Eighty-five percent of millennial and Gen Z donors favored Democrats, a trend that appears durable rather than something they’ll age out of. As this cohort entered its prime earning and donating years, Democrats should have been building the broadest grassroots fundraising base in the history of American politics. Instead, the spam model drove millions of these potential donors away. The party didn’t just fail to capitalize on its generational advantage. It actively destroyed it, trading a rising base that would have funded the party for decades for one that is being exhausted for short-term fees. Private equity firms call this “harvesting.” You stop investing in the business and extract everything you can before the foundation gives way. The consultant class has been harvesting the Democratic Party for over a decade.
Just one excellent point from this article. Worth reading to the end.
Eighty-five percent of millennial and Gen Z donors favored Democrats, a trend that appears durable rather than something they’ll age out of.
I strongly question this idea. If you take into account that many Dem voters vote for dems solely because they are voting against republicans, that means they will jump ship the millisecond a viable third option comes around. We are ripe for an independent to rise up.
I’m surprised the authors didn’t mention the means-testing scam Democrats are running. They show how consultants drain the party’s money, but they miss how politicians shrink their promises to the bare minimum. Instead of fixing big problems like healthcare, housing, or prices, they figure out the least they can offer and still win. It’s the same game as the fundraising: it serves the consultants and donors, not voters. They tell us “democracy is on the line,” then offer us scraps. No wonder people feel the party asks a lot and gives little.
And it’s not like the base is asking for much more than what was promised during the New Deal.
The centrists are more angry about the DSC who want to help people than the Rs who want to destroy everything.
centristslying right-wingersFTFY
With the Overton window shifting… I’m just not sure anymore.
Another day, another opinion piece complaining about what Jamie Harrison did 2021- 2024, and ignoring everything that changed since the DNC didn’t have to take Biden/harris’ pick like 2021…
Jamie Harrison’s only claim to fame was raising a record amount of money from wealthy donors, but still losing to Lindsey fucking Graham.
The current DNC clearly isn’t planning on doing that, because it already dumped all that money on state parties over the last 20 months instead of saving it for a blitz right now.
The issue the author is complaining about, was solved 3 months after the 2024 election…
It was valid back then, but pretending it still exists weeks before the midterms is crazy. But I guess after a progressive wave it’s going to make even less sense to say this shit.
What’s also funny is that the consulting class are absolutely fleecing the Republicans right now. The Rs have 2:1 spending advantage and it’s barely showing because they bought ads too late, which made them more expensive, and the ads they are showing are lazy and/or dumb shit like Talifreako and They/Them!
It’s still worth repeating to inoculate ourselves against it. I hope you’re right. However the proof will be in the pudding as the saying goes. And there’s still plenty to worry about. I see a lot of neo liberal and neo con consultancy types screening Doom and Gloom about anything even remotely DSA adjacent. They’re still going to try. So we still need to be ready
I’d really like to know who got people like Neera Tanden and Sarah Longwell to start attacking Hasan Piker. It sure looks like they’re being paid to be this focused on him.
Honestly I think Neera would do it for free. To be fair I never really heard of her name much myself until here recently. Sam and the MR crew as well as silly and Billy here in Kansas City have been talking about her a lot of late. Longwell on the other hand. She has a long and storied history of losing advice.
