Can Democrats manufacture coolness?
Republicans invested big in culture commentators and it paid off, will Democrats follow suit?
By Alex Samuels, Daily Kos
According to The New York Times, liberal strategists are now urging megadonors to bankroll a new class of left-leaning online influencers—ideally, a progressive Joe Rogan—to help close the Democratic Party’s cultural gap.
Essentially, the plan is to throw money at the cultural disconnect and hope that fixes it. And their logic isn’t entirely off base.
President Donald Trump and the right dominate platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and the podcasting world. But Democrats? Not so much. Now, party operatives want to juice enthusiasm through sports and lifestyle content, shifting away from what one strategist called the “hall monitor style of Democratic politics” that turns off young voters.
But whether Democrats can buy cultural relevance remains to be seen. And if they try, will anyone find it authentic?
They’ve tried this before, and it flopped. Some 2028 hopefuls have already dipped into podcasting only to discover that no one wanted to listen—or cared. It turns out that young voters don’t want vibes; they want action and results. To young leftists, fighting Trump matters more than looking cool.
Even when Democrats do show up in unexpected places, it’s not always clear whether it lands. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s appearances on right-wing shows certainly made headlines, but there’s still no evidence that this moved the needle with voters skeptical of performative politics.
So it’s no surprise that some donors are wary. They’d rather fund legal battles against Trump’s unconstitutional agenda than gamble on a media moonshot.
“It needs to start with a legitimate investment,” said Marissa McBride, executive director of the Mind the Gap super PAC. But, she added, “There has to be something that is happening organically as well.”
And that tension is already noticeable. The Times’ reporting suggested that some donors are frustrated by half-baked ideas and operatives chasing “shiny objects” instead of focusing on what the Democratic Party actually needs. More than a dozen creator-focused projects have emerged since November, yet none of them have secured serious funding.
One exception is AND Media—short for “Achieve Narrative Dominance”—a for-profit startup that’s raised $7 million from big donors. But the name alone already screams inauthenticity, and some journalists have flagged it as tactless.
According to a business plan reviewed by the Times, AND Media plans to directly fund influencers, co-produce content, and build a talent agency, starting with four “flagship creators.
Another effort, Project Bullhorn, aims to pool $35 million in donations to amplify existing left-leaning creators, including YouTubers.
But at the core, Democrats are still stuck trying to bottle progressive energy while continuing to sideline the actual progressive voices that young voters respond to. The Democratic base is getting younger and more left-leaning, but the party often acts like it hasn’t noticed.
And while there’s evidence that some young voters have pivoted to the right, there might still be hope for them to turn toward the left, especially if they grasp the terror of Trump’s reign and if Democrats can finally stand their ground.
Then there’s the platform problem. Many of the spaces Democrats want to penetrate are now run by Trump-friendly billionaires, meaning that no matter how great the content is, it might never reach its intended audience.
The goal of competing culturally with Republicans isn’t wrong, but Democrats need to reckon with the fact that they can’t manufacture authenticity, and they can’t buy credibility.
They have to earn it.
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