How the Democrats Lost — and How They Can Win Again
Inside the Democratic Party, the loudest debate of the moment asks a strangely small question: Should Democrats become more populist? More moderate? More socialist?
Ezra Klein’s answer is deceptively simple: yes — to all of it.
Not because the party needs a new ideology, but because American political power isn’t awarded to whoever gathers the most people. It’s awarded to whoever wins the most places. And to win more places, the party must widen its coalition, not narrow it.
The Democrats, Klein argues, have become excellent at persuasion but terrible at representation — at actually standing in for the full diversity of regions, identities, and interests that make up the nation. And representation, not ideological purity, is what wins power.
Why Democrats Are Losing Power
Klein’s analysis is blunt:
1) The map is killing them.
To retake the House, Democrats must overcome extreme Republican gerrymanders in Texas, North Carolina, and beyond.
To take the Senate in 2026, they must:
— Defend Georgia and Michigan
— Win Maine, North Carolina
— And
flip two states Trump won by 10+ points (Alaska, Florida, etc.)
2) The party is competitive in fewer and fewer regions.
In 2010, Democrats held Senate seats in Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, West Virginia.
Today? Almost unimaginable.
More people doesn’t matter unless they live in more places.
3) Representation has been replaced by moral lecturing.
One voter told a strategist:
“Republicans are crazy, but Democrats lecture me. I’d rather vote for crazy than condescending.”
Klein’s point: Democrats forgot that politics is a relationship, not a TED Talk.
The Deeper Cultural Problem: The Party Became Online
Between 2012 and 2024, social-media-driven “professional political classes” pulled Democrats sharply leftward on immigration, crime, race, guns, gender, education — precisely on the issues where the party later hemorrhaged Hispanic, Black, Asian, and working-class votes.
The only demographic that consistently moved toward Democrats during this period?
College-educated white voters.
Klein calls this the danger of “politics without representation.”
People can tell when a party is speaking to other elites
and not to them.
Bernard Crick’s Old Lesson: Politics = Living With Difference
Klein builds his argument around political theorist Bernard Crick, who defined politics as:
“The acceptance that different groups live together under a common set of rules.”
Politics, in Crick’s vision, is not personal purification.
It’s not ideological agreement.
It is the art of coexisting with people you disagree with — and still representing them.
Democrats once excelled at this.
In 2010, Obamacare passed because:
— Joe Manchin survived in deep-red West Virginia.
— Nebraska’s pro-life Democrat Ben Nelson provided the decisive vote.
— The House had 40 pro-life Democrats
.
The party held contradictory values — and enormous power.
Today the party holds more consistent values — and far less power.
The Social Media Distortion
Before social media, politicians balanced:
• local community expectations
• donor pressures
• party structures
• regional norms
Now?
Algorithms reward outrage and reward the loudest subculture within the party.
That subculture then becomes the de facto message for everyone.
Offline voters—especially nonwhite and working-class—feel alienated from the digital culture of their own party.
Klein puts it plainly:
Democrats started sounding like “online Democrats.”
Practical Path to Beating Trumpism
Klein’s prescriptions are the opposite of ideological purity.
1) Build a “big tent” that is truly big.
If New York democratic socialists win and Iowa moderates win, the party isn’t drifting left or right — it’s growing.
2) Accept regional difference.
Democrats must run pro-life candidates in deep-red states,
just as Republicans run pro-choice moderates like Susan Collins in blue states.
3) Stop policing internal disagreement.
Manchin, Golden, and other heterodox Democrats should not be targeted in primaries.
They’re the reason certain districts are even competitive.
4) Focus on local concerns, not online identity battles.
Hispanic voters care about wages, safety, schools, dignity — not Twitter debates.
Asian-American voters care about education and public order.
Black voters care about real economic outcomes, not symbolic language.
Working-class white voters care about respect and economic security.
5) Practice liberalitas — an older, deeper liberal virtue.
Klein cites historian Helena Rosenblatt:
Classical liberalism rested on liberality
, a civic generosity toward fellow citizens.
Not purity.
Not contempt.
Not “explaining their errors.”
It’s moral humility as a political strategy.
The Political Opportunity
NYT–Siena polling shows:
— #1 concern: the economy
— #2 concern: political division
— 64%
say America is “too divided to solve problems.”
Trump’s explicit message is:
“Hate them.”
Democrats’ opportunity is the opposite:
“We can govern a divided nation — because difference is the point of democracy .”
If Democrats become the party of coexistence, dignity, and pluralism — instead of the party of scolding — they can rebuild the majority they once had.
One-Sentence Takeaway
To beat Trumpism, Democrats don’t need a new ideology — they need a broader coalition grounded in representation, not righteousness.
