilet. Our approval ratings are abysmal, people are registering as Republicans at a greater rate than Democrats, and most disturbingly, our numbers have not improved even as Trump’s have fallen.