Democratic Operative Walks Away From the Party No Longer Reflecting Its Espoused Values

Former Democratic operative Evan Barker has penned a scathing rebuke of the party on whose behalf she once worked tirelessly, raising millions in the process. In her words, her eyes began opening when she attended the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago:

Initially, I was thrilled to attend this rite of passage for every political operative. But once there, wandering amidst the glitz and glam, imbibing the gloss and schmaltz of it all, I couldn’t escape a sinking feeling. I felt submersed in a hollow chamber whose mottos were “Brat summer” and “Joy”—totally out of touch with regular, every-day Americans and their pressing needs; instead, the most elite people in the world chanted in unison that “We’re not going back!”

I found myself feeling disenchanted, lost, sad, and alone.

This divergence between what Barker believed to be the champions of the working class and its reality deepened the more she dove into the party’s mechanisms.

Looking back now, I realize that my dissatisfaction grew slowly, bubbling just beneath the surface for a long time. In 2017, I started raising money for campaigns, working fancy fundraisers hosted by wealthy financiers, billionaire heiresses, and corporate CEOs, many of whom gave to Democrats and Republicans equally. I led candidates through hours a day of soullessly dialing up rich people and begging them for money. Not only do candidates spend most of their time talking to the rich, but the only path to elected office is to be rich, or to know lots of rich people.

Here’s the thing about donors: They have niche policy issues they care about that seldom reflect the needs of people back home. Democrats love to decry money in politics when it comes to the Koch brothers or Elon Musk, but the billionaires who support Democrats are given a total pass and have a huge influence over policy.

At first, I naively thought the system was broken. But now I realize, it isn’t broken; it’s doing what it was designed to do, which is to keep working class people from true representation. That is the point, a feature, not a bug.

It’s tempting to say, “Oh, you’ve finally noticed?” However, such snark is fruitless. When someone gains clarity, we must meet moments such as these with grace and truth, a forgiving spirit coupled with applied knowledge explaining why there is no shame in being fooled when all you receive is half of the story all of the time.

Barker’s initial response was to embrace the progressives in her party, but she quickly saw the truth behind the claptrap.

But even the progressives are part of the problem now. They were once focused on policies that improved people’s lives, promising to be unbought and uncompromisable. But after the summer of 2020, that rhetoric all but faded away. They’ve become compromised by the social justice language and divisive identity politics that now dominates the entire Democratic ecosystem.

Next comes the money shot.

Here’s the sad truth: The Democratic Party has lost its way entirely. They mostly speak to the college educated, the urban and affluent, in their language. Their tone is condescending and paternalistic. They peddle giveaways to the college-educated like student loan forgiveness plans that disproportionately help their base, snubbing the majority of the country without a four-year degree, and then offer no tangible plans for true reform.

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Be mindful that the contemporary Democratic Party is a natural byproduct of a society where feelings and self-definition have been made sacrosanct, much to the annoyance of those who prefer reality’s true course. When self-perception is deemed truth, chaos reigns. Scripture, the only 100 percent accurate observer of humanity’s genuine nature, notes that when a nation is stuck in a moment it can’t get out of, during which everyone does that which is right in their own eyes, wisdom and justice are discarded. As Solomon wrote in Proverbs:

A person may think their own ways are right,but the Lord weighs the heart.

That said, the temptation to throw up one’s hands and say, “They’ll never listen, so why should I bother,” must be resisted. People can and do see the error of their ways. We on the right cannot take examples such as Barker’s independently discovered embrace of the truth as a declaration that all we need to do is stand aside and wait until others on the left feel the heat from the dumpster fire of their own making. We must keep putting our message, and with it ourselves, out there.

When someone who was until this year a committed progressive catches the vision and sees the truth, it brings hope. This should serve as a joyful yet cautionary example to all of us on the right. Even as the sword of love can pierce the hardest heart, so can the most closed mind be opened to reality. It is up to us to unfailingly present the truth with grace, kindness, and humor. Who knows where the seed we sow by doing so might take root?