Working class Americans are having a moment, and one “center left” think tank is openly unraveling. The Democratic establishment believes they have the key to winning all over the map, buoyed by a select number of Wall Street billionaires. What is the key? Well, it is….
*reading through their website*
…continue listening to billionaires about what’s best for the country?
…keep trying the same strategy that 100% loses to Donald Trump?
…support foreign national interests over our own?
….what exactly is this key unlocking?
Democratic elites be forewarned: Three warning lights are blinking red.
1. Voters are not asking for more money in politics
First, even in what looks like a strong Democratic year, the establishment is testing the patience of the voters who have been betrayed by them. Take Michigan, a once solidly blue state turned swing state by Donald Trump and the abandonment of Detroit. Super PACs backing the establishment Democratic Senate candidate Haley Stevens spent more than $10 for every buck coming from her opponent’s grassroots fundraising. This resulted in the most expensive Senate Democratic primary in the history of the United States. So why did she need to call the Pharma, Israel, and Wall Street lobbies to give her more than $50 million only to lose a primary?
The answer is simple, the D.C. consultant class loves to waste money telling candidates to do things that no voter actually wants. No one characterizes this better than the “centrist” think tank Third Way. A month ago, Jon Cowan—the think tank’s president—revealed to the New York Times that Third Way intends to spend $15 million “preparing for the next war that is coming.” And no he doesn’t mean the next war in the Middle East, but you’d be forgiven for thinking that. He is referring to the war against the most active members of the Democratic electorate, the voting demographic that many analysts say Democrats lost most in 2024, and the interests of working class people.
To get them back, Jon will need to drop the radicalism: Stop hanging out with billionaires and ducking questions about Israel’s genocide, and be clear that you support democracy and seek to abolish money in politics1. The clock is ticking — Republicans are already gerrymandering, overturning civil rights protections, and deploying voter intimidation tactics.
2. Moving to the center doesn’t mean what it used to
Second, moving to the center in the current two-party system in American politics is to move even further right than any president in American history. Democrats have been saying for 10 years now that Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy. They’ve largely been proven right. In fact, he has become an existential threat to the global post-war order. He has decapitated two heads of petrostates within three months, created a paramilitary police force, and defunded this country’s scientific research apparatus. What does it mean to move to the center between the shambles of the weak Democratic Party and the extreme right wing ?
It is going to mean the same corporate trickle down economics policy approach from the Reagan years that generated the backlash that motivated Trump’s MAGA America First movement in the first place. This is exactly what Trump wants. The Democratic Party moving to the right as the right moves to the right means you have consolidated all political momentum in one direction. When the consequences of that new right wing political order playout as they did with Bill Clinton and neoliberalism, the Democrats will be to blame because they would be doing it to win not to govern. Republicans at least have a theory for how to wield the power Third Way Democrats are giving them in the name of “moderation”.
This isn’t to discredit the value of moderation broadly. In all the pivotal points of American history where slavery was abolished, voting rights were expanded, or fascism was defeated there was some compromise on the political objective in order to have any policy at all. But those leaders had a vision before they had a deal, what do you have Jon? What exactly is the political vision that Third Way believes they should pragmatically compromise on? Because right now your political vision is as simple as Democrats should be in power at all costs of real policy action. This is the type of egotistical logic that led to Stalin’s USSR. You just won’t be in charge.
Do you want to let Donald Trump shape the trajectory of the new political order of the 21st century by holding on to the aging neoliberal order of the 20th century? By positioning a party as one that only stands on what is the middle, you lose the opportunity to shape the policy discussion. It also means you don’t spend time actually thinking about what policy should be if you don’t have any policy goals to begin with.
This is why Kamala Harris came off as inauthentic to voters. She artificially swung left when that felt like the middle and campaigned with Liz Cheney when “the middle” moved. How could the American electorate find any credibility in someone that only changes their mind to win, not to be better?
3. Democrats lose because they have meaningless policy
Third Way is unique in that they claim that they are a rigorous research institution and a bold advocacy organization for the Democratic party. What is confusing is that they rarely manage to take advantage of that position by passing policies that are broadly popular. They will research what they think
Republicans will vote on, only to be backstabbed. Meanwhile they never thought about what they could get their own coalition to agree on so that they have something to win elections on.
One might think Republican policies are bad, but consider that they actually think about bold ideas that they can sell as clear slogans. Here are a few from the past decade: “build a wall”, “drain the swamp”, “fight terrorism”, “cut the deficit”, “lower taxes”, “energy dominance”. You can disagree with some or all of these. You can even make note of their inconsistencies or lack of coherence. But these are policy proposals that for the most part have an action that means something to Americans.
When we look at the past decade of Democratic ideas they are always nouns “change”, “deplorables“ ,“malarkey”, “freedom”. It is simple. Nobody believes you will do anything because you refuse to say what you will do. They are making the same mistake again with “affordability” and “opportunity”. The details are never clear because your politics are shallow, your funding is from Wall Street, and your policy is to moderate no matter the circumstances. What kind of leaders and what kind of voters would a party like that attract?
The answer is spineless Jon Cowan of Third Way. He is spending $15 million to stop the Democratic Party from having ideas. Why? Because the arms dealers want more funding for Israel’s war on Iran, hedge funds want even lower taxes or accountability, and big PhARMA wants the working class to keep paying more in health care. The voters that like those ideas already know who to vote for and it is not the Democratic Party.
Third Way, STOP! You are going the wrong way!
We are here with a simple message. Turn around, look at the past, look at those you’ve failed. Do you think your stubbornness has been the right way? Or are you actually that shameless that you will march the wrong way to Trump’s throne and kiss his feet.
Unlike Third Way, we don’t want to maintain the status quo. We also are not here to tell you to denounce socialists (or join them). We are here to ask more of the establishment than what they have given. We are here to fight their $15 million with the questions that this kind of money invites. Because if anyone of the working class in America was fucking up their job as bad as Third Way and Jon Cowan have for the past 10 years of failed policy action, then they would’ve been fired.
On this Labor Day, one month after Third Way’s $15 million investment, we fight for the spirit of the Democratic Party. Wrong Way Institute is dedicated to calling out the flawed thinking of Third Way, to dispel their disinformation, and make them work even half as much as the Americans they think they can manipulate and take for granted.
While Third Way is not the only enabler of rising authoritarianism in this country, they are the most disingenuous. We hope they course correct and realize they are going the Wrong Way.
In 2024, the electorate told Democrats, in plain language and painful detail, that it is done with disingenuous politicians. Some who crave power may be tempted to move further in the direction of the winners. That’s not resistance, that’s cowardice.
This article is both the inaugural post for the Wrong Way Institute and a satire of the pathetic whiny op-ed from Third Way president and executive vice president Jon Cowan and Matt Bennett. You can read the original here.
If you want to help support Abdul El-Sayeed’s campaign facing the wrath of Third Way, please donate here.
If you are interested in contributing a critique of Third Way, providing information for an investigation, or joining our team. Please reach out to us at press@wrongwayinstitute.org
Also if you have any feedback you’d like to make publicly
Miliken institute is a billionaire breeding ground for the man who shorted global financial markets for his own gain. Third way wrote a memo a decade ago on how to get money out of politics where they go out openly and say, “Calls for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United have become ubiquitous, at least among policymakers on the left. But voters think that is a long shot.”