Now & Then: Reflections from Toby Moffett on Voter Engagement

If the first half of our conversation with Toby Moffett looked back on an era of party bosses, delegate fights, and old-school political power, the second half turned to a very different question: what kind of politics has replaced it? For Toby, the answer is a modern landscape shaped by social media, isolation, and institutional strain. Voters are more connected than ever, but not necessarily more grounded. Organizing still matters, but it works differently now. And Trump, in Toby’s view, is not just another political figure to be opposed, but the center of a movement that is doing lasting damage to democracy at home and to America’s standing abroad.

Toby’s argument is that modern politics has made democratic engagement both more immediate and more disorienting, and that the central challenge now is not just how to organize people, but how to do so while institutions are under stress and public attention is constantly being pulled apart. Read on for more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Social media and the changing relationship with voters

ImpactCT: You ran for office before the internet and social media. Are you glad they were not around?

Toby Moffett: Yes. Even in that era, I felt intensely scrutinized. There were only three TV channels and no social media, and I still felt like I was living in a glass bowl. I do not think I would have liked doing the job in this era. Whatever enlightenment social media brings is not worth it.

ImpactCT: But you were also somebody who believed in direct engagement.

Toby Moffett: Very much so. One of the first things I did was set up card tables at West Farms Mall with a sign that said, “Come talk to Congressman Moffett.” People lined up. It was not social media, but it was an attempt to create a different kind of interaction with citizens.

Organizing still matters

ImpactCT: What about organizing now? Does face-to-face politics still matter?

Toby Moffett: Absolutely. It is not exactly what it used to be, but it still matters a great deal. You still see it. Twelve hundred people show up in Guilford for “No Kings,” seemingly out of nowhere. That tells you there is still energy out there if somebody can organize it and direct it.

ImpactCT: You also made an interesting point about energy on the center-left. At a time like this, where should that energy go?

Toby Moffett: Our people are not perfect, but they are out there every waking hour trying to do something about the destruction of democracy and the monster at the top. They are trying to organize and educate. Too much energy gets wasted on self-flagellation about how the Democratic Party is imperfect. Of course it is imperfect. But we need to divert more of that energy toward opposing what is going on.

ImpactCT: One of the big questions in politics right now is whether the progressive coalition still feels connected to the people it claims to represent. Do you think that connection has weakened?

Toby Moffett: Some things are very different now. Gender-focused issues, for example, were not at the forefront of the coalition in 1974 the way they are today, and that is an important change. As for detachment, I do not know that I feel it as strongly as some people do. Maybe that is my own shortcoming, or maybe I am just not close enough to it. But I do think this is an era in which people more easily feel outraged, isolated, and separated from parties and politicians.

ImpactCT: You have done a lot of work internationally. When you think about Trump’s second term, what can be repaired and what may be broken for much longer?

Toby Moffett: I think about that a lot. There are really two lists. There are things we can fix relatively soon, in the next three to five years. Then there is another list of things that have been damaged so badly you wonder how we are ever going to put them back together, at least not in the next ten or twenty years.

ImpactCT: So in your view, some of the damage is temporary, but some of it may be lasting.

Toby Moffett: Exactly. Some things can be repaired. Other things may take a very long time. That is what makes this moment so serious.