There’s a word Democrats need to ban from their vocabulary if they want to rehab our brand and win elections again: “accomplishments.”
Every time we use that word, we’re telling voters we care more about what happens in the halls of Congress than what happens in their daily lives. We’re bragging about process instead of delivering results. We’re focused on what might be happening on the National Mall when what voters care about is what’s happening in their local mall—and whether they can still afford to shop there.
This isn’t a small messaging tweak. It’s a fundamental shift in how Democrats need to think about governing and communicating with the American people. And it may be the difference between political relevance and political exile.
The problem with ‘accomplishments’
When Democrats talk about our accomplishments, we sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back for showing up to work. “We passed the Inflation Reduction Act!” “We negotiated with pharmaceutical companies!” “We invested in infrastructure!”
But here’s what voters hear: “We did a bunch of stuff in Washington that you should be grateful for, even though your life doesn’t feel any different.”
The word “accomplishment” is inherently about us—what we achieved, what we got done, what we can point to on our political resume. It’s the language of insiders talking to other insiders. It’s the language of politicians who think governing is about the bills you pass rather than the problems you solve.
If you go back and watch Ronald Reagan’s iconic 1984 “Morning Again in America” ad, notice what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t talk about the legislation he signed. Instead, his opening line is that 6,000 people got married that day. He wasn’t claiming to be the minister or the matchmaker—he was claiming credit for creating the conditions where love could flourish and families could form.
Reagan understood something we’ve forgotten: voters don’t care about your process, they care about their results.
The power of results-based messaging
The painful irony of this is that Democrats have achieved results—and that more are within our reach—but we won’t succeed at convincing anyone about them if our focus is on the process of getting them done.
Consider how differently these messages land with voters:
- Instead of saying “passed a law so criminal gun traffickers face up to 15 years in prison,” say “put criminal gun traffickers in prison for up to 15 years.”
- Instead of “negotiated with prescription drug companies,” say “lowered prescription drug prices by forcing companies to negotiate with Medicare.”
- Instead of “invested $1.5 trillion in transportation infrastructure,” say “built 100,000 miles of new roads so your commute is shorter.”
- Instead of “created the largest climate investment in American history,” say “made your electric bill cheaper with more clean energy.”
- Instead of “expanded access to broadband internet,” say “brought high-speed internet to rural communities that didn’t have it before.”
Notice the pattern? The first version is about what we did in Washington. The second version is about what changed in peoples’ lives. Now that we’re the party out-of-power in Washington, our message still has to tell a story about the results we’d bring—the change, the impact. It can’t be about what laws we’d pass. In fact, in that same 1984 campaign, Reagan ran a lesser-known ad called Supermarket which talked about the results of lower inflation without ever needing to explain the process by which it got done.
This isn’t just about better communication—it’s about better governing. When we optimize our message for accomplishments, we optimize our governing for process. We celebrate when we pass a bill, not when the bill actually improves people’s lives. We measure success by the number of programs we create, not by the number of problems we solve.
This accomplishment-focused mindset helps explain why Democrats spent the Biden years talking endlessly about the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act while voters were worried about the cost of groceries. We were proud of what we accomplished in Washington while people were struggling in their daily lives.
We optimize for hoisting elected Democrats—especially those in Congress—on our shoulders when we do something so they’ll keep doing it. Tragically, we win their egos and lose their electorates.
Meeting voters where they are
Voters don’t wake up wondering whether Congress passed appropriations bills on time. They wake up wondering whether they can afford gas, whether their kids’ schools are good, whether they’ll be safe walking down the street, and whether they’ll have enough money for retirement.
If we want to win again, we need to meet voters where they are. And they aren’t in the halls of Congress, parsing the legislative language of bills or celebrating the process victories that make Washington insiders feel good about themselves.
This shift requires more than just different words—it requires different thinking. Instead of asking “What did we accomplish?” we need to ask “What results did we deliver?”
I’m as guilty as anyone. In 2022, I even wrote a memo for a donor called “Project Lift”—the idea was that if we only told people all the great things we were accomplishing, it would fix our problem. I was wrong.
If we optimize our strategy towards results then we’re more likely to actually have results and be able to communicate them.
The American people haven’t fundamentally changed. They still want leaders who will fight for them and deliver real improvements in their lives.
But, first, it’s time to stop congratulating ourselves for showing up to work and start proving that our work actually worked. We need to stop talking like legislators and start talking like problem-solvers. We need to stop bragging about what we accomplished in Washington and start demonstrating what we delivered or can deliver in America.
The post Democrats Need to Stop Talking About Our Accomplishments—And Do This Instead appeared first on TIME.
