Democrats were blitzed all around the country by the GOP with ads attacking them on transgender rights. It was a particularly dominant theme in Texas, and the Trump campaign has said it was one of the more effective parts of their final push. This has left some analysts wondering whether Democrats should not so outspokenly advocate for transgender rights going forward.
This is a trap, warned Perry Bacon Jr. in an analysis for The Washington Post — and Democrats should look at the actual data before throwing a vulnerable part of their coalition overboard, at a time they are already facing persecution, threats, and high rates of suicide.
"I’m very worried the second Trump administration is going to demonize college professors and students, transgender people and undocumented immigrants in particular — and that Democratic politicians are going to go along with it (or not object much), thinking it will electorally help the party," he wrote. "That’s not the right moral stance. And I don’t think it’s politically savvy either."
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In reality, he wrote, there's not much evidence that transgender issues or other fearmongering about vulnerable groups moved this election — and plenty of evidence suggesting Democrats who sincerely pushed back against this hate do well.
"Democrats had some of their best recent electoral performances in 2018 and 2020, when they consistently attacked former president Donald Trump for being anti-immigrant and embraced the protest movement after George Floyd was killed. The governors who won in 2022 and 2023 in purple and red states, such as Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, opposed anti-trans legislation pushed by Republicans."
The fact is, continued Bacon, "Democrats are never going to outdo the Republicans in terms of being mean to minorities. Rather than moving to the right on social issues, they should focus on economic ideas that actually resonate with people."
And above all, he wrote, Democrats need a narrative that gives voters something to fight for — and fight against. Something like, “You can have good health care and a steady job and not pay exorbitant prices for groceries and child care if we start making the billionaires pay their fair share and stop allowing them to take all of the profits from your hard work.”