The Stakes Are Too High To Be This Cringe
A year in, the Democrats still have no plan for Trump’s second presidency.
Are you sitting down? There’s big news from the Democratic Party. No, they haven’t developed a coherent plan to address ICE shooting civilians on American streets. Nor have they much to say about Trump’s foreign policy, which is so disruptive that it forced European nations to remember they have armies and deploy troops to Greenland.
No, this is much more important for the country. Kamala Harris has released a video. Standing in an office so generic it could be a Zoom background, a beaming Harris announces that KamalaHQ is being renamed Headquarters, “a place where you can go online to get basically the latest of what’s going on, and also to meet and revisit with some of our great, courageous leaders.” (Initially it was called Headquarters 67, presumably a reference to the already passé Gen Alpha meme, but it seems this was eventually deemed too cringe even for Harris.)
My first thought was surprise that KamalaHQ was still going, though presumably they’ve spent most of their time workshopping this inspirational new name. With one million followers on X and five million on TikTok, the appeal of rebranding the account is obvious.
“Conservatives build permanent organizing infrastructure. Progressives have historically built machines that dismantle after Election Day. Headquarters is the end of that cycle,” enthuses the accompanying press release. Launched in partnership with the progressive nonprofit People For The American Way, Headquarters will be a “new Gen-Z led progressive content hub.” In addition to its current channels, it will launch on YouTube, Substack (hello, neighbor!), and other platforms.
Look, I see the appeal. Harris is right that Democrats have struggled to keep momentum going after 2024. But the solution isn’t to pretend that a glossy website counts as a genuine gameplan. As the Democrats’ cringey YouTube channel showed us, the issue isn’t a lack of content. It’s a lack of substance.
In a world where even major multinational corporations are moving away from overproduced, professional-looking content in their branding, looking instead towards individual influencers and user-generated content, the Democrats seem unable to move beyond a media strategy from over a decade ago. Creating endless media channels, all of which repeat slick phrases in a desperate hope to catch on—and shouting very loudly at opponents who aren’t even watching—just reinforces how sad and out of touch they seem.
Every day, we see more signs of how much the media landscape has changed since the Democrats last understood it. Newspapers are shedding staff, social media channels are divided by political affiliation (with progressives on X mostly migrating to Bluesky), and the biggest new media stars are podcasters and YouTubers, each with their own personal brand and loyal following. The Democrats are slowly starting to explore these channels, but their fear of authenticity overshadows any genuine impact.
This lack of interest in new media is indicative of something deeper—a lack of a clear plan for what the Democrats will do to fix the country. Harris’ defeat in 2024 should have forced not only a deep reckoning, but also a strategy to address the party’s issues and find a way to reach voters again. After scrapping their autopsy report, arguing that its release would be “counterproductive,” the Democrats have struggled to unite around any policies or develop any kind of roadmap for winning the midterms, let alone the next presidential election.
The goal of Headquarters is “to build an effort to mobilize pro-justice, pro-fairness, pro-democracy young people against far-right extremism.” (I’m not quite sure what it means to “build an effort to mobilize.” Why not just mobilize?) But by choosing this kind of platform, and with such a convoluted message, Harris and her team fundamentally misunderstand what, today, is attracting an increasing number of young people to the far right.
Globally, more and more young voters are choosing right-wing parties and reporting dissatisfaction with democracy. There is a deep feeling that our current political system and institutions don’t work. Part of the reason is that politicians seem ever more corporate and out of touch. Announcing a platform to “funnel young people into both online and offline action for progressive values” just isn’t a good enough response.
Frustrated with a lack of opportunities, feeling left behind and unheard—these are emotional responses to changes in our economy and social values, and cannot be addressed by someone in a suit burbling corporate-style jargon. Young people are often instinctively repelled by performative behaviors and attempts to be cool. They choose authenticity over polish. This is why many of the most popular podcasts and YouTube channels, with their raw and non-PC hosts, have so much appeal. These hosts deliberately construct parasocial relationships with listeners to make them feel part of a community that understands them.
Harris’ greatest weakness has always been her inability to appear like a normal person, and this is causing her, yet again, to retreat into strategic soundbites rather than actually listening and responding. Young people don’t want to “meet and revisit with some of our great, courageous leaders” through a soulless website and curated videos. They want to see a human being who sees them, too.
It’s hard not to see this as the Democrats workshopping possible TikTok memes as the country burns. Harris and her team are cringe—but the Trump administration is genuinely dangerous, undermining American democracy in ways that may be irreversible, and putting the lives of civilians, including U.S. citizens, at risk. It’s unforgivable that, over a year into Trump’s presidency, the Democrats still don’t have their act together. Forced to choose between those two options, I would choose cringe every time. I just wish the Democrats could give us more than polished videos and websites that ultimately say nothing.
“I’m really excited about it. Stay engaged, and I’ll see you out there,” Harris concludes in her video. I’m not sure where “out there” is, but I’ll be there anyway, underwhelmed.
Leonora Barclay is Head of Podcasts at Persuasion.
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Totally agree Kamala is cringe. But a few comments. You start with: "Nor have they much to say about Trump’s foreign policy, which is so disruptive that it forced European nations to remember they have armies and deploy troops to Greenland."
Agree that Greenland is a non starter ( but could be a negotiating ploy on Trumps side? Or more probably just Trump being a little bit crazy ) But maybe democrats need to explain why Americans should be spending billions to defend Europe, while Europe spends far less as % of GDP than the USA does. In the regular world, that's called freeloading.
As for ICE, we can all agree that federal agents shooting civilians is dreadful, and should be prosecuted. But polls show most Americans DO believe that illegals, especially illegals with criminal records, should be deported. Maybe the dems need to articulate a position on immigration that is not just let all the undocumented people stay and lets open the borders again. Maybe they need to explain why they let so many people come here illegally in the first place.
I dunno. There's a lot to be said for McLuhan's "media is the message." Trump, after all, was a "star" long before he ran for office. He grew up in a center of the arts, NYC. His approach is instinctive – after decades of careful study. You may not like his brand of chaos but others do because in the end he's not apologizing nor does he recoil from normal white people.
In the end, culture is instinct. And people begin to sense who likes them, and who doesn't.