Place the Democratic Party in Receivership
Nineteen months until the midterms
You probably know I’m a registered Democrat, I’ve only lived in deep blue states and I take the obligations of American citizenship seriously. I’m a voting, law abiding, tax paying business owner proud of my small but consistent contributions to the economy. I do my utmost to grow my clients’ businesses and by doing so, I generate money for my workers. I’ve had advantages in my life, namely, being born as a first generation middle class person, and like all of us, many detriments.
As the maternal grandson of immigrants fleeing for their lives, I know how fortunate I am to be American. As the son of a father born into poverty who suffered from malnutrition, I know his story of rising to the middle class is the American dream, even if he had to survive two years of the Vietnam War as his price of entry.
After travel to illiberal countries like Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Vietnam, with a pitstop in Hong Kong where men with machine guns controlled the airport, I know firsthand that our democracy is precious.
Last platitude: I believe, deep in my kishkes, all people are made in God’s image. Everyone is equal. To me as an American, this manifests as all of us deserving moral treatment, a fair shot at opportunity and assuming the best about each other unless proven otherwise.
To make America an unqualified success that delivers on these values, we need a competitive political system where the best performing policies and practices rise to the top. We don't have that now. And it's not because an external force interfered with or thwarted the Democrats. Their wounds are self inflicted. I don’t see them capable of change or mounting a credible alternative to the Republicans. This is why it’s imperative to put the the Democratic Party into receivership. Time is short. Only 19 months until the midterms.
It’s impossible to make accurate political predictions, especially with a rocky economy that was so weak after Biden’s term. Whatever your partisan bias is, it’s fair to observe that the succeeding president inherited an economy with:
higher priced retail goods and food after years of inflation
overall unaffordability and increasing income inequality
dearth of good jobs
no new infrastructure despite historic legislation
disastrous lack of housing
No matter what a PhD in economics says, that’s all true. Add to that rising tuition which is never recognized as inflation by said PhD’s, rising health insurance costs, the rising price of new cars and, in New York at least, rising utility rates that we’re now told will skyrocket upwards for “green” initiatives. The only green I see is the color flying from my pocket.
Now the economy is made worse by the volatility of Trump’s extreme tariff swings. As of now, this is the only factor truly threatening the Republicans in the midterms.
Republicans and sanguine nonpartisans were hoping Trump would reduce bureaucracy and onerous regulations, create fiscal conditions for lowering interest rates and soon preside over a growing economy. Will that happen by summer 2026?
For all our sakes I hope so, but there’s nothing like political competition to improve the policy product.
That’s why it’s urgent for a small board of vetted Democrats to place the DNC in receivership. Yep, I’m taking a cue from Columbia University’s acquiescence to the Trump administration’s demands to belatedly implement common sense security rules to protect its students, and to once again put their Middle East, South Asian and African studies department under receivership, but now for the more pressing matter of purging it from ideological capture by anti Western ideologues who sometimes align with terrorists, and always with anti-Jewish bigots.
If the Democratic Party doesn’t take the same receivership approach, I don’t think it’ll bounce back in the next few years, if not longer. The party isn't capable of creating or implementing policy that meaningfully advances American lives. Blue states are in deep trouble when you look at almost any metric for the majority of their residents: wealth inequality, lack of housing and increasing homelessness, decaying infrastructure, incredibly high cost of living, and red tape at all levels throttling small businesses and home building. In blue states it's impossible to make it through the month without a barrage of fees and fines and costs and tolls and taxes that only increase while delivering fewer benefits.
One measure of this by looking at how many Americans move from blue states to cheaper, better run red states like the Carolinas, Florida and Texas. The fact that blue states are gerrymandered to remain blue makes means forcing change at the very top is the only path forward. It's hard to imagine an effective and fast grassroots restructuring.
Meanwhile, the top of the party also isn’t capable of changing on its own. Party leaders are now fighting each other, curiously by focusing their ire on the Jewish senator Chuck Schumer. While this internal struggle continues, and has undertones of anti-Jewish bigotry like we saw for Josh Shapiro’s bid to VP nominee, next fall looms.
At the federal level the Democrats are in even worse shape. The measurement here is simply looking at who has power.
Here’s a fun example to consider.
More than 50% of young black American men voted for Trump. Before you play the Republicans are racist card — which I am guilty of in the first administration — you have to ask, are black young men stupid — or do they vote for their self interest, like all voters?
Please remember the top paragraphs, where all people are equal and deserve the benefit of the doubt.
If Trump is a better choice for the majority of 20-year-old black men, then unless the Democratic Party is forced to immediately make serious and profound changes, I encourage these men to keep doing what they think is best if that means voting for Republicans.
Same for Latinos.
Same for Asians
Same for working class men and women.
Same for religious people.
Instead of denigrating Trump voters, especially ethnic minorities who we’re told are central to the Democratic party, ask instead: who was their better alternative?
Did young black men see tangible benefits during the Obama or Biden administrations? Would they have financially benefited from a Harris presidency? Would she have delivered new structures, new safety measures, new high paying jobs?
Are these voters the problem, or does blame lie with the politicians asking for their votes? If that’s a reasonable question with a clear answer, then what can we do about it?
The Democratic party focuses on (1) ranking individual identities within evolving and narrowly-defined parameters of privilege and victimhood and (2) relying on bureaucracies that enforce the status quo. This is their two-pronged solution to the answer of how we should run America. Prosperity, building things and safety aren’t mentioned. Government efficacy and accountability doesn’t come up.
Put another way, where did the Inflation Reduction Act money go?
I like to call the Democratic the DEI/Trans/Palestine coalition. The party and the left wing movement that’s captured it has been wildly successful at elevating all three topics to a sustained national conversation. It's their only achievement.
I think it’s right to note that identity, as defined by marginalization (don’t ever, ever be in the center of the page, be on the margins to get ahead in the Democratic party/college campus/HR department) is their key principle. Marginalization is their measure for promoting their leadership, but oddly, not how they go after voters who are told they should identify as marginal.
After identity comes bureaucratic solutions that, wouldn’t you know it, reinforce a status quo tilted in favor for a small cadre of high income earners. Way smarter observers than I, like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, note that the Democratic party has built a huge government that’s incredibly weak.
DOGE is one answer to tackling bureaucratic inflation, waste, bias and inefficacy. The Democratic answer is…
Still waiting…
Any day now…
The Democrats, as a party, as a political movement, as cultural, media and academic hegemons, don’t even ask the question: how do we make America function competitively and prosperously for more than a few? Sure, Bernie Sanders (not a member of the party) and few celebrity politicians give this lip service, but they’re so captured by identity ranking and bureaucratic solutions, that in the unlikely event that voters empowered them, it’s hard to imagine their efficacy. At anything.
You don’t have to be a 20-year-old black man to notice that valorizing his skin color won’t get him a good job, quality housing or a better commute. In this case, the Democratic remedy for his supposed marginalization, even if this man is born into wealth or has a loving and supportive family, is to create HR structures that are proven to not work, unless by work, you mean employing bureaucrats who increase the overhead of whatever institution they’ve captured.
If a political party is focused on advancing young black people, maybe looking at home ownership, quality of early education and safety is more effective than having a large bank’s HR department discriminate against non-black employees. Just a thought.
The Democratic party’s current slogan is: we’re not Trump! They maintain their grip on influential legacy news outlets, all major cultural institutions and the academy so they can add nuance like, be afraid of Trump! And, Trump bad! That’s their pitch.
If the Democratic Party was a person, you might ask him or her, “I can see you’re not hawking your buddy’s cars at the White House lawn and you’re not open to crypto bribery. Please tell me what you’re for?”
If they answer, “I’m invested in reducing racial inequality via institutional remedies,” or “the economy isn’t as bad as you think is, either is crime,” I suggest walking away and asking about the lease terms for a Tesla.
How can we fix this? This is the rare moment we can look to Columbia University for an education. We need a small handful of vetted Democratic governors and legislators with a bipartisan track record of success, I’m thinking Governor Josh Shapiro of PA, Governor Wes Moore of MD, and heck, I’d beg Phil Scott, the Republican governor of VT, to help the blue team for the love of God and Country. A small crew of senior politicians need vast administrative, policy and fund raising controls of the DNC, at all levels, as they gut and remake the party so it focuses on the issues that matter most to Americans, and implement practices to realize those policies.
Focusing on the rare outsider working class Democratic congressperson makes for refreshing op-eds, and the division within the party’s far left wing and centrist leadership creates exciting twists and turns, but neither delivers electoral successes that help people.
If helping Americans isn’t the mission of the Democratic Party, then it’s fair to look elsewhere next fall.