Remember Representative Dean Phillips? The Minnesota Democrat who mounted a primary challenge to Joe Biden in the run-up to the 2024 election, citing concerns over old Joe’s age? The challenge was slam-dunked by the national Democratic Party machine, following which Phillips was vindicated when that same party apparatus kicked befuddled old Joe to the curb and replaced him with the only candidate who may have been even worse – Kamala Harris.
Now Phillips is speaking loudly about why the Democrats lost this election, and unlike most Democrats, on this topic, at least, he’s making some sense.
The Minnesota Democrat, in an interview with Politico, blasted his party as “rudderless” after Democrats lost the White House and the Senate, and failed to take back the House of Representatives.
“This party needs a comprehensive turnaround, and conventional wisdom no longer works. A party that consists of multiple silos and campaign committees and outside groups cannot strategically do its job, and that means leadership,” Phillips said.
“Right now, we are totally devoid of leadership. We are rudderless,” he added. “I don’t know which Democratic Party member my colleagues would point to as the leader, de facto leader, and absent that, I don’t see much, frankly, happening.”
He also said that Democrats should engage with groups the party has “turned our back on” as it searches for answers and standard bearers.
He’s not wrong about leadership. Who, exactly, is the Democrat’s standard-bearer right now? Joe Biden? He barely knows what day it is. Kamala Harris? She checked out after the election when Donald Trump crushed her like a garden slug under a steam-roller. Nancy Pelosi? Chuck Schumer?
Nobody knows, which I think is Dean Phillips’ point.
He’s not happy about the current state of affairs, which is anything but surprising.
Regarding his longshot presidential bid and calls for Biden to step down that eventually were echoed, Phillips took little solace, saying he expected the “comprehensive” rejection of his candidacy by the Democratic Party.
“If what I feel now is vindication, it’s awfully unsatisfying. I felt vindicated the day I announced my campaign, because I knew this was not an opinion. This was a fact,” Phillips told the outlet. “The fact was, he was not in a position to win. The fact was his approval numbers were historically low. The fact was his physical decline was real. And the only vindication I cared about was my own, and I’m saddened that I’m vindicated.”
A Democrat talking about facts. Fancy that.
Even if Phillips had managed to pull off the primary challenge, it’s not certain he would have beaten Trump. The winds seemed to be at Trump’s back, and the July assassination attempt and Trump’s rebound from that, well, that alone probably netted him a lot of votes. And Dean Phillips has little or no name recognition outside of Minnesota.
But he would have stood a better chance than either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, and for Phillips, seeing Trump smash through the seven swing states like the Kool-Aid man had to be frustrating.
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Dean Phillips didn’t seek reelection. He’s leaving the House of Representatives in January, and it’s unclear what he’ll do next. But nationwide, Democrats would do well to listen to him. He seems to be one of the few who really understands what’s happening with the ever-loonier Democratic Party these days.
And as I’m fond of saying – let’s hope they never figure that out.
