Sermonette: Toward a Democratic Party That Doesn't Suck

A Weekend Dose of Tough Love

When I was a little kid growing up in the New York suburbs there were only seven television channels. (Channel 2—CBS, Channel 4—NBC, Channel 5--WNEW, Channel 7—ABC, Channel 9—WOR, Channel 11—WPIX and Channel 13—WNET/PBS) None of them were on twenty-four hours a day.

It freaked me out when I would wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the TV to get a test pattern or a message that broadcasting would resume the next morning. Who was awake and in charge of the world? Was it me in my pajamas?

Sometimes, if it was starting to be light out and I knew that broadcasting had to resume soon, I would sit in front of the television—hopeful, addicted, a sad example of a 20th Century boy child—and just wait.

Then, around 5 a.m. usually, the test pattern would disappear. It would be followed by the national anthem, typically with video of a flag waving or jets flying overhead. (Yes, there were jets back then. Rude.)

Following the national anthem, there would be something called “Sermonette.” It was a brief message from a clergy man of some background. By which I mean some denomination. They were all white men. After that, I could settle in to watch the farm shows—”Modern Farmer” and “Agriculture USA.” And only after these were done would we get to the marginal kids programming, some of it also religious in origin (“Davey and Goliath”—claymation parables from the Lutheran church if I recall correctly.)

My family was not (is not) very religious. So most of my exposure to anything theological in nature came from watching “Sermonette.” It was all pretty banal but a lot of it was in what appeared to me to be in the language of the Christian majority that I saw as exclusionary to little Jewish kids like me. (These were the people who took away all my friends on Sunday mornings so we couldn’t play softball until after lunchtime.) Yet, it must have had an effect. There are still many commandments that I have not violated, most even.

Anyway, trained as I was in this form of communication I have concluded that brief well-intentioned rants are a helpful way to knit together the fabric of our society. And so I have one for you today. Well, not for all of you. Just for the Democrats in the crowd. But if you aren’t a Democrat, feel free to listen, much as I did when I was sitting there in my PJs feeling out of the loop as Monsignor Something-or-Other was relating to me some relevant idea produced at the First Council of Nicaea.

A Sermonette for Lost Dems

The dividing line issue among Dems is not between progressive & centrist. It's between strong & weak & by extension, between young & old. Time for the institutionalist gerontocracy to move along. Thanks for your service. We need leaders clear about what they are for not just what they're against.

Democrats need to be the party of change. The last election was closer than many make it out to have been. Nonetheless, the gap we should be looking at is not that between Harris and Trump. It is the gap between how Democrats did and how they should have done. (They should've crushed Trump.)

Why? Because on the vast majority of issues--climate, energy, education, fair taxes, sensible gun control laws, health care, dignity for the aged--two-thirds to three-quarters of more of Americans agree. And they agree with the Dem position. (Yes, the progressive position.)

We need to resist the temptation to be reactive and start focusing aggressively on a 2026/2028 agenda that champions those views and no longer apologizes (as Dems so often do) for what we believe. We will see what strong but visionless, unprincipled and incompetent gets us over the next four years.

Sure, we can refer to all that. But we need to step up and be seen as potent fighters for all Americans on the issues that matter most to them. Not culture war distractions designed to be bread and circuses for the masses to keep them occupied while bonanzas for the rich are being engineered.

There are voices out there who can bring this message--AOC, Raskin, Whitmer, Moore, Newsom, Crockett, Murphy, and many more. There are no doubt new voices most of us aren't aware of. But to win, Dems must be seen as the party of the strongest leaders who make their case w/actions not just words.

Enough with scorched earth GOP tactics being met by Dem hand-wringing, snark and taking to their fainting couches. Where are the scorched earth Dems? Where are the ones who won't flinch at the first barrage of bot and troll critiques on X or Fox or in the bent knee mainstream media?

If you believe you're one...get involved. Do something. Democrats need a leadership transplant, a character infusion, a vision upgrade. Starting now.