The Democratic Party might be trash, but let’s stop pretending it matters

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

I believe Magic Johnson is the best basketball player who ever lived.

I believe Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time.

I think Kanye West is a genius producer with an ongoing struggle with mental health exacerbated by the death of his mother. And I think he is a narcissistic asshole. I prefer salt on my grits, and I believe comedian KevOnStage shouldn’t be charged with hate crimes against the Black community just because he eats sugar-grits (A five-year stint in a medium-security state penitentiary should suffice). 

Two things can be true.

Despite what you may have gleaned from social media posts, cable news quarrels or barbershop-based bickering, you don’t actually have to pick a side on every issue. Ignoring subtlety, nuance and contributing factors might win an argument in the confines of the Twitterverse, but many subjects are more complex than 280 characters will allow. Some things are good. Some things are bad. Most are somewhere in between. 

And yes, the Democratic Party is trash.

There is no question that the Democratic leadership has largely failed on issues that affect their Black constituency. During election season, progressive candidates waltzed into Black churches, fish fries and beauty salons promising the world. Now, they are whitesplaining away the lack of police reform legislation, voting rights and economic parity by blaming their failures on Republicans. They are bad at politics. They are bad at messaging. They are bad at fighting and terrible at winning. At their best, the Democrats represent a party of inept, spineless liars who take Black voters for granted during their always fruitless pursuit of moderate white voters. At their worst, they are Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. They are trash.

And, none of this matters.

On the Venn diagram that shows where far-right political ideology intersects with the far left and the moderate white middle is the naive idea that legislative policy, party platforms and money wins elections. Lies are inconsequential. Messaging is as irrelevant as bipartisanship. Any pundit who still pontificates about messaging strategy, believability and fundraising is either lying, desperate to fill a block of cable primetime news coverage or so naive that they are wholly unqualified to share their opinion. In the current political landscape, politics is the least important factor in winning a political race.

Because the Republican Party has rigged the game in their favor, nothing means anything.

To be fair, a lot of the criticisms of the Democratic Party are true. When Lincoln Project founder Steve Schmidt tweeted a thread on how Democrats’ communication failures will cause them to lose the midterm elections, he accurately described Republicans as a “cabal of “proven liars, weirdos, petty criminals, militia extremists, religious extremists, racist extremists, fascist extremists, conspiracy theorists and useful idiots in service to the cause of a Russian war criminal.” 

Much he said was true, especially when he explained how the vast majority of Americans are held hostage by a “tiny minority that has infested and strangled the mechanisms of party politics like Kudzu vines marinated in miracle grow overtaking a city.” That part wasn’t just beautifully poetic; it was also an astute political observation. But his claim that “the survival of American democracy will be dependent on the ability to connect and communicate effectively” overlooked a few minor details that his thesis conveniently ignored.

Schmidt probably forgot to mention how states teetering on the edge of democratic rule have used racial politics to preserve white power. Or maybe I missed the tweet about how gerrymandered congressional districts give the GOP a decided advantage in the House of Representatives. Perhaps I overlooked the part about how GOP-controlled legislatures in today! 

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