Book draft: The Democratic Party must go back to the basics—and do so with new technology
Here’s the first few draft pages of "Eyes on the Prize," a book I'm writing on how the party can become more competitive and win again on the issues.
Note: Posts for the next few weeks are drafts of a book I’m writing on how the Democratic Party communicates with the country. I’m publishing drafts here because I want readers to kick the tires, disagree, or give an Amen. Use the comment section for your feedback please. Kevin
P.S.: I have not used and won’t use AI in the writing of this book.
Introduction
So much of politics, like life, is powered by story. It can be the hero battling the villain; the rags-to-riches self-made candidate who pulled herself up by her bootstraps; a recovery story; an oppressed underdog rising up against the powerful.
And right now in America, we are seeing an as yet unresolved story play out, as Margaret Atwood, the novelist and author of Handmaid’s Tale, said in 2022.
“In order to hold any sort of nation state together, there has to be a story that most of the people agree on,” Atwood said on Ezra Klein’s New York Times podcast. “And every once in a while, those stories fall apart...[T]he American story used to be liberty, democracy, freedom, equality, land of light...[W]hat you're seeing now is a wrestling match for what is the real America. What is the authentic America? And you see people wrapping themselves in the flag both ways and saying that they are the real America.”
Democracy versus some form of autocracy is the biggest advocacy issue of my lifetime— and probably yours.
The Democratic Party won’t save America. Even if it wasn’t in shambles at the moment, with its brand on par with New Coke of the 1980s, the party alone isn’t enough to steer the nation in a better direction. It’s up to civic leaders and voters and citizens -so you, you, and you over there— to control which way this story ends. It will be all of us in our communities — Republicans, Independents, Democrats, and the unaffiliated —that can redirect America back on the path of freedom, where we can breathe more easily. The American airspace is getting stuffy and oppressive.
While Democrats alone can’t fix this, the party can be a powerful and effective antagonist, as well as a protagonist that goes on offense. Yet Democrats over the past 10 years or so, with a few notable exceptions, have failed in the advocacy of their issues. That’s what this book is about—and how to course correct. The party must go back to the basics –focusing on persuasion, popularity, and people–and do so with the newest technology to win the AI arms race.
My hope is to bring together diverse and actionable guidance, both new and ancient, drawing from the fields of public policy, the art of communications, leadership 101, Greek philosophy, journalism, AI, and social media. What works and doesn’t work in 2025 and beyond? Is a new mindset needed? What are the old ways of thinking that still apply today?
Let me be upfront with you before going any further. My operating theory of the case and default position of politics is simple: it’s to win—elections and policy and cultural battles. That’s what politics is: gaining and using power. If your priority is something other than that, you probably won’t be curling up with this book.
Those who take an outwardly inflexible moral or self-righteous position on the issues or bask in purity tests and pine for perfect candidates, that’s not the world we live in. It never has been. So politics isn’t for everyone—completely understandable. It’s a different way of thinking.
We all need to up our advocacy game so the United States chooses the path of democracy.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
Kevin Nix
June 2025
CHAPTER 1
Why advocacy? Because pressure works.
I learned a lot during my time working in Washington, D.C. It was the best education I could ever get both in the classroom and in a real-world laboratory.
There is one overriding lesson I walked away with that proved itself true time and time again: Public pressure works. Not all the time and not overnight but it gets results, as long as it’s relentless and knows the right notes to hit and levers of power to pull.
When I say pressure, I am including private one-on-one lobbying conversations; news and social media coverage; physical and digital protests; lawsuits; getting other people whom the target lawmaker respects to get on board with your cause; and the threat of losing reelection. The main venue, today, is the court of public opinion. Leaders need to win people over and/or mobilize them around the issues: the economy and inflation, taxes, war, light rail, voting rights, racism, anti-semitism, democracy itself, and so on.
So often, it’s one or two individuals who rattle the cages, who speak up to oppose or support an idea or set of values. The idea spreads over time and draws more people to it. History is replete with true pioneers for righting wrongs.
In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott pioneered the Seneca Falls Convention, the public meeting that brought for the first time women’s rights to the fore and ultimately led to the right for women to vote in 1921.
The 1960s civil movement— one of the most, if not the most, successful eras to secure legal equality of Black Americans against a backdrop of violence and terror. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcom X, and John Lewis — and many more true leaders—made a massive impact on public consciousness and civil rights law.
In 1988, the trustees of Gallaudet University, a school for the Deaf in Washington, D.C., voted for a new hearing president of the university. The students, however, had other ideas. They orchestrated savvy protests to lobby for a new head of the university, who was deaf. The students prevailed, and helped galvanize, as The Atlantic pointed out, the movement that led to the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The parents of the young children murdered in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre filed a lawsuit against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones had claimed on his radio show the killing of 20 school-age children was a hoax. The kids had not died, he said, and the first responders on the scene were "crisis actors." Juries in the cases found Jones guilty of defamation and ordered him to pay almost $1 billion in damages.
After Target rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative, Black leaders led a boycott of the company. In an earnings call, CEO Brian Cornell told investors sales were declining due to several factors, including tariffs, tired stores, and the “headwinds” of the boycott.
In the 2025 case of the unlawful deportation of Abrego Garcia due to an “administrative error,” the Trump Administration, under pressure, returned him to the U.S. after weeks of his being in a Salvadoran prison. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said in a statement that because “the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the administration must facilitate his return, as well as the public pressure and horror of the American public at what has happened to Mr. Abrego Garcia, has finally forced the administration to return him. That is an important step and proof that our advocacy works.”
The relationship between public pressure and the outcome of that pressure can be complex. It’s not always easy to draw straight lines from cause to effect or correlation to outcome. Still, there are probably hundreds of examples of pressure working in American politics on both sides of the aisle.
Conservatives relentlessly played the long game for 50 years to end or severely limit abortion. Ultimately they succeeded in many red states and with the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade in 2002. In a much shorter time period, the right-wing MAGA movement mushroomed over 5-10 years. It now controls all three branches of the federal government and most state legislatures.
Book bans — parents
The moral of this story: If you don’t exercise your voice as an American citizen in politics - be it before Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court, the local school board or at the voting booth, other people will. Others participate in your name and not with your best interests at heart. So if you’re only doom scrolling or drinking a $85 bottle of Spanish wine at a Michelin- star restaurant complaining about politics and not doing something, remember this: You have to be in it to win it. The folks who engage in the advocacy process are more likely to find success.