Democrats Need to Unite in the Center | Opinion

Above the convention center where the Democratic National Convention meets this week is a serendipitous sign: “United Center.”
Yes, it’s literally the name of the convention center’s corporate sponsoring airline. But, if Democrats heed it, stay united, and move their political views to the center, they may find themselves in control of Congress and the presidency in 2025. Any armchair political quarterback can tell you that winning a general election is about reaching out to the center of American public opinion instead of merely pandering to the loudest voices in the party’s base.
But how to do it? Embracing law, order, and civility might be a good way to try reaching the middle Americans who will decide the election. After all, the mantle of the “law-and-order party” appears to be up for grabs. The once law-abiding Republican party has been kidnapped by former president Donald Trump. Of course, Trump is fine with keeping order if we interpret that to mean violence against his enemies—at quelling protests and violence from the left, while calling for it from the right. Most Americans can see that this is the opposite of law. It’s chaos, and this should hurt Trump.
Trump has been in trouble in court most of his adult life. He has filed six bankruptcies. Calculations show he and his businesses have been embroiled in over four thousand lawsuits over the past thirty years. He has been found by courts to have engaged in fraud, rape, and insurrection. He’s not much of an idol for a middle-class family that craves peace, prosperity, and politeness.
Starting in Chicago, the Democratic party has a chance to show itself to the country in its best clothes. Vice-President Harris and Governor Walz got off to a good start by making a mantra of “the middle class” and “freedom.” More important, emphasizing Harris’s service as a prosecutor is a golden opportunity for Democrats. She shouldn’t let up on the choice Americans have for president between Harris, the prosecutor, and Trump, the convicted felon. Nothing will better get the idea across that the Democratic candidate respects the law and the Republican candidate doesn’t.
Fortunately, not many people will see the convention’s Democratic platform. It continues to be a laundry list of issues that appeal predominantly to the party’s base, ranging from racial justice and equity to curbing the police. But hopefully Americans can see and appreciate what’s going on in Chicago’s streets.
Protests are going on in the streets. They are mostly pro-Palestinian. Chicago has a democratic mayor as it did in 1968 when anti-Vietnam War protestors swarmed the Democratic convention and were attacked by the police. But this year the Democrats can hope—and pray—for a better mood. Instead of antagonizing the protesters, Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former labor organizer, has called for a “a safe, as well as vibrant, exciting historical convention.” Early views of the marching show protestors being shepherded along by bicycle bearing policeman rather than beaten along by baton-bearing bullies as in 1968. If the Democrats can keep order in the city while keeping civility there too, they will win points with the moderate middle of America that didn’t like the riots following the death of George Floyd any more than they liked the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
And speaking of George Floyd, it wouldn’t hurt Democrats to keep reminding Americans that Trump’s criticism of Tim Walz for his handling of Floyd-related rioting contradicts Trump’s own prior praise that Walz was an “excellent guy” who “went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.”
Democrats have still another chance to shake off their reputation for disorderly cities by pointing to recent efforts from California Democrat and Republican punching bag, Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom has responded forcefully to a recent ruling from the United States Supreme Court greenlighting local efforts to remove encampments from public property. Newsom has ordered encampments removed from state parks. He has threatened cities that don’t follow his example with funding cuts. At the same time, he has kept it civil, and committed California, “to work with compassion to provide individuals experiencing homelessness with the resources they need to better their lives.”
And civility is a good note to end on. Harris and Walz are smilers. They laugh. Their slogan is “forward.” They’re optimistic. To see Trump is to see the scowler-in-chief, and to hear him is even worse. It’s like being showered with a sewagey stew of doom, gloom, and hate. So, if the Democrats in Chicago can polish their law-and-order credentials while they keep on smiling and laughing, they may jolly themselves all the way into the White House.
Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Employee Benefits. He is the author of the new book, The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.