No one’s in charge of the Democrats — and that’s OK
Meet future president ‘Don’t Know’ and their VP ‘Nobody’
Who is a party leader? In a presidential election year, it’s obviously the person on the top of the ticket. In a midterm year, and for a party out of power, the answer is murky. Democrats currently find themselves lost on the stormy seas of that latter case. The party should resist its natural inclination to hand-wring over what appears to be a rudderless ship, and instead look at this moment as an opportunity to chart a course to smoother waters.
The appeal of an agenda-setting leader is understandable, especially at this perilous moment for our country. But now is the time to lean in to a vigorous debate over the future of the party and create the space for a leader to emerge — not look for answers from on high. After all, it’s often said that Democrats win when they fall in love. Leave the falling in line to Republicans.
If you take that perspective, there’s some good news. Searchlight recently asked voters who the leader of the Democratic Party is, and most people said they didn’t know (or that nobody leads the party).
But beyond the fact nobody is seen as the ‘party leader,’ there are additional findings in these results that call to our attention the shifting visibility of past and present political talent: Barack Obama is viewed more as a leader than Joe Biden — while AOC is seen more as leader than Bernie Sanders. Predictably, the soon-to-be-retired Nancy Pelosi is seen as less of a leader than Hakeem Jeffries, her successor in the House Democratic Caucus.
Chuck Schumer, elected by New Yorkers and chosen among a few dozen of his fellow senators to be Senate Minority Leader, retains the same place as Barack Obama — who a generation ago swept two nationwide presidential elections and earned a combined total of 135,414,00 votes.
Republicans and Independents see Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer as two of the named leaders of the Democratic Party, though Don’t know and Nobody lead all the same while zero percent answered Other.
Much can be (and has been) said about the state of the national Democratic brand. But far too many pundits and activists — centrists, moderates, liberals, progressives, and leftists alike — have cast wide-ranging assertions as to who holds the mantle of leadership. The pool of elected officials representing their party on a national level is both wide and deep.
The answer is, as is often the case, much grayer than the chattering class likes to admit. Right now, the Democrats have no leader — and that’s OK.
I have no idea why the author has concluded that a lack of leadership for the single most important organization in opposition to the trump autocracy is OK. Beyond this, leadership is much more than a front man (or woman). It is about having a well defined position on the issues that matter to Americans, and indeed the world. I suspect that asking people if they can identify the Democrat Party's stance on these issues would result in a similarly scattershot result. This is a failing of the Democrat Party.
Saying the Democrats having no leadership is not OK, especially now with Trump running wild. The Democrats need to sort out what they stand for and begin to talk about it before it's too late. Take a page from Carville, at least he is on record.