Message, not money, is Democrats’ problem

“It's going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions. And it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up,” former President Barack Obama told Democratic donors at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee last Friday night. “What I have been surprised by is the degree to which I've seen people who, when I was president, or progressives, liberals, stood for all kinds of stuff, who seem like they're kind of cowed and intimidated and shrinking away from just asserting what they believe, or at least what they said they believe.”

Toughen up? Who? How?

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been out there, holding rallies and public events, meeting with voters, talking plenty tough. What about Barack and Michelle? Are they ready to put aside their Hollywood production deals and get back in the trenches to save our democracy? We need them, desperately.

In excerpts of his remarks distributed by his office, Obama targeted the law firms he said had been willing to “set aside the law … not because, by the way, that they're going to be thrown in jail, but because they might lose a few clients and might not be able to finish that kitchen rehab at their Hampton house. I'm not impressed.”

I have many friends and colleagues in the law firms that settled with the president and in the law firms that stood up and fought him. I didn't hear about any kitchen rehabs in the Hamptons; President Donald Trump was threatening to destroy their firms. I have the greatest respect for those institutions that have stood up to Trump and the federal judges who have supported them. But I don't blame those who have tried to stave off Trump's attacks.

I do blame those who have chosen this moment to be silent or engage in blame games or refuse to stand up even though they face no jeopardy. That includes former presidents like Obama himself, who has been playing by an old set of rules in which former presidents don't criticize their successors. That's fine when our democracy is not in peril, which it is.

What is Barack Obama going to do about it?

At the fundraiser, Obama encouraged the rich Democrats in attendance to give money to the Democratic National Committee. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. As president, Obama had no use for the DNC; as The New York Times reported, “his own aides worked to diminish” the official party apparatus. And now, with a DNC wracked by internal divisions and infighting, it is somehow the answer? To what? The DNC is part of the problem.

So is the party establishment. What is New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand doing going on the radio and suggesting that the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York is an antisemite who wants a jihad against New York's Jews? What is former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo doing abandoning the Democratic Party in his desperate effort to regain power? He had his chance, and he blew it. The voters spoke. Is he listening?

We need new leaders and new faces, and to get there, we need the leaders who people did trust — leaders like Barack and Michelle Obama, and Bill and Hillary Clinton — to help make that happen. They need to get out there on the stump, along with Bernie and AOC, and show a united party willing to listen. Money is not the reason we lost the election. We misread the room. We weren't listening.

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