Dems Consider 'Blue MAGA' Approach

Some Democrats are warning party members that a populist crusade to counter President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement is easier talked about than executed.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who said he wants to bring back working- and middle-class voters to the Democratic Party after they fled to support Trump, coined a new phrase: "Blue MAGA," the Deseret News reported in May.

What Khanna used to call "progressive capitalism" is now being referred to as "economic patriotism," in an attempt to draw in more voters.

With progressive politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani using social media, foul language, and attacks on artificial intelligence to tap into Democrats' angst, other party members are hesitant to support a MAGA-like movement on the left.

Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way, told Axios that the Democratic Party needs "combative centrists" and not left extremists.

"The very online left are the only ones who actually believe that kind of politics can flip seats and win the White House," Bennett said, Axios reported Tuesday. "We've got to appeal to the gigantic group of voters who've left Democrats in the last 10 years. Those people are not looking for socialism. They're looking for fighters — but only ones who share their values."

Top Trump digital adviser Alex Bruesewitz told Axios he's not concerned about Democrats trying to replicate the president's campaign success. Bruesewitz said an anti-establishment movement only works with a charismatic leader, not "boring, stiff and scripted" candidates.

In an opinion column for The Guardian on Thursday, Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, wrote that "leaders of the future of the Democratic Party will be defined by those willing to take on the biggest fights."

"It's the moral courage – as evidenced most by the small handful of outspoken progressives in Congress – to stand up for your communities in the face of hundreds of millions of dollars in threats from corporate and rightwing Super Pacs that is the winning path forward for Democrats," Rojas wrote.

Four "megatrends" are playing into Democrats' efforts to remake their image, according to Axios. They are:

• The mainstream media is being replaced by "new and edgy" social media.
• A coarse approach. Example: California Gov. Gavin Newsom's foul-mouthed declarations of redistricting wars.
• Defending the working class against AI.
• The attention economy favors the bold. Example: Mamdani or fellow Democratic Socialist, Minneapolis mayoral candidate state Sen. Omar Fateh.

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