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For Democrats to Win Again, They Must Learn to Lead from the Middle

For Democrats to Win Again, They Must Learn to Lead from the Middle

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a stop on the ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour at Grand Park on April 12, 2025, in Los Angeles, California.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Lyndon B. Johnson said about advocating for civil rights reform as a Texas Representative, “I couldn’t get too far ahead of my voters.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an ambitious, forward-thinking individual. However, she should heed this advice. In 2024, Democrats lost every swing state and the popular vote. AOC, as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, needs to moderate her policies to gain a broader appeal and have any chance at wielding the power of the President.

In key states, 9-in-10 voters believe the rising debt is a critical campaign issue, and 3-in-4 voters say they want candidates to discuss the debt and their plans to address it—Michael Peters, CEO of the Peterson Foundation, found that voters’ “key economic priorities” include inflation, and securing programs like Medicare and Social Security. In a post-election poll, one-third of swing-state Trump voters cited the economy as the primary reason they voted for him, and 86 percent of Trump voters expected his presidency to improve their finances. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that Harris’s plan would increase the debt by $3.5 trillion over the next decade. Furthermore, when Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress, the deficit increased from pre-pandemic levels of $779 billion in 2018 to $1.7 trillion in 2023. Democrats need to combat the narrative that they are the party of waste and overspending, and AOC needs to present a plan for dealing with the deficit.


A Cato Poll found that most voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan think the US is “too involved” in foreign conflicts and would not vote for candidates who do not align with their opinions on foreign policy. This favors her because she is a non-interventionist and has consistently opposed the “Monroe Doctrine,” however, she has voted for significant aid packages to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion. Furthermore, according to the Washington Post-Schar School Poll, 6-in-10 swing state voters supported mass deportation. She should adopt moderate policies on immigration and avoid demonizing Trump supporters—she needs Trump voters and undecideds to win. For example, AOC has endorsed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as a “uniter.” However, during a commencement speech at the University of Minnesota Law School, he said ICE was “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo,” and AOC has actively led the “Abolish ICE” movement. These are not winning policies or rhetoric to gain support from swing states or moderate Democrats.

According to the Youth Battleground State Poll, 40 percent of 18-34-year-old voters said they would only support candidates that address climate change. This contributes to her appeal because she has supported and sponsored legislation addressing climate change. For example, Rep. AOC sponsored the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, which funds public housing and transitions to zero-carbon homes. Furthermore, the majority of voters in Battleground States oppose defunding the Department of Education and repealing the Affordable Care Act. Trump supported the “Responsible Path to Full Obamacare Repeal Act,” which would repeal the ACA, and directed the Education Secretary to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.

According to Pew research, a majority of Americans “always or often feel angry when thinking about politics,” 84 percent believe that political debate has become less respectful, and 57 percent say that partisan disagreements receive too much attention. This is a problem for AOC. She has, more than other representatives, launched attacks against the Republicans and Trump. AOC proclaimed that “there are legitimate white supremacist sympathizers that sit at heart and at the core of the Republican caucus” and the “right-wing… prey on racism, bigotry, anti-trans panic, and fear.” She has also aligned herself with Congresswomen like Ilhan Omar—Representative Omar has compared the US’ actions in Israel to the actions of terrorist organizations like Hamas or the Taliban and has repeated anti-Semitic tropes like questioning Jews’ loyalty to America. AOC and Representative Omar are also members of “the Squad,” a group of progressive democrats who supported the “defund the police” movement. She needs to tone down her extreme partisanship, stop resorting to demagoguery, and disassociate from far-left Representatives. Accusing Republicans and Trump of being racists and white supremacists alienates Trump voters, undecided voters, and even moderate Democrats.

Democrats have received less support from African Americans in recent years. Economic concerns, such as wealth inequality and job opportunities, as well as the issue of police reform, could contribute to this. African Americans are still disproportionately represented in the lower-income brackets and affected by police violence and higher rates of incarceration. AOC cannot take the black vote for granted and needs to address these issues and evaluate why Democratic support has dwindled among Black voters.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has won four elections in the 14th District of New York—gaining 64 percent of the vote in her campaign against Republican Anthony Pappas. However, 70 percent of voters in the 14th District are Democrat-affiliated. In a national election, she must appeal to a more diverse electorate—moderate democrats, the far left, and undecideds. AOC should focus on the economy and climate change, rely less on extreme partisan appeals, advocate for a non-interventionist foreign policy, adopt more moderate views on immigration, and attack the Republican agenda (like efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act).

Luke Harris is an op-ed author who writes about the US, UK, and international politics, policy, and culture. He has been published in outlets like the North American Anglican and the Conservative Woman.

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This Isn’t My Story. But It’s One I’ll Never Forget.

Children with American flags

This Isn’t My Story. But It’s One I’ll Never Forget.

My colleague, Meghan Monroe, a former teacher and trainer in the Dignity Index, went out to lunch with a friend on the 4th of July. Her friend was late and Meghan found herself waiting outside the restaurant where, to her surprise, a protest march approached. It wasn’t big and it wasn’t immediately clear what the protest was about. There were families and children marching—some flags, and some signs about America being free.

One group of children caught Meghan’s eye as they tugged at their mother while marching down the street. The mom paused and crouched down to speak to the children. Somehow, Meghan could read the situation and realized that the mom was explaining to the children about America—about what it is, about all the different people who make up America, about freedom, about dignity.

“I could just tell that the Mom wanted her children to understand something important, something big. I couldn’t tell anything about her politics. I could just tell that she wanted her children to understand what America can be. I could tell she wanted dignity for her children and for people in this country. It was beautiful.”

As Meghan told me this story, I realized something: that Mom at the protest is a role model for me. The 4th may be over now, but the need to explain to each other what we want for ourselves and our country isn’t.

My wife, Linda, and I celebrated America at the wedding of my godson, Alexander, and his new wife, Hannah. They want America to be a place of love. Dozens of my cousins, siblings, and children celebrated America on Cape Cod.

For them and our extended family, America is a place where families create an enduring link from one generation to the next despite loss and pain.

Thousands of Americans in central Texas confronted the most unimaginable horrors on July 4th. For them, I hope and pray America is a place where we hold on to each other in the face of unbearable pain and inexplicable loss.

Yes. It’s complicated. There were celebrations of all kinds on July 4th—celebrations of gratitude to our military, celebrations of gratitude for nature and her blessings, and sadly, celebrations of hatred too. There are a million more examples of our hopes and fears and visions, and they’re not all happy.

I bet that’s one of the lessons that mom was explaining to her children. I imagine her saying, “America is a place where everyone matters equally. No one’s dignity matters more than anyone else’s. Sometimes we get it wrong. But in our country, we always keep trying and we never give up.”

For the next 12 months as we lead up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we’re going to be hearing a lot about what we want America to be. But maybe the more important question is what we the people are willing to do to fulfill our vision of what we can be. The answer to that question is hiding in plain sight and is as old as the country itself: join with others and do your part, and no part is too small to matter.

At our best, our country is a country of people who serve one another. Some may say that’s out of fashion, but not me. Someone is waiting for each of us—to talk, to share, to join, to care, to lead, to love. And in our time, the superpower we need is the capacity to treat each other with dignity, even when we disagree. Differences of opinion aren’t the problem; in fact, they’re the solution. As we love to say, “There’s no America without democracy and there’s no democracy without healthy debate and there’s no healthy debate without dignity.”

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The American Experiment tested whether groups with diverse interests could unite under a declaration of common principles. In this moment, we face a critical juncture that tests whether distrust and political fervor could drive Americans to abandon or deny everything that unites us.

Henry Bolingbroke contends that party spirit inspires “Animosity and breeds Rancor.” Talking of his countrymen, he wrote, “We likewise derive, not our Privileges (for they were always ours) but a more full and explicit Declaration”; Whigs and Tories can unite on this alone. That Declaration of Ours was penned by Thomas Jefferson when his colonists repelled the redcoats at the Siege of Charleston and when Washington’s troops were awaiting battle in Manhattan. The American Declaration set out those principles, which united the diverse colonies. And the party system, as Bolingbroke said, brought animosity and weakened the Union. Critics disputed these claims. William Warburton attacked Bolingbroke as an evil-speaker with “dog-eloquence”—claimed his calls for party reform were an aristocratic conspiracy to cement the power of elites. An anonymous critic argued that the government is a union of unrelated people where laws supplant the natural bonds between families. Then, the government of the United States would not exist, or would not exist long.

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Social entrepreneur John Marks developed a set of eleven working principles that have become his modus operandi and provide the basic framework for his new book, “From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship," from which a series of three articles is adapted. While Marks applied these principles in nonprofit work, he says they are also applicable to social enterprisesand to life, in general.

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Two coloured pencils one red and one blue drawing a reef knot on a white paper background.

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It is a common refrain to say that Americans need to find common ground across the political spectrum.

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