Team,
Since the election, many Rhode Islanders have reached out asking what comes next. Democrats need to organize to win, and to stop Trump’s administration from looting the American people for his creepy billionaires.
One problem: we’ve never had an organized offense to counter their massive operation. They’ve polluted our politics with dark money; captured the Supreme Court; and corrupted Congress on climate (and other issues). So one thing we can do is get effective systems in place to fight.
As Democrats choose a new leader for the Party, I’ve sent DNC delegates a letter urging that we get organized for the battles ahead.
The Trump administration is going to be a target-rich festival of corruption, so Democrats need a well-thought-out offense to expose that corruption and fight boldly for working people.
I’m working to make that happen, and I hope you'll join me. Here's the letter:
—
Dear DNC delegate:
I’d like to take a moment of your time to make the case for a "fighting DNC" that keeps a persistent spotlight on the corruption behind the Republican Party. I offer these points:
1. Our party has no place where an offense is planned or delivered. When we have a Democratic president, the White House is a natural place for this effort, but it has not recently been used much that way; and when we don’t have that, there’s no other place. All of us who’ve traveled overseas to visit troops in combat areas have seen (to use a military analogy) the coordination centers with video monitors and satellite feeds that coordinate and de-conflict operational activities. Our party has no equivalent place, nor anyone whose role (to use a football analogy) is offensive coordinator.
2. We have as a party little muscle memory for fighting. We in Congress customarily say we’re “fighting” for things when we really mean working or toiling. A fight means a defined adversary, a battle strategy, and actual punches thrown. Done well, it involves exposing and degrading your adversary’s machinery of warfare. Democrats are constantly on the receiving end of a right-wing war machine with all those capabilities, and we have none institutionalized anywhere. We are more likely to follow polling than an offense strategy, which always puts us behind and not leading. The "capability gap" is so great that our adversaries can rapidly and effectively deploy false narratives, while we struggle to bring true ones to bear.
3. Three dramatic things have happened in our country which Democrats bemoan, even oppose, but don’t fight: the onslaught of corrupting right-wing dark money; the success of the fossil fuel industry’s fraudulent climate denial operation; and the capture of the Supreme Court. For each, there’s a story to tell: of secret influence and spending, a devilish plan, and creepy billionaires in the background (pretty much the same creepy billionaires across all three, by the way). The public hates all of it; but most people don’t know we’re any better than Republicans on these issues, because we don’t tell the stories. So there are real opportunities if we execute an offense.
As you deliberate on the selection of your next Chair, I hope you will figure in to your deliberations the opportunities that a persistent, well-run, strategic “offensive coordinator” role could bring to our team, and how the DNC could best support that role. The upcoming Trump administration will be a target-rich environment.
Very sincerely,
Sheldon Whitehouse
