Democrats’ New Slogan Is a Donor-Class Disaster

This is a post by FrameLab contributor Jason Sattler.

You may have heard that Hakeem Jeffries has a structurally unsound new motto that only big donors could love.

According to the Washington Post, the House Democratic Minority Leader is championing “Strong Floor, No Ceiling” as “Democrats’ centrist answer to ‘Make America Great Again.” 

As Framelab’s Gil Durán noted, you could expect better messaging from a local copy shop.  

The number of problems with this message from this party at this time could fill a book. And, apparently, so could the backstory of “Strong Floor, No Ceiling,” which reads like something ChatGPT would hallucinate. 

Venture capitalist and big Democratic donor Oliver B. Libby first coined the phrase in a LinkedIn post. Now, he’s fleshed it out into a book-length “blueprint for a stronger America” that “aims to ignite the conversation we desperately need about the future of our country—and provide the tools to turn that conversation into real change.”

A Slogan Designed By (And For) Donors, Not Voters

This “grindset” pablum is the closest thing you could get to creating a slogan in a lab designed to annoy and depress rank-and-file Democrats.

It also shows how warped by the donor set that DC Democrats have become through endless hours of wooing donors. They’ve spent so much time trying to talk money out of rich people’s wallets that they apparently think that the richest Americans are their only audience.

Can you imagine a single sign at a “No Kings” rally with “Strong Floor, No Ceiling” on it?

Of course, you can’t. And that could be what Jefferies likes about it. 

The Affordability Crisis Demands a Ceiling

The Post tells us that the words first came out of the Leader’s mouth when Jeffries was getting peppered with questions about Socialism on CNBC.

The business set has been convulsing with worry about the rise of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, who came from almost nowhere to become the mayor of the richest city on earth by focusing on “affordability.”

The insecurity Americans feel about the rising costs of almost everything has quickly become a prevailing theme in American politics. It’s so undeniable that Donald Trump quickly veered from dismissing it as a concern to declaring himself “THE AFFORDABILITY PRESIDENT.”

So how is Jeffries responding? With a slogan that suggests “no ceiling.” And no ceiling for what? Seemingly, anything. 

A Metaphor That Abandons Working Families

While wealthy donors may love that as a contrast to Mamdani’s redistribution or the slogan “Every billionaire is a policy failure,” which is championed by many on the left, think of the actual metaphor here: It’s a structure without any protection from the elements.

That’s a moral disaster for average Americans struggling to provide for their families in at least two ways. 

If high prices are a dominating concern for voters, the lack of a price ceiling would be a nightmare. And while most venture capitalists don’t have to worry about keeping a roof over their heads as winter begins, much of America does. And not just in New York City, with some of the most expensive rents on earth.

Early this year, 3 out of 4 Montanans said they were worried about affording a home.

Democrats Are Targeting the Wrong Villain

That gets to the second huge problem with the slogan: the story’s villain. 

“Make America Great Again” is a trite retread of a Reagan gimmick, but it resonates because of the bad guy it identifies: everyone who once had no power in America. That’s a perfect target for a candidate who uses bigotry and misogyny as the nuclear reactor of his campaigns.

Who’s the bad guy in “Strong Floor, No Ceiling?” It’s whoever is trying to put “a ceiling” on the top-earning Americans. 

Imagine thinking a “ceiling” of America’s top earners is our big problem in a year when the top 10% of Americans added $5 trillion to their wealth in one quarter earlier this year. At the same time, 1 out of 4 Americans lives one paycheck away from financial obliteration.

The richest just got one of the biggest tax cuts in history, and we’re worried about a ceiling?

Millions are about to lose their health insurance and food stamps, and you’re against putting any constraint on those who live like gods on earth? At least Republicans promise some rain gutters to capture the fake “trickle-down.” 

It's Time to Start the 2028 Primary

Jeffries is saying Democrats won’t limit top earners in any way when we absolutely should, and most Americans (even a plurality of Republicans) think we must. Democrats are the party of taxing the rich and protecting consumers.

He’s running against his own base!

We could go on forever about how much this slogan sucks. 

And you could wonder all day why Jeffries—instead of trying to impress donors, CNBC, and Fox News by attacking socialism—can’t simply defend Democrats’ vastly superior economic record of delivering for all Americans. 

But forget it. It’s the Beltway. And this slogan shows that relying on the vision of DC Democrats is a hopeless endeavor right now.

Why Democrats Need an Early Primary

Huge losses at the ballot box last month have not shaken Trump’s dictatorial ambitions, and it’s likely his tendencies toward violence as a means of domination will only escalate at home and abroad. 

That’s why Democrats need to make every day a reminder for elected Republicans that embracing Trump is a losing move. And they need to put a ceiling on him.

One way Democrats reinforce that necessity by doing something few Americans would ever want in normal times: an extra year of our nearly interminable presidential campaigns. 

Yes, we should begin the 2028 primary now, immediately, before the midterms even get going. And here’s why, besides getting us away from the stink of Jeffries’ slogan:

1. Put an expiration date on Trumpism.

Let a vast, impressive array of prospective Democratic nominees—from AOC to multiple governors to Substack stars like Mayor Pete—step up to reassure the public that we will accept nothing less than free and fair elections as usual in 2028.

Let all of these much younger politicians expose Trump’s lack of vitality and failing capacities as they assert their faith in American democracy. And since these candidates need to win over an increasingly progressive Democratic base, we can expect their messages actually to reflect our affordability crisis.

And they’ll likely feel comfortable naming a villain that isn’t one of the populations that the Democratic Party exists to represent.

2. Divide the GOP.

One of the most pointed subtexts of Trump’s repeated trolling about running for an unconstitutional third term in 2028 is that he doesn’t want any successor to emerge, at least one not named Trump. That means that JD Vance, the natural heir to the party’s leadership, is in a ridiculous limbo where he cannot distinguish himself without risking Trump and then MAGA’s wrath.

And ask Mike Pence about MAGA’s wrath.

However, Trump’s undeniable weakness has prompted Ted Cruz to stick his neck out as a possible 2028 contender. The media loves this kind of jockeying, and politicians love getting media attention. If a GOP primary breaks out alongside the Democratic one, then the fight over the GOP’s future implicitly becomes a eulogy for Trump’s dominance.

When the going gets weird, you can stand around flattering your donors and hoping no one really thinks too hard about what you’re saying. Or you can stand up and declare that you’re willing to fight to ensure our leaders serve us, not the other way around.

There’s a massive opportunity for a Democrat to show s/he is the one who can break the mold and take down Trumpism. And fortune will favor whoever is bold enough to step up first.

Jason Sattler is LOLGOP on BlueSky and pretty much any other social media platform. His writing has appeared in USA TODAY, Wired.com, the New York Daily News and Alternet.