Democrats Are Failing to Adapt to Trump's New World
That's where Brian Tyler Cohen comes in. A political commentator with 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube, Cohen sat down with The Daily Beast Podcast host and Chief Creative and Content Officer Joanna Coles to discuss the role independent media outlets and commentators can play in a new ecosystem where the old rules no longer apply.
Cohen began covering the Trump administration during Trump's first term, and quickly realized there was a gap in the market for left-wing video content. As he explains, 'I had some experience in front of the camera, so I figured if I'm only getting served right-wing content, I'm just gonna start making this content on my own and putting it out there and see how it does.'
Now, working for himself means that he has full autonomy, which has allowed him to grow his platform and become one of the most popular progressive personalities on YouTube.
This independence has also enabled him to try and meet the current moment with the urgency it requires, something Cohen feels both establishment Democrats and legacy media have failed to do.
'I wish that the people who hid behind slogans like 'Democracy dies in darkness' were able to meet the urgency of this moment and to recognize that, okay, if democracy is gonna die in darkness, then it's everybody in the media's responsibility to actually call out what's happening,' Cohen told Coles.
'Democracy dies in darkness' is the slogan of the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post. In February, Bezos announced that the Post's opinion pages would shift to focusing on 'personal liberties and free markets,' and just this week, reports emerged that Bezos was attempting to capitalize on President Donald Trump's falling out with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an attempt to secure more government contracts for his space tech company, Blue Origin.
Cohen argues that legacy media outlets have continued to use the same playbooks as they have in the past to respond to Trump's second term, which doesn't work, 'because we're in a different moment. And it requires fighting in a different way than we have fought before.'
'Republicans get that. They get how to adapt to this moment, how to adapt to the Trumpism of it all, and how to fight with everything they've got, because they know that their goal at the end of this is to consolidate power for themselves,' Cohen explains.
Unfortunately, 'the left and the media doesn't seem to get it. We seem to be stuck in this idea that we can usher in some bygone era of bipartisanship or compromise, and we're just not there anymore,' he argues.
In doing this, they're not only failing to meet the moment, but 'actually giving a green light to the worst actors in government to know that we're just not able to do what needs to be done to confront them.'
There's an asymmetry in how Republicans and Democrats use the media, Cohen argues: Democrats continue to rely on legacy media outlets like MSNBC, CNN, and The New York Times, while Republicans realized they 'weren't getting what they needed from liberal media,' and began creating their own outlets instead: Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, as well as personalities like Alex Jones, to name a few.
As a result, Democrats are now 'sprinting from behind to try and create parity,' but having only recently realized the problem exists, it's now 'a matter of whether we're going to be able to have the tools to fight back and build up our presence where people actually are getting their news.'
In addition to the role independent left-wing media can play going forward, Cohen is also hopeful about potential challengers to Trump who are emerging in the Democratic Party, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore.
Cohen says that these men, particularly Newsom and Buttigieg, 'know how to get into uncomfortable spaces,' with Newsom having already established a reputation as a fighter eager to tackle Republicans head-on. Buttigieg, meanwhile, 'is probably the best-spoken politician that we have,' and while Moore is largely unknown, that could work in his favor, alongside his natural charisma.
Cohen also sees Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as the future of the party, and believes that Democrats 'should be elevating her every chance we get.'
As for whether the U.S. will make it to 2028 with its democracy intact, Cohen believes, 'if we have Democrats who are willing to fight with everything they've got and not kind of defer to this bygone era of our friends on the other side of the aisle, if we have people who are truly looking to exercise the full strength of the party, the courts, the law, whatever we have at our disposal, then I think there is a world in which we can stave off what I believe is an inevitable onslaught by Republicans.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
President Trump fires BLS commissioner after July jobs report
President Trump said in a social media post Friday afternoon that he directed members of his administration to fire Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after the BLS on Friday published the July jobs report that contained what it called "larger than normal" revisions to data from May and June. The July jobs report published Friday morning showed the US economy added 73,000 jobs last month, fewer than expected while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%. The most notable number to emerge from the report, however, was a downward revision to job gains in May and June which that saw 258,000 jobs taken away from what had been initially reported. May's job gains were revised down to 19,000 from 144,000, while June's additions were cut to just 14,000 from the 147,000 initially reported. In its release on Friday, the BLS said these revisions, "result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors." Economists on Friday were near-unanimous in their view that July's jobs data and the revisions to May and June reflect a labor market that is far weaker than had been suggested by recent data and characterizations by some officials, notably Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. "The 'solid' state of the labor market described by the FOMC earlier this week looks more questionable after the July employment report," Wells Fargo senior economists Sarah House wrote in a note Friday. Job gains over the last three months have now averaged just 35,000 after Friday's revisions. This is breaking news, more to come...
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Taps Banks For Fannie, Freddie IPO Ideas
Trump pulled in big-bank CEOs to pitch how to turn Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) back into public companies, and the market reacted fastafter-hours the two mortgage giants popped about 15% and 6% on light volume. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with FNMA. The conversations are wide open and informal: Jamie Dimon has already been in the room after years of cool relations, David Solomon was slated to meet Thursday, and Brian Moynihan is up next. Other banks are likely in the mix too as the White House crowdsources ideas on structuring a major public stock offering that would monetize the government's stake. Both GSEs have been in conservatorship since 2008, but the pitch is leaning on the narrative that they've rebuilt capital, paid back federal support, and could be shifted toward private markets. The meetings are exploratory, and there's no clean roadmap yet officials have signaled that conservatorship isn't suddenly ending, so any shift would take time and political alignment. That ambiguity is why the pop feels part hope, part speculation. The talks put a long-dormant privatization story back into play and give investors a reason to price a potential regime change. The next few days of follow-up meetings and any clearer White House signal will tell if this is groundwork or just noise. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This week in Trumponomics: The Trump slowdown is here
Economists have been warning that President Trump's trade wars will depress growth and hiring. Trump and his defenders say pshaw. But the Trump economy is suddenly looking shaky. Hiring slowed dramatically in July, and downward revisions for the two prior months reveal the weakest job market since the COVID recession in 2020. Employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, with the average for the past three months an anemic 35,000. In 2024, job growth averaged 168,000 new jobs per month. Up till now, Trump has waged his trade war with impunity. His tariffs have raised the average tax on imports from 2.5% to about 18%. That's a hefty tax on some $3 trillion worth of goods, paid by American businesses and consumers. Yet inflation is still below 3%. The stock market flinched in April and May but has since hit a series of new record highs. The second quarter of 2025, however, is now looking like it may have been the last respite before Trump's disruptive policies take their it's not just hiring. Second quarter GDP rose by 3%, which would be solid in normal times. But the numbers are distorted by a surge of imports in the first quarter and a corresponding plunge in the second. Even it out, and GDP growth in the first half of 2025 was a weak 1.2%. That's less than half the growth rate in the first half of 2024, which was a more robust 2.8%. Many companies are beginning to say Trump's tariffs are harming profits, including bellwethers Ford (F), General Motors (GM), and Procter & Gamble (PG). The US manufacturing sector has contracted for five months in a row, and manufacturing employment has dropped for three months straight. Tariff-related inflation might also be materializing. The inflation rate inched up from 2.4% in May to 2.7% in June. There were notable month-to-month price hikes in product categories dominated by tariffs, including clothing, appliances, sporting goods, and toys. Consumers don't normally notice small monthly price hikes, but they notice for sure if price hikes persist and stuff continually gets more expensive. All of these trends are exactly what the many critics of Trump's trade wars have predicted. Tariffs raise costs for any firm or household dependent on imports. Higher costs reduce spending and investment. Trump's episodic tariff announcements also create uncertainty because affected businesses can't predict future costs. That creates an incentive to wait instead of investing, expanding, or hiring. The net effect is lower growth, lower employment, and possibly stagflation. Read More: What is stagflation, and how does it impact you? It's possible that Trump will get the message and wind down his trade wars. But not before more chaos. Just as Trump was inking trade deals with Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and the European Union, he upped the ante on some five dozen other countries by threatening tariffs on their imports as high as 40%, including a new 35% rate — up from 25% — on some Canadian imports. The US stock market had been hovering near record levels on the hope that the worst of Trump's tariff fulminations were over. But stocks sank anew on Aug. 1 on the latest tariff shock, plus the lousy job numbers. There's yet another tariff deadline, Aug. 7, when the latest barrage of tariffs will go into effect unless those 60-odd countries make trade deals with Trump. Some of them probably will. But the new regime of higher tariffs is here to stay, and whether the average tariff rate is 18% or 20% or 22%, everybody's going to have to deal with Trump's new import taxes. Read more: 5 ways to tariff-proof your finances The consolation prize is that the weakening economy makes the Federal Reserve much more likely to cut interest rates in the fall. Odds of a quarter-point rate cut in September jumped from 38% to 81% after the latest job and tariff news, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. Trump, of course, has been hectoring the Fed to cut rates, and the weakening Trump economy now gives it a reason to. Most economists think the economy will slow from 2.8% GDP growth in 2024 to around 1% in 2025 and 2026. That's not a recession, but weak growth will make jobs more scarce, keep a lid on wages, and intensify the economic blahs many people feel. It's probably happening now. Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Bluesky and X: @rickjnewman. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
