Dear Democrats: Meet the 80–20% Rule

I don’t know what to make of all the finger wagging on the left at the moment but in a word, it all seems, counterproductive? Yes, counterproductive is the exact word when you stop and for a minute consider that Jared Kushner failed to disclose (yes, again) his business relationship with Goldman Sachs, that Trump is undoing climate change policy or how Trump continues to shower praise on the world’s worst dictators.

Simply put, there’s a lot to focus on when it comes to Trump and the GOP yet somehow, I keep reading about Obama’s speeches. There’s D̶e̶m̶o̶c̶r̶a̶t̶ic Independent Senator Bernie Sanders railing on Obama, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren who is ‘troubled’ by Obama’s speech and of course, CNN political analyst Van Jones suggesting Obama should go on a poverty tour. Love Bill Clinton dearly but prettty sure that guy didn’t do a poverty tour to get the “optics” right. The optics were that a former president was going to give speeches to anyone and get paid to do so. End of.

BUT I DIGRESS. The best way to describe what’s going on with several factions of the Democratic Party is to say, it’s a bit like when your town is engulfed in flames but instead of putting out the fire elsewhere, you’re actively preoccupied with setting your own house ablaze.

*Insert everything’s fine GIF here*

Except it’s not fine! Democrats need to do what my friend’s dad always used to say to us, “Stop playing games! Y’all better fix up and look sharp, now!” Put another way, it’s time to focus more energy on the real problem…or on putting out the active fires all over town because the midterms are riiiiight around the corner.

Last week I spoke to Shareblue’s executive editor, Jess McIntosh for the Fake It Til You Break It podcast and she introduced me to a concept Democrats would do well to adopt:

“I have a rule, I call it the 80–20 rule. If you work in a movement, you are allowed to expend 20 percent of your energy policing your own movement. 80 percent of the energy has to be spent fighting the bad guys.”

McIntosh continued, “I have real critiques of my own party and the isms that I am involved in but after that 20 percent is expended, I have to go fight the bad guys because there are actual honest-to-god bad guys. Who cares if you want single-payer (health care) and I want a slightly different version of medicare for all when you have someone who would really have you die so they can give more money to insurance companies? It’s just a meaningless fight.”

Indeed. I suggest Democrats of all shades and stripes (and Independents for that matter) stop focusing on meaningless fights and squabbles and start training 80% of their focus on the GOP, Donald Trump, and the daily disaster that is the Trump Administration. Your 20% self-policing is over.

Listen to the full episode of Jess McIntosh’s appearance on Fake It Til You Break It: