The Democratic Party is pushing away independents

Rahm Emanuel — whom David Axelrod is pushing to become the new chair of the Democratic National Committee — believes he knows what’s wrong with the Democratic Party and how to fix it.

In a recent interview with Ezra Klein, Emanuel lamented that Democrats "use language to feel good about ourselves, not to communicate. We all think we’re applying to be adjunct professors at a small liberal arts college. We don’t listen to people. We tell them how to eat their peas."

Many Democrats have commented on this elitism. But Emanuel went further when Klein asked, "If you were advising a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair working on candidate recruitment, who are you looking for?"

"I think independence is a streak that I’m going to look for," said Emanuel. "Give me somebody that ran against the grain, said publicly what people are thinking ... so their independence is a quality that gives them kind of the anti-establishment, the anti-elite tone. To me, independence, saying things that aren’t politically correct, willing to take on not just X interest group or whatever but even your own party’s interest group or leadership — to me, that’s the gold mine I want to go work in."

Rahm is right. Political independence is a gold mine. I know because I’ve been pickaxing for 30 years!

Independents are now the largest group of voters. For the first time ever, they have tied Republicans and exceeded Democrats in presidential turnout. And the independent mindset — politically incorrect, anti-establishment, anti-elitist, pro-innovation, anti-identity politics and pro-people — is shaking up politics as usual. It's a mindset that has been growing steadily since John Heilman pointed out that Barack Obama was the first independent president since George Washington.

But Rahm has a problem.

The Democratic Party hates independent thinking, independent organizations, independent voters and independent reform. It’s baked in. And unless the party adopts a new posture toward the broad independent movement and independent mindset, Rahm’s vision will remain a pipe dream.

The Democratic Party did not just campaign against No Labels and Robert Kennedy Jr. — they waged scorched-earth campaigns to destroy them. No Labels was harassed by Democratic operatives with East German efficiency. Kennedy was denied the right to debate President Biden and was eventually driven out of the Democratic Party. As an independent, he was prevented from appearing on the ballot by legions of Democratic Party lawyers. The Democratic Party’s No.1 priority in 2023 and early 2024 was to shield Biden from any challenge from inside or outside the party, and they succeeded — to their own detriment.

Joe Rogan, Dean Phillips, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Robert Kennedy were all at one time Democrats or Democrat-adjacent. All have been expelled by this “destroy dissent” posture. Rather than create space for debate on school vouchers, transgender medical care, border security, universal basic income and foreign wars, the Democratic Party banishes people who don’t toe the party line.

Rank-and-file independents fare no better than influencers. In 2024, the Democratic Party cancelled their presidential primary, preferring to first insulate Biden and then crown Harris. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) said, “This is a disaster” and was ignored.

Democrats aggressively opposed ballot referenda for open primaries across the country and adopted an official policy of “if you want to vote in the primaries, you need to join the Democratic Party.” That's not smart if you want to attract independent-minded candidates.

Rahm, if you want to gain access to the gold mine, your party needs to stop attacking the gold miners.

The Democratic Party should welcome independent political initiatives and candidacies because healthy competition lifts all boats. It should support a primary system that cannot be cancelled by a few insiders and includes independents. It should embrace debate. If the party does that, maybe, just maybe, Rahm will be able to recruit independent-minded Democrats to run for office.

Maybe the Democrats will get the message, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m heading back into the gold mine. Because that’s where more and more Americans are hanging out.

John Opdycke is the President of Open Primaries, a national election reform organization.

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