The 2024 election revealed how the Democratic Party’s embrace of radical positions and top-down control alienated independents, and this rejection of independent-minded voters contributed to its significant electoral losses.
John Opdycke, the President of Open Primaries, a national election reform organization, has written a scathing critique of the Democratic Party’s unwillingness to embrace independent voters and independent-minded candidates—a stubbornness that could cost it dearly.
Opdycke called out the Democratic Party’s hostility toward independence rather bluntly. “The Democratic Party hates independent thinking, independent organizations, independent voters and independent reform,” he writes, citing the party’s aggressive campaigns against groups such as No Labels and figures including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Democrats’ “scorched-earth” tactics to block dissenters, from denying Kennedy a primary debate with Joe Biden to using legal maneuvers to keep him off ballots, reveal a party desperate to avoid internal or external challenges.
It’s not just high-profile figures who face the brunt of this “destroy dissent” mentality. Ordinary independent voters are also sidelined. In 2024, Democrats canceled their presidential primary, effectively insulating Biden from competition.
Joe Rogan, Dean Phillips, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Robert Kennedy were all at one time Democrats or Democrat-adjacent. All have been expelled by this “destroy dissent” posture. Rather than create space for debate on school vouchers, transgender medical care, border security, universal basic income and foreign wars, the Democratic Party banishes people who don’t toe the party line.
Rank-and-file independents fare no better than influencers. In 2024, the Democratic Party cancelled their presidential primary, preferring to first insulate Biden and then crown Harris. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) said, “This is a disaster” and was ignored.
Opdycke emphasizes that independents—the largest bloc of voters—aren’t going away. Hilariously, he thinks that Rahm Emanuel, who is being floated as a potential Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, actually might help the Democrats right their ship.
“I think independence is a streak that I’m going to look for,” Emanuel told Ezra Klein in a recent interview. “Give me somebody that ran against the grain, said publicly what people are thinking … so their independence is a quality that gives them kind of the anti-establishment, the anti-elite tone. To me, independence, saying things that aren’t politically correct, willing to take on not just X interest group or whatever but even your own party’s interest group or leadership — to me, that’s the gold mine I want to go work in.”
Sounds like he knows what’s what, right? He may be saying the right things, but does anyone really believe that Barack Obama’s former chief of staff has it in him to embrace independents in a meaningful way? I don’t. Remember, Obama’s presidency aggressively pushed radicalism over centrism.
Trust me, Emanuel isn’t going to steer the party back to the center.
The solution, Opdycke argues, is simple but unlikely. The Democratic Party should embrace independent initiatives, support open primaries, and allow for healthy competition and debate, but is there any indication that they will actually do it?
Openness to debate within the Democratic Party would be a solid start, but in the end, they also have to move toward the center, not just pay them lip service.
