Building a Democratic Candidate
/By Don Varyu
We need to be more like Trump—in one way
Jul 2025
t’s starting again. The media—and Democrats-- simply can not help themselves.
Trump does outrageous and/or criminal things every single day. Really, what new can be said?
Thus, it’s painfully predictable the chattering class would fall back into their same old (very bad) habits. So many wrong questions are spilling out…
“What’s the right message to dismantle Trump?”
“What do the polls really tell us?”
“Who’s the very best person to deliver our message?”
And, most maddingly, “who will come forward RIGHT NOW and announce a run for president?”—THREE AND A HALF YEARS FROM NOW!
All the pearl clutching…all of the slicing and dicing of the last election results…all the residual anger at Biden—all that doesn’t matter. It’s moving us further away from progress. Trump didn’t win on an issue or a deft campaign slogan or a bloated financial war chest (Kamala’s was bigger).
You can crystallize his victory by looking at a single fact: he won in a landslide among people who pay little or no attention to politics (and for that matter, to most of the news). What this non-invooved sector hears is second hand—what someone at the bar or hairdressers mentioned. For Trump, ignorance truly was bliss.
But still, that doesn’t fully answer the question: why did he win?
f Democrats ever want to win again—whether control of the either the White House or Congress—they’re going to have to swallow one hard truth.
To beat Trumpism, they need candidates who are much more like Trump.
(See…I told you it would be hard to swallow.)
ow, I don’t mean Dems need to be the same kind of greasy, lying, cheating grifter that Trump has always been. I mean they need candidates who present on a personal level the way Trump does; they need to project power.
Consider all those voters who didn’t know much about either candidate last time around. They didn’t know Trump so much as they felt him. He was earthy and visceral and resentful and not taking s**t from anyone.
Kamala’s subliminal message was, “I am a uniter.”
Trump’s was, “I am strong.”
You know which message won. But…in this context…what does “strong” really mean?
think of this acronym: “PAP”. It means a combination of Power…Authenticity…and Purpose.
Power. Trump’s primary goal, as both a candidate and a President, is the raw accumulation of power. He will lie, threaten, and cheat to get it. But no one can claim that he doesn’t have it. All potential counterforces, ranging from local GOP party chairmen to justices on the Supreme Court, lunge to bow to kiss the ring. Our richest plutocrats do the same thing.
Democrats don’t need to mimic his odious tactics. But they have to be willing, at minimum, to step on some toes…to offend some big donors…and to even make interparty enemies when necessary. Few people like politicians whose only goal is to make everybody happy.
Authenticity. As important as what is said is how it’s said. Calm and carefully-reasoned arguments simply don’t cut it in the new media environment. Dems need to trade logic for spitting anger. There’s a reason Bernie Sanders is so popular. He talks to people about how they’re being economically ripped off; but of course, his audience already understands that. What’s moving them is the way he says it. He yells and rants and rails against Trump and the billionaires, waving an elderly pointy finger all the while. There’s a reason Bernie was the runner-up choice for Trump voters in 2016.
It’s the singer, not the song. Dems…are you paying attention?
Purpose. This is the point where Dems can not only match Trump--but thrash him. Remember during the campaign how he promised to channel and erase their anger: “I am your vengence!” He said they were his purpose—ha! His purpose is always and only him. (See Trump’s Master Plan.)
He doesn’t care about Americans because he doesn’t need them anymore. His traveling circus does not include plans of relief for the citizenry…even those being washed away in a Texas flood.
His armor can be pierced…first and foremost…by repeatedly reminding his voters of his constant violations of every principle on which America was founded—things like honesty, integrity, and shared sacrifice. These are concepts he blasphemes every day.
To do thie piercing, Dems need to directly confront the MAGAs wherever they can be found—online or off. Simply and directly ask them one question: “you used to laugh at his lies. Are you still laughing now that you know he’s luing to you?”
realize this sounds vague. I don’t want to leave it at that. For this to matter, Democrats need to look not only at Trump…but also at themselves. So let me close by proposing specifics, in the form of a few questions.
First, are Dems willing to offend? Can they ever shed the curse of trying to please all of their followers all the time? That is not a projection of power. Instead, consider whether you are willing to make clear statements like the following:
Transgendered females should not be competing in sports against people born female.
Police brutality should be punished by defunding.
African Americans should not be financially reparated with tax dollars for sins waged against their great-great grandparents.
Regime change in the MIddle East should start with Netanyahu.
It doesn’t matter how you personally feel about these issues. The question is whether you could vote for a candidate who disagrees with you. Purity tests lead to pure defeats.
The GOP plays Democrats off against each other on these things EVERY time. Can we ever learn?
Secondly--and even more to the point--are Dems willing to call out members of their own key constituencies?
When Bill Clinton first ran for President, he stood on a stage and called out rapper Sista Soljah. She had been quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “…if black people can kill other black people every day, why not have a week killing white people?” And previously, “if there are any good white people, where are they? I haven’t met them.”
Nobody asked Clinton about this. He chose to attack proactively. He called those remarks “hatred”, and said they were a “mistake.” Reporters pounced. Some on the far left warned that this misstep would be lethal for his campaign.
The next day, Sista Soljah called a fiery news conference denouncing him and warned, “Bill Clinton can’t assume that black people will automatically vote for him.”
That year, Clinton won 82% of the black vote—two points more than Kamala did last fall.
here is one statistic from the last election that should be pasted on the foreheads of every Democratic candidate and pundit.
When voters were asked which candidate best showed the “ability to lead”, Trump smashed Kamala exactly two-to-one: 66% to 33%.
You could write that off to a bias against either women or people of color, but the fact is that this owes to a discrepancy in the pprojection of power. Trump got 50% of the vote but won 66% on leadership ability. That’s more than just bias.
And that, folks, is what Democrats most need to fix. Figure out how to do this your way—and then start doing it.
Nice guys finish last.
