Socialism or Abundance?

"Since last November's election defeat, the Democratic Party has been subject to an endless battery of postmortems, and a shadow primary is already being fought over who's got the formula to bring it back to life. Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin characterized the party's image as "weak and woke" and in need of "alpha energy." Pete Buttigieg grew a beard and blasted DEI-style training as "something out of Portlandia.""

"Not to be outdone on the regular-Joe front, Arizona senator Ruben Gallego explained that "every Latino man wants a big-ass truck." Massachusetts congressman Jake Auchincloss countered that such gestures are derivative "Diet Coke populism" and won't beat Trump at his own game, while California governor Gavin Newsom has overtly been trying to beat Trump at his own game with a new keyboard-warrior persona that speaks in all caps."

"Tactically, there's a different debate about whether to quietly bait the Republicans into unpopular overreach or to go on the offensive and do MAGA-style norm breaking, such as ultragerrymandering blue states or periodically letting the federal government run out of money as the Democrats ultimately did this fall. The chair of the Democratic National Committee pledged to stop bringing a pencil to a knife fight, while social media is full of progressive Substackers bemoaning the party's weak-kneed acquiescence."

"Then came the shocking September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which sent the Trump administration vowing revenge on the radical left and put most Democrats in retreat from any posture that might connote violent confrontation. See All So far, nothing the party has done has made a difference. Despite tariff-stoked market instability, paramilitary-style immigration raids, accusations of flagrant Republican bribe taking and quid pro quo graft, the demolition of the White House's East Wing, and the president's unshakable Jeffrey Epstein problem,"

The Democratic Party faces intense internal debate after an election defeat, with personalities offering divergent solutions to an image problem labeled "weak and woke." Some politicians push for populist gestures or combative postures to emulate Republican energy, while others criticize those moves as superficial and unlikely to defeat Trump. Tactics under consideration range from baiting Republican overreach to adopting norm-breaking strategies like aggressive redistricting or fiscal brinkmanship. Party leaders and progressive commentators clash over whether to escalate or de-escalate. The September assassination of a conservative activist intensified fears and pushed many Democrats away from confrontational stances, even amid numerous opposing scandals.

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