Democrats, skip the autopsy: How to learn and move on

For tens of millions of Americans who supported Vice President Kamala Harris in last week's election, this is not the result we wanted for her historic, hard-fought campaign.     

And now I have a suggestion for all of us: Let’s skip the autopsy.  

Instead, let’s go straight to the physical — in other words, let’s examine the beating heart that has made the far right powerful and able to gain control over our institutions. If you say it’s money, you’re largely right — but it's also strategy and the long game.  

Not only that, but we as progressives have to recommit to core values that distinguished us in the past, especially our commitment to free speech.

Let’s start with the right’s long-term strategy. I believe Democrats should have responded far more aggressively decades ago when the 1971 Powell memo mobilized Republicans to get serious about investing money in two things: capturing the courts and reinforcing a system that could allow them to win elections even if they don’t win the popular vote — which has happened more than once.

We as progressives need to focus now on building a judiciary we can trust and on fundamental changes in our electoral system, and we have to raise serious money to do it.  

Our goals will be extraordinarily challenging in the short term, especially the first two years of a Trump administration and Republican control of the Senate. 

But as Vice President Harris said the day after Election Day, “Sometimes the fight takes a while, but that doesn’t mean we won’t win.” 

We made great progress in confirming federal judges under President Biden: judges who are highly credentialed, highly diverse and committed to civil rights.  

About two dozen Biden judicial nominees are waiting for confirmation now, and the Senate must use the lame-duck period to confirm all of them before the transition. 

In the longer term, we have to invest in a pipeline for future judges just as the right has done with the Federalist Society.  

And we have to commit to structural changes including term limits and ethics reform at the Supreme Court.  

The way this Supreme Court put its thumb on the scale for Trump during the election season was nothing short of disgusting. And it’s not the only instance. Remember Bush v. Gore? The right has been at this for a long time.

Meanwhile, profound changes are needed in our electoral system, which the right has co-opted so that it fails to deliver on our democracy’s promise of one person, one vote.

The right decimated federal voting rights protections, creating a vacuum that let MAGA-run states swoop in with harsh voter suppression laws; we need to restore voting rights by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. 

We also have an antiquated Electoral College system with roots in a racist past; we have to replace it with a National Popular Vote.

Again, this will all take time. But there is also something we can do immediately, right now, to change the conversation: We can go back to being the side known for expansive and unstinting support of free speech.  

This is not our current reputation.  

When we police speech, when we shout down opponents or bar them from campuses, we don’t win. We look like we fear losing the argument when the truth is, we can easily win it.  

Especially now, when an incoming Trump administration looks ready to attack freedom of speech on all fronts, it’s our job to be free speech heroes. Credible opposition to Trump — and especially to Project 2025, which is a draconian anti-free speech agenda if there ever was one — demands it.  

I’ll say one other thing about something the right has had success with lately: breaking norms and rules. Republicans used to be seen as the party of conformity and rule-following until they became the party of rule-bending, if not rule-breaking. Trump is the apotheosis of this. 

I don’t advocate unethical behavior of the kind we’ve seen in some instances, as when Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) trashed rules and norms to hold a critical Supreme Court seat open for Trump to fill. But I do think we should challenge norms that don’t serve us and institutions that weren’t built for us.

This moment is hard for many of us. But we can be proud of the fact that Kamala Harris had a message that resonated broadly with huge numbers of Americans across ages, parties, genders and races.   

We can also be bolstered by our belief that her message is the future and that it is where our country ultimately will be going, and we can look ahead.  

As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second best time is today.  

Svante Myrick is the president of People for the American Way.