RUBEN GALLEGO, YOUNG FOGEY

Many frustrated Democratic voters believe that the party will change only when it's no longer in the hands of the weak, cowardly Baby Boomers who control it now. However, this Washington Post story about 45-year-old first-term senator Ruben Gallego suggests that generational change might not cure what ails the Democratic Party.

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) brought up his party’s “national brand problem” early in his visit here this week and said some of its politicians were “lying to themselves that things were getting better” economically during the last election. He capped his day with a pitch for winning voters who backed President Donald Trump.

He did? Why? Democrats have won New Hampshire's presidential vote six consecutive times. Why not appeal to voters in your own party? And while it's true that New Hampshire voters are free to vote in any primary they choose, there'll be a contested Republican primary in 2028 (assuming we have normal elections, and assuming Donald Trump doesn't run in defiance of the Constitution). I'm certain that the vast majority of New Hampshire Trump voters will be voting in that primary. So why try to win them over?

But a desperation to please Republicans is instinctual for so many Democrats. It's sad that a young Democrat has apparently learned this at the feet of his elders.

As he has traveled the country, Gallego ... has been especially outspoken about why he thinks his party fell short in 2024. He has suggested that Democrats continued losing the trust of the working-class because they failed to effectively acknowledge concerns about high costs and alienated voters worried about immigration, because many in the party have not championed border security measures alongside other proposed overhauls when they talk about the issue.

I think there's some truth to this -- but why lead with it? As I've been saying lately, why do so many Democrats think Democrats suck -- vote Democrat! is a winning message?

... Gallego mentioned just as many Republicans by name in a positive context — Sens. Bernie Moreno (Ohio) and Jim Banks (Indiana) — as Democrats.

This is classic Democratic self-hate. Bernie Moreno? The guy who said, "Republicans are independently minded. Democrats are monolithic sheep that follow the Fuhrer Schumer’s orders" -- a reference to Chuck Schumer, who's Jewish? Jim Banks, who was so proud of calling a fired Department of Health and Human Services worker a "clown" and telling the worker "You probably deserved it" that he posted the confrontation on X? Gallego might think it's fine that these Republican senators are abuisive pricks, but some of us don't want to be in an abusive marriage with the GOP.

[Gallego] called Trump a bully and accused the administration of taking actions that he argued would make the country “sicker and poorer.” But he also emphasized a need for compromise.

“The president wants some of his nominees through. I think there’s some that we could work on,” Gallego said, later pointing out that he voted to confirm Doug Burgum as interior secretary.

Dude, you voted to confirm ten of Trump's cabinet appointees -- the same number as John Fetterman. Why? Did any voter anywhere ever say, "Gosh, I planned to vote for this Democrat, but he voted against a Republican president's interior secretary three years ago, and that was a dealbreaker for me"?

Gallego apparently wants a cookie for backing a Republican immigration bill.

Gallego’s swing through New Hampshire also included a town hall alongside Democratic Rep. Maggie Goodlander, who, like the senator, voted in support of the Laken Riley Act, the first bill Trump signed into law in his second term. The law mandates detentions and potential deportations of undocumented individuals accused of certain crimes.

But as it tuned out, his audiences didn't care.

Immigration was not a dominant topic during Gallego’s speaking events on Friday....

Attendees at his town hall mostly voiced concerns about tariffs, the economy, the social safety net and care for veterans.

All subjects on which Democrats have better ideas than Republicans. Why not emphasize those issues?

Gallego was asked about a Republican hot-button issue, and his answer was not terrible.

When asked if he supports transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports, an issue that Democrats have struggled to navigate politically in recent years, Gallego offered a careful response, saying, “We have to understand and be supportive of all parents — both the parents of trans kids as well as the parents of non-trans kids.” Such matters should be decided at the local level, not federally, he said.

Beth Scaer, a Republican who asked Gallego the question about transgender athletes, said after the town hall that she was “happy to hear a shift in what people are saying” about the issue.

So did Gallego convert this Republican voter? Nahhh.

But when asked if a response like Gallego’s would sway her to vote for a Democrat, Scaer said, “That’s not likely.”

There you go. If you're running as a Democrat, run as a Democrat. You can take centrist positions, but just take them. Don't beat your chest and say, Look how much better I am than all these other awful Democrats! That just reinforces inaccurate stereotypes of other Democrats, which drags down the party as a whole, while winning over very few (if any) Republicans. And don't beg Republicans for votes. You won't get them.