Public Craving for Practicality, History Lessons for Political Campaigns, Part II, Potential Democratic Appeal to Practicalities

’24 Wave Red, ’25 Wave Blue. Enough with the Slurs Is What Politicians Should Do.

The previous essay in this two-part series included an evaluation of politics in terms of the ways our political parties have grasped public attention. Attention offers the power of mental sorting and selection, which is crucial to shaping each person’s experience of the world in general, as the founder of American psychology William James observes. Attention also shapes each person’s experience of the news in particular.

That essay included an assessment of the sentiments for toughness crucial to the appeal of recent Republican Party policies in the boxing match of American politics. This essay brings the historian’s next report, with potential for the Democratic Party to gain public attention with the upcoming November 2026 elections. While the politicians in the daily ring of contentious news fight it out, what trends are emerging that might favor Democrats? In recent elections, the appeal of attention to practical issues provides a clue.

Potential Democratic Appeal, Practicalities

Even with its limitations, the Republican reputation for toughness appeals to many voters—witness the red wave of November 2024. Republicans have been presenting the story that “the elites have betrayed us,” as journalist David Brooks observes. They then justify Trump’s aggressive attacks on liberals as the front line against claimed liberal attacks on average citizens.

This actually suggests an opening for Democrats to appeal to the growing number of Americans who do not feel secure with prices rising and elites gaining in wealth, including the President and his advisors. By speaking bluntly about the average American’s interests dashed and fair play overlooked, Democrats might even persuade many who voted for Trump or other Republicans with a version of what James calls “moral equivalents.” In this case, Democratic appeals could strike in a similar key of tough practicality, but in ways suited to their own party values. This would include pointing to ways that the party of Trump has fallen short on their promises, and offering Democrats’ own solutions to voter concerns.

This describes the approaches of a few recently elected Democrats, and by wide margins no less. While the party has a reputation for struggling with “a fundamental tension between fiery, progressive idealism and a more subdued, pragmatic centrism,” the winning candidates actually share an emphasis on practical concerns in relation to progressive ideals. Republicans raised fears about a radical democratic socialist as mayor of New York, but Zohran Mamdani flipped the script with his focus on bus fares, sky-high rents, and other economic challenges for average citizens. While Abigail Spanberger remained committed to “diverse communities,” she said she will “strengthen our public schools, make Virginia more affordable, and keep our communities safe” on her way to being elected governor in that state. By contrast, her Republican opponent Winsome Earle-Sears made anti-trans rhetoric “a centerpiece of her 2025 campaign.” Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey also spoke frankly about public benefits championed by Democrats, including “making school meals free for every student.” And she focused on “investing in affordable housing and … reducing healthcare and energy costs.” At a time when these everyday concerns fall prey to polarized debates, addressing practical economic problems becomes “radical.”

The November blue wave appears to build with broad public backlash against the administration’s tactics in Minnesota, including with Democratic victories in recent Texas special elections. Christian Menefee won a Congressional seat by making affordability his key issue, and more strikingly, Taylor Rehmet won a congressional seat by a wide margin in a district where Trump won in 2024 by 17%.

Looking to the 2026 elections, Republican strategist Ari Fleischer relishes Republicans running against “socialism,” but their continued emphasis on that abstract charge could actually reinforce opportunities for Democrats. They could let Republican slurs on culture war issues and charges about “Commie Mandani” land with citizens as alarmist, while continuing to reach out to a diverse array of Americans, as economic issues apply to all different citizens. This emphasis on practicality is a page taken from the playbook of Trump’s appeal in his 2024 electoral victory. But Democrats can lay claim to their own focus on practicality in support of the working class. Avoiding Trump’s reliance on drama, they can present with both toughness and expansion of opportunities. Sherrill captured this theme in pledging to make college affordable for all willing to work for it.

Lessons from History

The practical approach of recent Democratic candidates taps the party’s tradition in contrast with Republicans ever since the election of William McKinley in 1896. Republicans have claimed to support the working class, not through direct assistance, but through support for wealthy businesspeople with the promise that their prosperity will bring jobs to the masses. In short, they argue that work is better than welfare.

Dismissing handouts as disincentive to hard work can appeal to the prosperous, the skilled, and the lucky. The Republican perspective has persisted with the Ronald Reagan-era phrase “trickle-down economics,” and last year in the Trump-sponsored budget with tax breaks for the wealthy, and recently in cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits. But those tough messages overlook the people who need help and the structural changes that have reduced job opportunities despite individual initiative.

Democrats could deliver moral messages for support of the unlucky and acknowledge workers laboring hard but still losing ground to the wealthy. For that large swath of citizens, the social mobility often expressed as the American Dream is out of reach in an economy whose prosperity provides more support to the wealthy with little “trickle down” in improved jobs or benefits. Name calling with ideological labels has included the charge of “class warfare,” to which Democrats could counter that they are reversing practices of class hostility to workers.

And the Democratic party could go still further on the path of practicality. The deep driver of the affordability crisis for food and shelter, of the demand for migration to the US, and for a lot of costly warfare is the expectation for constant economic growth recently pumped up to enormous scales. Maintaining market dynamics while calming the impulse for constant and massive growth could reduce the need for costly and impersonal big organizations in government and business, and would prevent many expensive social and environmental problems. Dismissing these possibilities as “communism” or other slurs from past eras will do nothing to address today’s practical issues. Constant growth has been supported by both parties. Disrupter Trump may have opened a path for a change in cultural habit. The party that notices the power of calming growth will have the greatest chance of appealing to the majority of Americans who have not benefitted from an economy favoring a minority of citizens with big costs trickling down to the rest. Not ending, but calming, market growth can offer practical ways to prevent a host of problems and to keep the paths of opportunities open all Americans.

Democrats directly attacking Republicans will likely encourage citizens to rally in defense of their tough talk. However, listening to ways Republicans have been appealing but then scratching those itches with Democratic messages of toughness and of opportunities across differences offers more potential. Republicans have been appealing with tough comments that sound practical but distract from addressing problems. Democrats could gain appeal with practical proposals in tough response to Republican alarms.