The Dems as HR department

I've been reading a lot about the election and why the results were what they were. Many of the articles say the same thing.

Today, I read this article by Mike Pesca in The Atlantic, and I think it had a very well-put observation.

I’ve been thinking this past week about how the Democratic Party is seen, and it hit me: The Democratic Party resembles that most American of institutions: the HR department.

Like human resources, the Democrats are a party of norms, procedure, bureaucracy, DEI initiatives, rule following, language policing, and compliance. It is in this way that the Democratic Party feels not so much infuriating and threatening, but just kind of an annoying bummer.

When I read those words, what Pesca was saying seemed very obvious.

Later in the article this point is made.

HR is mainly reactive, and often overly cautious, executing the company’s goals with an extraordinarily low tolerance for risk. At best, this function serves as a careful, mild check on excessive behavior, and at worst, as a fussy and fear-based obstacle that distorts a company’s culture and prevents people from achieving their mission. [...] HR departments also have a reputation for being haters of fun. [Emphisis mine]

That last sentence, which I chose to emphasize, is, I think, very important. It is something that Pesca will return to and elaborate on at the very end of the article when he says:

For what it’s worth, I wanted Harris to win, and I wanted her to win because I viewed my choice as one between compliance and chaos. But I can relate on some level to those who rejected her. Campaigns are always run aspirationally, but elections are referendums. For so many Americans, the stultifying small-bore, rules-bound persnicketiness of the Democratic Party became a huge turnoff. People don’t want to feel that they are being told what they can or cannot say. They’re sick of a culture of walking on eggshells. [Again, emphisis is mine]

I think this is a valuable point. I hope it will be heard and understood at all levels of the Democratic party.