Democrats Understand the Assignment

The GOP wants Dems to turn on each other, so we won’t notice that they stopped working for us a long time ago.

Edwin Eisendrath is the former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Alderman who hosts It's The Democracy Stupid on Lincoln Square and a weekly radio show on WCPT820AM/ Heartland Signal. Subscribe to his Substack.

A couple of weeks ago, the National Republican Campaign Committee sent around a memo. It urged GOP members and candidates to “[u]se your time in the district as an opportunity to sell our wins, especially those in the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

A couple of sentences later, it tells members to argue that “the Trump administration is holding elites accountable and ending Biden era tax breaks for the rich.” (Insert laughter here.) What it never suggests is using the time to listen to the constituents.

You probably haven’t heard about that memo, but noise you can’t turn off is the sound of lies. Last week, it was the supposed socialist takeover of the Democratic Party. It is as dishonest as the GOP memo, but also more dangerous.

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Primary Winners Aren’t Radicals

What do James Talarico, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and Abdul El-Sayed have in common? None of them is a socialist. They aren’t radicals. Taken together they represent a broad spectrum of viewpoints that fall within the ambit of a left of center political party. Most importantly, they each embody the values and concerns of the people in their communities. And all of them are winners in this primary season.

They are determined to renew our democracy, to make our government work for us, and to combat the obscene corruption we see everywhere we look. These are not radical ideas. Fighting for them is radical only in the sense the Declaration of Independence was radical.

But you will hear this charge every day.

The era of left-wing radicals is not upon us. Rather the era of right-wing radicals, the era of corruption and cruelty, the era of big oil and big money and big lies is drawing to a close.

One reason for that is that Democrats did their job this primary cycle. The nominees we picked in state after state ran tough campaigns. They are tested. They know how to organize, how to campaign, how to turn out votes. And the candidates who came in second? They are nearly all already on board to help in the upcoming general.

This primary season didn’t just produce talented candidates. It generated excitement and hope — the thing autocrats most fear.

Donald Trump and his enormous wads of political cash aim to turn our hope into fear. He calls us all communists. He says Democrats have been taken over by radicals.

The Coming GOP Propaganda Onslaught

Judd Legum has reported that Senate Republicans have launched a new pink slime operation, opening so-called newsrooms in swing states to whitewash their campaign lies. These propaganda outlets are part of a Trump-led operation that has a huge advantage over Democrats in funding and in data. After all, DOGE was, in part, about creating pathways to data that could be weaponized.

GOP propaganda won’t just lie about the so-called accomplishments of this disastrous administration. It won’t just lie about specific Democratic candidates. It will also toil mightily at finding pain points in our coalition.

Republican propaganda will target Israel’s strongest supporters saying Democrats want to abandon that nation. It will target Muslim voters to say Democrats sold them out during the Gaza War. Never mind that taking the most extreme position on terribly complicated questions is unhelpful, taking both extreme positions at the same time, well that’s Trump’s campaign operation. And it is designed to replace our hope with fear. It is designed to make us distrust each other.

But this campaign is different than previous ones. This time, Trump is talking to an America that no longer believes him. Americans have decided, by majorities far bigger than can be explained by party allegiance, that his radical right-wing Christian nationalist administration is the most corrupt, least competent, most dangerous in American history.

Don’t Second Guess Primary Results

This is no time to second guess the voters in our primaries. On the contrary, in state after state, our voters have done their best, and the result is nothing less than a miracle. We have the strongest slate of candidates running in the most elections we could hope for — from Senate to school boards all across this country. Where there was a mistake — Graham Platner in Maine — we came together to correct it. I am in awe of what Democrats have accomplished this primary season.

Of course, you can find Democratic candidates you disagree with on some issues, even some important ones. You will also find Democratic candidates with whom, on the very same issues, you do agree. That’s what happens in a big tent. If we work hard get most of them elected, then we will work together to find policies that we can agree on.

That’s what democracy is.

The Party of Trump

You will not see anything like that in Trump’s Party. Not on character. After all, Trump delights in endorsing people like Ken Paxton, whose character and fitness for office should instead disqualify them. And not on ideas about our future. They may whisper that there is space between them and their boss, but those whispers are just air.

Senator Susan Collins told us we could trust her to protect abortion rights. Then she cast the deciding vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and end Roe v. Wade. They rest vote in lockstep with Donald Trump — on the Big Ugly Bill, on Todd Blanche, on Pete Hegseth, on everything.

That brings me back to that GOP memo to members of Congress. In the GOP, members of Congress take orders from one man, they are his representatives, not ours. When they go into America’s communities they go to sell. If you doubt me, just look at one of their town halls.

Every day from now until after the new Congress is seated and sworn in, Republicans will do everything to get us to turn on each other — so we won’t notice that they stopped working for us a long time ago.