The Rebuild

How Democrats Can Build More, Lower Costs, and Win Again

Finding Focus in an Age of Chaos

In an era of manufactured outrage and weaponized distraction, the hardest thing to maintain is focus. But focus is exactly what Democrats need most right now.

The numbers tell a dark story: Republicans now lead Democrats in party identification during an election year for the first time in decades. The latest polling shows just 35% approval for Democratic economic leadership in battleground states. These aren't just statistics – they're a verdict on a party that has lost its way on the core issues that matter most to American families.

The easy response would be to retreat into a defensive crouch, to simply defend institutions and the status quo while decrying the chaos. But that's exactly the wrong approach. What Democratic governance needs isn't more complaints about the opposition or reflexive defense of bureaucracy – it's honest self-examination and serious reform. We need to acknowledge that our own house isn't in order and focus on delivering actual results.

Consider the scorecard from recent years:

• A $42 billion broadband initiative that has yet to connect a single household

• Infrastructure projects trapped in years-long delays

• Housing initiatives scaled back by due to a reflexive reliance of “veto-ocracy”

• Clean energy projects moving faster in red states than blue ones

This isn’t a failure of ambition. It’s a failure of execution.

Democrats have become so consumed by process that they’ve lost sight of progress. Nicholas Bagley calls it our "procedure fetish." This procedural gridlock is why major Democratic cities are unaffordable, why infrastructure takes decades to complete, and why voters increasingly don’t trust our party to govern. It’s not that people suddenly love Republican policies. It’s that they no longer believe Democrats can actually deliver.

The Case for The Rebuild

That's why we're launching The Rebuild, and we're calling it that for two essential reasons. First, we need to build our way out of our living cost problems – not spend our way out of them. Second, we need to rebuild the Democratic Party's record of performance and voters' trust in our ability to deliver at every level of government.

We will examine how Democrats can get back to basics: building more, lowering costs, and delivering tangible improvements in people's lives. From housing and healthcare to infrastructure and trade, we'll explore the often-invisible barriers that make life more expensive for working Americans – and how smart policy reforms could break through them.

We'll look at success stories from states and cities that are actually solving problems, learn from failures and draw lessons from examples where others have found better ways, and identify concrete steps to make progressive governance work better for everyone.

Most importantly, we'll focus on the practical reforms that could make real differences in people's daily lives, and how Democrats can actually deliver on their promises to make life more affordable and accessible for all Americans.

The path forward requires what Obama instinctively understood: that pro-growth and pro-worker policies aren't in conflict.

That good governance requires both ambition and pragmatism. That voters care more about results than process. That sometimes Democrats need to look their own left flank in the eye and say No.

No, you cannot stand in the way of that new housing development because of a fabricated concern about shadows.

No, you cannot block better forest management practices because you assume that just a little more paperwork and delay has no real cost.

No, you cannot forget that every worker is a consumer and that helping them stretch their paycheck is just as noble as helping them make that paycheck bigger.

Getting Out of Our Own Way

This isn't about abandoning our values. It's about ensuring those values translate into real-world results. When public hearings take hours away from work or family responsibilities, who really gets heard? When environmental reviews stretch for years, who benefits from the delay?

Our goal isn't more partisan warfare – it's an honest examination of where Democratic governance is falling short and how we can do better. When you lose a football game, it’s easy to blame the refs, but it’s a lot more productive to figure out why you threw those two interceptions and how you missed so many tackles.

Because here's the truth: voters still believe in an America where everyone has the opportunity to rise, where every kind of person from every kind of background can lead their fullest life, where the American Dream isn’t a brochure but is instead a living, energetic, deeply felt experience. But they have lost faith in Democrats’ ability to deliver on that. Rebuilding that trust requires more than rhetoric. It requires results.

Join us as we explore how Democrats can get out of their way and get back to the business of improving people’s lives. The future of our communities – and the Democratic Party itself – depends on it.

-Tahra Jirari and Gary Winslett