Democrats Need a Real Strategy Against Republicans

The word “strategy” often glorifies any plan for achieving a minor or short-term goal. In fact, strategy means a long-term, comprehensive program for beating a competitor decisively. For Democrats to win big enough to end the Republican Party’s threat to democracy, they must pursue a real strategy.

A real strategy takes a lot of effort and the will to do things you don’t want to do. Let me illustrate from ancient history.

The Peloponnesian War pitted Sparta, which had the most powerful army, against Athens, which had the most powerful navy. The Spartans didn’t want to spend the money to build a fleet to challenge Athens at sea, and the Athenians didn’t want to risk the lives of its soldiers by challenging Sparta on land. Both sides spent 25 years fighting without having a strategy that could win the war.

Sparta finally built a fleet that defeated the Athenian navy at the battle of Aegospotami in 405 BCE. Athens surrendered the next year.

Like Athens and Sparta, Democrats and Republicans have fought each other for decades without either one having a strategy that could win decisively. A winning strategy must attack the opponent’s core strengths and sustain that attack till the opponent collapses.

Republicans’ core strengths include blind loyalty to the party, an undeserved reputation for managing the economy, and its narrow understanding of the right to life. Democrats have never attacked in these areas.

Instead Democrats criticize the Republican Party for what Democrats value but Republicans don’t. They decry Republicans for racism and misogyny, promoting inequality, lack of fairness, and so on. The Republican voters that Democrats need to convert don’t care about these things, so they don’t pay attention to what Democrats say. To make headway, Democrats must focus on what Republicans care about, like the three issues mentioned above.

Democrats have also conceded the advantage of time to Republicans. Republicans have spent 50 years building conservative media and repeating a few core messages: government is the problem, Democrats threaten your freedoms, Republicans are the real Americans…

Meanwhile, Democrats fought elections individually, relying on each presidential candidate to define a message for the moment. When the candidate loses or leaves office, the Democratic Party starts all over looking for a new spokesman with a new message. Obama’s two victories didn’t bequeath the Democratic Party a permanent advantage because Obama’s message, “hope and change,” didn’t undermine Republican strengths and didn’t carry over to the next election.

For Democrats to win decisively, they must sustain consistent, focused attacks over many election cycles. I’m thrilled that Kamala Harris is doing so well. But even if she wins in November, Democrats must find a way to continue the campaign and even sharpen their attacks on Republicans.

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