Frank Spring: Looking beyond left vs. right toward more coherent narratives

"Following recent losses, a dominant argument is that Democrats must move to the center, tone down cultural messaging, and focus relentlessly on economic concerns to win back moderates," writes David Beckemeyer, the host of Outrage Overload, a nonpartisan political research podcast. "This is also in line with the thrust of the often-cited Deciding to Win report released in October 2025 by The Welcome PAC."

But is moving toward "the center" what Democrats need to start winning again in places where candidates with a "D" next to their name seem to face an increasingly uphill battle?

Frank Spring, Altum Insight's head of research, joined Beckemeyer to talk about the breakdown in left vs. right thinking, and what it will take to orient the party around a more coherent narrative.

"If [a left vs right] frame ever really described how people make decisions, it doesn't work anymore."

According to Spring:

"The idea of whether the Democratic Party is too left or too right, or whether the Republican Party is too left or too right...that frame is outdated, it doesn't really work anymore. What we're seeing is that people are a lot more politically heterodox than we might expect...If [a left vs right] frame ever really described how people make decisions, it doesn't work anymore. That came through really clearly, particularly in what we saw last year."

"The thing that we saw most consistently with the political heterodoxy of our panels last year was people being – not always, but – substantially in favor of government interventions in ways that are both liberal and illiberal. The left left, as represented by Bernie Sanders, has a little bit made the same mistake that the center has made in terms of understanding how voters make decisions. The decision to vote...is a much more complex process than a simple analysis of material politics."

"The thing that matters is: what does it feel like to live in the country you govern?"

Spring says an understanding of the emotional texture of the story is part of what made Zohran Mamdani's New York City mayoral campaign so successful – something campaigns can learn from wherever their views land on the political spectrum.

"The center of the party is at least as guilty as the left – if not more – of being overly cognitive in the way it approaches talking to voters. The whole assumption there is, well if we just present the right policy position with the right slogan attached to it, people are going to vote for us. That not it. You're trying to conjure identity, you're trying to conjure values, that's a much deeper process."

Check out the full conversation on YouTube: