The 10 Commandments For Democrats
The only useful thing we could take from Ronald Reagan
Former Republican demigod Ronald Reagan—who has been usurped as the party zeitgeist by Donald Trump—popularized the so-called Eleventh Commandment, which stated:
“Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican.”
Reagan did not come up with it; it was actually state party chairman Gaylord Parkinson who conceived it in the lead-up to the 1966 California gubernatorial election. Republicans were still fairly divided after Lyndon Johnson mauled Barry Goldwater in the 1964 landslide, in part because much of the more moderate-to-liberal Eastern Establishment, with figures such as Governors Nelson Rockefeller of New York and William Scranton of Pennsylvania, thought Goldwater was an “extremist”. This spilled over into California’s Republican politics, as the state’s liberal Republicans hated Reagan as much as they hated Goldwater.
In one of the few truthful things that former NBC Anchor Brian Williams wrote:
In the 1966 race for governor, Parkinson's rule actually gave a boost to candidate Reagan, who was then a former actor making his first bid for public office. In the primary campaign, one of Reagan's Republican opponents attacked him as an "extremist," and called him "temperamental and emotionally upset," adding that Reagan's earlier switch from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican "might indicate instability of some sort." It was even hinted that Reagan might have once belonged to Communist front organizations. The attacks backfired, leaving the high road to Reagan, who was only too happy to follow the 11th Commandment.
Reagan followed that advice and the party managed to avoid internalized squabbles. Capitalizing on Pat Brown (father of the legendary California public servant Jerry Brown) being unpopular as fuck after the 1965 Watts riots and anti-war demonstrations at Berkeley, the charismatic conservative cruised to victory that November with more than 57% of the vote.
Even to this day, Republicans follow that commandment. Sure, there were some notable exceptions—especially during the rise of Donald Trump—but for the most part, the party has maintained that level of discipline for the better part of the past 6 decades, even while defying common sense and human decency. This is no surprise: the party is a rudderless mess without an engaging patriarch leading the party.
Over the past month, I have seen Democrats—politicians, activists, even everyday voters on social media—squabble with each other as part of a post-election grieving process that we really need to get the fuck over. As someone who has morphed into a very militant left-liberal Democrat as a result of the election, I would like to see a hell of a lot more discipline from our side.
Therefore, I am proposing my own Commandments for all Democrats.
Thou shalt not speak ill of any other Democrat publicly, for it gives thy Republican comfort and cover. The last thing we need is Democrats publicly criticizing other Democrats unless it is for a damn good reason (i.e., corruption). Democrats should learn to give non-answer answers; or better yet, just shut the fuck up.
Thou shalt not fuel any intraparty war, for it gives thy Republican enemy comfort and cover. This is for grievance opportunists such as Cenk Ugyur and the rest of The Young Turks, who will never, ever stop wanting to infect the party with crackpot left-wing populism. Left-wing populism is too easy for Republicans to counter-message and has too many perils for the enemy to weaponize as part of a divide-and-rule strategy.
Thou shalt not propose any detenté with MAGA, for it gives thy Republican enemy comfort and cover. This is a reminder to take a hardline stance against MAGA, Trumpism, and right-wing populism. Giving them a millimeter is giving them too much. Hold the fucking line. They are the enemy: act like it.
Thou shalt not give thy Republican enemy any reprieve, for it gives thy Republican enemy comfort and cover. This is directed to Gene Wu, who is the leader of Texas Democrats in the House. We have to do everything we can to avoid having a kook Republican as speaker of the House. Dade Phelan is out and House Republicans are split into two crackpot wings. Divide and conquer.
Thou shalt not give thy Republican any aid or comfort without getting anything in return, for it gives thy Republican enemy an excuse and cover. This is a reminder to House Democratic leader Hakeem Jefferies, who needs to force Speaker of the House “MAGA” Mike Johnson to work for every bit of legislation he hopes to pass because there is not much that can be accomplished without Democrats willing to cooperate.
Thou shalt not give Republicans any credibility whatsoever, for it gives thy Republican enemy an excuse and cover. This is for the few Democrats that have embraced the DOGE bullshit because for whatever reason, a handful of Democratic lawmakers truly believe that two unhinged morons, one of whom has amazingly become the world’s wealthiest human being in spite of himself, are capable of being good faith government advisors; or, even worse, doing a shitty job at calling the Republicans’ bluff.
Thou shalt not be spineless against Republican aggression, for it gives thy Republican enemy a message and confidence. This is directed at Democratic Senate leadership—Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker. John Thune and his merry band of Republican kooks are going to do whatever it takes to please Trump without completely debasing the Senate. Filibuster, fight, filibuster, and fight again. If Republicans want cloture for bullshit policies by the Trump administration, force them to earn it.
Thou shall lend an ear, but give no weight, to those who are not Democrats, for it ultimately gives thy Republican enemy comfort, cover, and power from distraction. This is directed at politicians, activists, and authors who want Democrats to win elections but don’t know how to offer criticism to Democrats constructively. This is a war; you shut the fuck up and focus on opposing MAGA—nothing else. And for the love of a god who probably does not exist—no more campaigning with Republicans.
Thou shalt not any Democrat throw marginalized groups under the bus, for it gives thy Republican enemy an excuse and cover. This is for Democrats who find fault with the party for being willing to stick up for the LGBTQ community and think that the party’s support for them ultimately cost them the 2024 election. We can discuss campaign rhetoric and campaign strategy without throwing them to the wolves. Harris ran the least “woke” Democratic campaign in memory and still lost by a little more than 2 million votes. Stop.
Thou shalt not any Democrat surrender our values at any time, for it gives thy Republican enemy an excuse and cover. There will be a time for pragmatism; there will be a time for compromise; but there will be no time for us to give up our core values of human decency, respecting the lives of others, a commitment to helping Americans live decent lives, and upholding the responsibility we have towards each other in society.
If we stick to these 10 things, we’re going to be okay. Perhaps even more than okay. We might just embrace the fact that we need to do more than seek the power to govern; we need to seek the power to be an actual ruling party.
As a party, we are loathe to be monolithic. Indeed, intraparty disagreement is a sign of a healthy party. However, those disagreements do not need to be public; nor do they need to appear as anonymous quotes in POLITICO, National Journal, The New York Times, or The Washington Post. We are the opposition party; we need to act like it.
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell was hell-bent on making Barack Obama a one-term president; and while he failed to do so, McConnell did manage to lead the Republican Party down a dark path that ultimately offered the final curing for the pavement that led to Trump and his carcinogenic band of right-wing populists to take over the party. We do not have to be that depraved—as a party, we have to mitigate the blow of the worst aspects of the Trump administration’s policies with the little bit of power we do have—but resistance requires decisive action, from the chambers of Congress to the halls of state legislatures across the country.
As Democrats, we can and we must maintain a hardline stance against right-wing politics as a whole while ensuring we do the work of reaching the millions and millions of non-voters who sat out the November 5th election. We have to campaign for those voters 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. We cannot do so if we’re squabbling over ideological bullshit that does not matter. The only conversations we need to be having right now are how we are going to go about building (1) an aggressive information ecosystem, (2) a robust communications infrastructure, and (3) an endless campaign strategy to counter the Republican coalition of billionaires and misinformed working-class voters who are bonded together by a toxic codependency that will make many lives collectively worse.
The gloves are off.
Act like it.
Stop fighting with each other and start fighting MAGA.
This is spot on. Would be great to have these in a graphic for social so we can get more people / Dems to hear and follow them.