Dems are letting 'secret weapon' against Trump go to waste: analysis

In an article for Slate published Monday, author and attorney Jill Filipovic argued that Democrats are sitting on a powerful political weapon — opposition to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — but have repeatedly failed to deploy it effectively.

She portrayed the OBBBA as “a massive giveaway to the wealthy, paid for by big cuts to services used by the American working and middle classes,” calling it “indefensible” and clearly positioning it as a strategic advantage for Democrats, if and only if they can wield it properly.

Titled "This Issue Could Be Democrats’ Secret Weapon, if They Can Figure Out How to Use It," Filipovic's piece emphasized that this missed opportunity is symptomatic of a broader messaging failure within the party. While opposing the OBBBA should be a political slam dunk, with its generous benefits favoring the rich at the expense of healthcare, nutrition, and education —the Democratic Party has largely failed to capitalize. Instead of framing the issue as an existential threat to Americans’ livelihoods, they’ve defaulted to general critiques that lack emotional resonance, she argued.

Filipovic argued that this problem extends beyond just tone, highlighting some party metrics. Democratic favorability has slumped to 34 percent, even as 91 percent of Republicans view their own party favorably, and only 73 percent of Democrats feel similarly about their own.

Since the 2024 election, the party has lost over 150,000 registered voters across just 30 states, while Republicans gained more than 200,000. Since 2020, Democrats have lost 2.1 million voters even as Republicans gained 2.4 million. Younger voters, who once comprised 63 percent of new registrants in 2018, favored Republicans in 2024 at a same-or-higher rate, with less than 48 percent choosing Democrats.

Filipovic probed deeper into why these numbers matter, noting that many Americans see themselves as self-reliant, driven individuals, not victims, and want policies framed accordingly. They respond more positively to rhetoric that promises opportunity, autonomy, and a clear path forward, rather than messages that emphasize vulnerability or reliance on aid.

While Democrats often articulate policies aimed at bolstering social safety nets, Filipovic warns this can alienate voters who don’t see themselves as needy, even if they benefit.

"Democrats and those of us who make up these 'woke' movements would do well to remember what we came here to do. It’s not to remind each and every American of their relative advantage or disadvantage as if each person must be dropped onto some point of a privilege matrix, or to distill people’s multifaceted lives into simplistic identity categories, or tell a facile story of victims and perpetrators," she said.

"It’s not even to give the very worst-off the very bare minimum. It’s to make ourselves irrelevant: to make people’s lives significantly better, and the country just and fair, so that everyone can prosper."