How to Save the Democrats

Take a page from the British playbook

Here’s something you may not know: In Great Britain, when one of the two major parties is out of power, they form something called a “shadow cabinet,” with their top politicians representing the positions they would have held if they were in power.

There is a leader of the opposition, who would become prime minister if their party wins the next election, and they make their own positions on the issues known, and question (and badger) those in power and out about what they are doing.

This is made easier because everyone in the British cabinet is a member of Parliament, and they, including the prime minister, have to submit to questions from the opposition on a regular basis. Well, we sadly don’t have what’s called question time here, but Democrats could certainly form a united front to let Americans know what the MAGAts are doing to them, and what Democrats would do instead.

Now some people would think that would be impossible because of the wide range of views in the Democratic Party. Almost a century ago, comedian Will Rogers famously said “I’m a member of no organized political party; I’m a Democrat.” Much more recently, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez observed that in any other multi-party western democracy, she and President Biden wouldn’t be in the same party.

So the fact that Democrats were too divided to unite in any meaningful way may have once been the case, but everything has been superseded by the new fascist order, and there are in fact a set of principles that not only all Democrats, but all decent persons can rally around. We all want to save and restore Medicare and save the Affordable Care Act and not increase the budget deficit to give more of a tax break to the super rich.

We all want decency and honesty and not to have thugs randomly seizing and deporting people. We all want to save the planet and not to have our economy ruined by insane tariffs, and none of us want a nuclear or any other kind of war.

So yes, Democrats could rally nearly their entire party and many independents around these themes. The question, however is who would be the Leader of the Opposition? Who can rally the nation behind these great issues? It certainly couldn’t be anyone who is running for President or is even suspected of wanting to do so.

It has to be someone of incredible intelligence, tact and integrity. In short, there is only one person who could fill that role.

Former President Barack Obama

He is one of only two Democrats in the nation who is legally disqualified from ever running again. (The other is Bill Clinton, who is Trump’s age.) Obama, who turns 64 tomorrow, is still immensely popular, someone people can rally behind, and someone who gives Donald Trump fits, since somewhere in his subconscious Trump knows or at least fears he is vastly inferior to our 44th president.

What if the Democrats were to hold a mini-organizing convention to unite the party and plan strategy? I think doing something like this is essential. These are not normal times. We are in deep danger of losing our democracy, our country, our world.

Later, after the midterms, the fight for the presidential nomination can get under way. But we need to make sure it is a nomination worth having, and establish a structure for saving what we want to save, and a definition of what America is and should be.

We have to do something, and this would give us a way to define ourselves, and start.