3 Takeaways from Josh Barro's Advice to Dems
Writing in The Atlantic today, Josh Barro contends that the Democratic Party has more than just a messaging problem. He argues that Democratic Party leaders have developed a “worldview that obsessively categorizes people by their demographic characteristics, ranks them according to how ‘marginalized’ (and therefore important) they are because of those characteristics, and favors or disfavors them accordingly.” Barro concludes that this mindset has resulted in the party taking a set of unpopular policy positions.
Barro zeroes in on education, immigration, and crime.
On education, he points to how “Democrats advocate for race-conscious admission policies that favor ‘underrepresented’ groups and disfavor ‘overrepresented’ ones,” resulting in admission policies that “stack the deck” against “overrepresented” Asian applicants. His prescription? Democrats should remove race from the equation.
On immigration, Barro states that “Democrats are excessively focused on the interests of the most marginalized group in the policy equation – foreign migrants.” He argues that voting results in counties with overwhelming Latino population along the southern border swung hard to the right, proving that Latinos responded negatively to the immigration policy of the Biden administration. His prescription: Democrats “should say that the U.S. government should primarily focus on the needs of U.S. citizens.”
On crime, Barro argues that “progressives’ insistence on using marginalization as a marker of moral worth has led them to prioritize the needs of people who are engaged in antisocial behavior over those of ordinary citizens who abide by the social contract.” He points to such policies as bail reform and the decriminalization of minor crimes. His prescription: “They should say that the pullback from policing has been a mistake. They should say that they were wrong and they are sorry!”
While some of Barro’s prescriptions here are overly simplistic and reductive, the central point is one that Democrats should heed: The problem is not messaging; it’s content.