Why Winning Blue?

This site is dedicated to exploring ideas and strategies to help revitalize the Democratic Party, capture the national political narrative, engage the public's idealism and imagination, and regain control of Congress.  

Democracy in America is in peril.  Forty years of right-wing propaganda and policies have decimated political discourse, promoted a bleak cynicism in the country, and undermined faith in our government and cultural institutions.

Republicans have long been masters at defining issues for their own benefit and at selling snake oil to a gullible public.  They know how to make Americans vote against their best interests and turn against themselves.   

President Trump has made things much worse.  He is reversing the social progress our country made in the 20th century and forsaking American global leadership.  His administration is the most corrupt and incompetent as any in our history.  He sullies everything and everyone he touches.  He  is legally and ethically compromised and has no qualms about putting American security at risk.  

Yet he's a master of manipulating public opinion, inspiring a slavish cultism among his supporters while running roughshod over American social and political norms.  He's engendered a nasty sense of victimization and rage in his followers while ruling with an authoritarianism that is edging dangerously close to fascism.  He seems hell-bent on dismantling institutions and practices that made us the greatest economic power in history.  Under his leadership, truth itself is under siege.

Democrats have failed to counter him.  They haven't crafted policies or programs to meet the challenges of the 21 century or communicated an inspiring vision for the future.  They haven't proposed innovative policies that hold the promise of peace and prosperity.  They haven't worked to win the hearts and minds of voters in red states.  They don't campaign or govern with passion or ingenuity.  

Sometimes it seems they would rather whine than win.

Progressive or centrist, Democrats have to learn how to regain the national political narrative.  They can't do that by attacking each other.  They can't do it merely by countering right-wing lies with truth.  They can't do it by merely being against Trump.

Democrats have to fight back with powerful policies that capture the public's imagination -- and its votes.

Winning Blue seeks to help Democrats craft policies and practices to combat right-wing propaganda, to develop and promote strategies that build on Democratic values, strengthen and broaden the party's base, and dominate the national narrative in the media, the workplace, and the kitchen table.  Winning Blue wants to rebuild the Democratic brand, make it instantly recognizable, believable, and inspirational, and remind the public why they should support it. 

Political power is not merely electoral.  It's also economic and cultural.  Winning Blue's analysis and commentary will try to help Democrats take full advantage of the party's natural strengths and potential allies in the media, blue-collar trades, the corporate sector, rural and agricultural communities, young and urban professionals, and minorities:  In other words, all of America.

Winning Blue has a partisan bias, but emphasizes developing practical solutions to problems facing America.  Our goals are pretty simple:  unite progressives and all others who love America under a Democratic banner;  make justice, security, and opportunity available to all Americans; restore American leadership in the world; and ensure that the American dream is a reality for the country now and in the future.