Slotkin Shows Democrats How to Win
In an appeal to persuadable MAGA voters, the freshman senator from Michigan framed the case against President Trump in relatable language and imagery.
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There was one bit of good news for the Democratic Party last night: Her name was Elissa Slotkin.
The freshman senator from Michigan, a former CIA analyst who served Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, delivered a Democratic response that strategically criticized President Trump’s approach to bringing change to Washington.
Voters want change, she said, and America needs it. “But there’s a responsible way to make change and a reckless way, and we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy,” Slotkin said, criticizing Trump on the economy, Ukraine, and federal government benefits such as Social Security and Medicare.
She wisely chose to deliver the response outside Washington — in Wyandotte, Mich., a working-class suburb of Detroit won by both Trump and Slotkin in November. She was sending a message to out-of-touch elites in both parties: There are plenty of swing voters left in America and you can’t win elections without them.
To her fellow Democrats, her implicit message was to say there’s a responsible way to oppose Trump and a reckless way, and they must do so without alienating the millions of MAGA backers who voted for Democrats as recently as 2020.
“It might not seem like it, but plenty of places like (Wyandotte) still exist across the United States,” she said. “ … It reminds me of how I grew up. My dad was a lifelong Republican; my mom a lifelong Democrat. But it was never a big deal because we had shared values that were bigger than any one party.”
I know Slotkin. She’s smart and ambitious, and she’s a caring communicator — somebody who cares enough about the people she serves to meet them where they are when she talks to them.
Contrast her approach to her fellow Democrats in Congress:
Her speech was measured and respectful. Democratic lawmakers interrupted the president and refused to applaud even the most bipartisan of sentiments.
Her political affectation was a blue-collar city in a swing state. Democratic lawmakers toted tiny signs, dry erase boards, and pocket Constitutions to the House floor; women dressed in pink.
Even Stephen Colbert, a liberal late-night talk show host, seized on the dissonance. “That, my friends,” he said during a live show following the speeches, “is how you stop fascism. In the immortal words of Martin Niemoller, ‘First, they came for the unionists and I pulled out a pink blazer and a mimeograph. Take that, Adolf!"
Slotkin spoke in the language of a layperson and sought to connect her argument to the lives and lived experiences of voters, two things most Democratic leaders cannot do.
Rather than cast the Trump-Musk budget cutting in catastrophic terms that might not relate to the millions of Americans who want smaller government, she painted a picture that resonates with any American flummoxed by disruptive technology.
“Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information and your bank accounts? No oversight, no protections against cyberattack, no guardrails on what they do with your private data.”
“We need a more efficient government,” she added. “You want to cut waste? I’ll help you do it. But change doesn’t need to be chaotic or make us less safe.”
Rather than declare the end of an 80-year-old alliance that may not be ending and is not a major issue for most voters, Slotikin connected her criticism on Ukraine to a wildly popular former president.
“President Trump loves to say peace through strength — that’s actually a line he stole from Ronald Reagan. But let me tell you, after the spectacle that just took place in the Oval Office last week, Reagan must be rolling in his grave,” Slotkin said, referring to Trump’s combative Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “ … That scene in the Oval Office wasn’t just a bad episode of reality TV. It’s summed up Trump’s whole approach to the world.”
Establishment Democrats didn’t like it her speech. In a sub-headline for a column by Tom Nichols, The Atlantic said Slotkin “failed to capture the hallucinatory nature of our national politics.” Nichols called her speech good but off point: “Slotkin—like so many in her party lately—failed to convey any sense of real urgency or alarm.”
For as much as I respect Nichols and don’t respect Trump, I wish Democrats would listen less to each other less and more to voters. Also on The Atlantic website was Sarah Longwell’s research-driven dispatch on soft Trump voters, those most likely to peel away in 2026 and 2028.
“Since January, I’ve conducted regular focus groups with voters across the political spectrum, asking them about Trump’s performance. Some patterns are starting to emerge. First: Lots of Trump voters believe they’re getting exactly what they signed up for—DOGE, disruption, someone shaking up Washington.”
“But Trump didn’t win with his base alone. Another significant group contributed to his margin of victory: people who voted for him because the change they wanted wasn’t systemic disruption but relief from the high cost of living they’ve been experiencing since the COVID lockdowns ended.”
“Voters in this group tend to be “soft” partisans or nonpartisan. They don’t follow politics closely and vote mostly based on things that affect their day-to-day lives—grocery and gas prices, rent, inflation. Many of these voters in the focus groups are showing signs that they do not believe that Trump’s policy priorities are about cheaper groceries. Instead, they see him getting distracted by culture-war issues that won’t actually improve their lives.”
The Democratic message frame is tragically misdirected toward the first group of voters —condemning and mocking MAGA faithful who want Washington shaken up — and is almost utterly lacking of appeal to the second group, those who want him focused on improving their day-to-day lives. Slotkin spoke directly and clearly to the second group, voters who want change that benefits them.
Democrats would rather take the easy way out and virtue signal each other about the impending doom of democracy than take the harder, more resonate path toward empathizing with MAGA voters who could be pulled back into the Democratic Party.
To be clear, this is not about ideology: The far left and soft middle of the Democratic Party could benefit from Slotkin’s approach. She is the rare Democratic leader who would rather win elections than arguments.
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Trump’s Speech was Brilliant. Just Ask Him
Emailed to paid subscribers Tuesday at 11:14 p.m.
By Ron Fournier
President Trump's address to Congress last night was a major success -- unlike anything we've ever seen before, more than any other president in world history, even better than that of our two greatest presidents, George Washington and the late-great James Buchanan -- a great success, indeed, at least by the one measure that matters to him: His.
Trump spoke to half the country and owned the libs. He rubbed Democrats' noses in his November victory and the radical transformation of the government and culture since January 20.
"America is back," he declared at the start, claiming "a mandate by which has not been seen in decades."
He cited election returns and polling data to support his gaslighting, and when protesting Democrats interrupted him, GOP lawmakers drowned them out with shouts of "USA!" House Mike Johnson directed security to throw one of them off the floor, a black man with a cane named Rep. Al Green.
Trump called Joe Biden "the worst president in American history" and whined about Democratic lawmakers not applauding his speech. "It's sad," he said, sadly, "and it just shouldn't be that way."
He denounced the Democratic-led criminal investigations into his wrongdoing and noted, in rare alignment with reality, that he's not in jail. "How did that work out?” he said, mockingly.
He read a long list of culture war policies, declaring his actions a "common sense revolution" and then read an even longer list of budget cuts he claimed in the name of Elon Musk. Most of them were made up or mistaken, but a fraction were accurate enough to make his point: Democrats would rather defend waste and fraud in government than reform it.
He claimed to have ended "all censorship" and restored free speech, even as his White House denies access to non-MAGA news outlets. And don’t forget: Green’s right to protest was stifled in front of Trump’s smiling eyes.
As Democratic lawmakers protested and pouted, Trump pandered and lied and pointed to real-people heroes in the audience, all to bolster the point of his speech: He owns the libs and channels MAGA grievances. And half the country loves him for it.
I appreciate her speech. The hyper reactivity going on everywhere is not helping. We’ve spent years trying to point out how horrible DT is and he still won. Dems need to do a better job of hearing people and their concerns without shaming them, calling them stupid. If moms are concerned about the health of their children, talk to them. By labelling them and calling them names, we simply alienate them. The swing voters dissatisfied with Trump, and I know many, need a home to come to.
Slotkin was a breath of fresh air! She served up the perfect tone. Good job Dems for selecting her, you are learning!