We Have a Problem.

The Democratic Party has a problem, and no, it is not a branding problem, a messaging problem, or another “we need to explain our policies better” problem.

“Hello, Is this thing on?”

It sure seems like we’re continually watching Donald Trump and his army of sycophantic goons smile at the security cameras as they conduct blatant smash ’n grab schemes, while the Democratic response too often feels like someone gently tapping a wine glass at a retirement dinner.

“Excuse me, everyone. Democracy is on the brink of irrelevance.”

A lot of Americans “like me” don’t want another solemn press conference where a gaggle of fossils stands behind a podium looking like they just found out their favorite soup isn’t on the cafeteria menu today. I think it’s safe to say that we are wanting a massive shift in politics, not a new font on the campaign website, another “Fighting for Working Families” slogan, or one more email that begins, “Friend, I’m asking you to chip in $5 before midnight.”

We want to see purpose, momentum, and (please, please, please) age limits.

We’re all exhausted. We’re tired of wanton cruelty, billionaires playing Monopoly with real people’s lives, healthcare becoming a luxury item, and climate change being treated more like an inconvenient truth.

And now, we’re so so very tired of the indecency.

Decency sounds almost quaint now, like a word from a long forgotten age. Remember when John McCain shut down that crazy woman ranting about Obama being an Arab?

Watch the clip on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrnRU3ocIH4 

Today, this level of decency would disgust the rightwing base, and McCain’s political ambitions would have been over instantly.

It wasn’t long ago that we knew our politicians were indecent opportunists, and they hid behind closed doors. Why? Because WE were decent.

They feared our values, morality and our own sense of decency.

But, Trump changed that. His vile rhetoric was either acceptable as a means to an end, or they internally enjoyed it.

Decency be damned.

There is Hope! But,…..

Trump has now become the catalyst for a national correction because he has made the sickness impossible to ignore. He did not create every broken thing in American politics, but he dragged all of it out into the light, sharpied his name on it, and sold tickets to the colloseum (literally.) He turned ugliness into entertainment, ignorance into confidence, vindictiveness into a governing philosophy, and the presidency into his own shopping network to sell his NFT’s, Bibles, and even his freakin’ mugshot.

And his assault on our humanity increased, we learned to endure the non-stop turmoil by acclimating to his insanity for our own sanity.

But after years of this insanity, the country feels ready for the pendulum to swing back. Not back to boring old politics or the polite rot that helped create this mess, but back to actual human concerns: healthcare, climate change, equality, good jobs, livable wages, affordable housing, safe schools, functional government, and just a sense of common decency from the people who claim they want to lead this nation.

With all this madness you would think the public would be running into the arms of the Democratic Party.

But, they are not.

Pew Research sees their current favorability rating at 36%, and the approval of Congress is even lower at 10-12% according to Gallup. In 2013, Public Policy Polling famously conducted a poll placing Congress below head lice. https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/polls/congress-less-popular-than-cockroaches-traffic-jams/

Forgive the vulgarity, but it needs to be said, that’s fucking embarrassing.

Thank You, Goodbye.

The tragedy is that Democrats should own this moment.

Instead, too many of them look like they are waiting for voters to reward them simply for not being insane. That is not taking on corruption. That is not leadership. That’s just the political equivalent of playing possum.

The Right has a leader. Yes, he’s a complete idiot, cruel, incoherent, and somehow both dangerous and deeply stupid at the same time, but he is their leader. His base knows who speaks for them. They know where the energy is.

The fact it’s bad energy is not an issue for them.

(see below)

The Rudderless Left.

The Dems have scattered talent with scattered ambition, while voters are absolutely begging for a political voice that reflects both strength and decency to lead them.

And it’s time to move on, Obama is retired, he’s no longer the leader of the Democratic Party.

Instead, we have party leaders acting like any sort of rebuttal to indecency needs a six-month internal review.

Sitting at the top of this Democratic structure are leaders who simply do not look like they should be representing the future of the party. Hakeem Jeffries may be intelligent, know the rules, and understand the machinery of Congress. Fine. The problem is that America does not need someone to operate an outdated machine. It needs a leader who can update (not repair) it after years of neglect and abuse.

Jeffries does not project the urgency of this moment. He sounds systematically careful when the country wants clarity, polished when the country wants passionate conviction, and a protector of institutions rather than a powerful force for change.

Chuck Schumer is worse, because Schumer feels like he belongs to a political era that should have been retired along with fax machines and floppy disks. He has served a long time. Great. Put a plaque near the elevator. Thank you for your service, but goodbye.

New Blood.

Trump has shown us that the system only works when our leaders follow the rules and that we are unprepared for when a corrupted leader simply ignores, breaks, and even scoffs at them. Meanwhile, the members of Congress that represent the guardrails have no backbone to apply accountability, and sadly, both Parties are guilty of this spineless reaction to our Constitution being used as a hand towel.

The system is no longer broken. It has been completely disassembled, and it feels like our current leadership wants to simply assemble it back together without the effort of enforcing the guardrails.

The Democratic Party has confused patience with wisdom for far too long. It has confused seniority with strength, and fundraising ability with public connection. The leaders are not the energetic focus of the Party. They see themselves as the steady hand on the wheel, but they’re too out of step to know they’re going in the wrong direction, or worse, too power hungry to let go.

Younger Americans want someone to say: you are not imagining it. This system is failing you. The cruelty is real. The corruption is real. The exhaustion is real. And we are going to fight like hell to prove that we actually mean it.

That is why figures like Zohran Mamdani and James Talarico matter. Not because they are perfect, and not because they alone can save the party. (Psst. They can’t.)

They matter because they have faithful supporters.

They have people who believe in them, not just people who tolerate them as the least offensive option on a ballot. Mamdani has supporters who see him as a genuine challenge to stale power. Talarico has supporters who see in him youth, warmth, moral confidence, and the ability to speak about faith and justice without sounding like his words were written from some focus group or a spreadsheet full of numbers.

I Respectfully Disagree.

I once had the opportunity to ask then-Congressman Adam Schiff why the Party caters to the center, then turns around and pivots to the base with an opposing message, effectively canceling out the gains made from each side. His answer was, “We should try to bring people over the line.”

I respectfully disagree.

Why? Because the center is shrinking, and at this time in politics, those on the fence are either too embarrassed to share their party affiliation, disenfranchised, or have shifted to Independent because they no longer want to be identified by a party that feels weak and apathetic.

Democrats have spent way too long chasing the mythical moderate who supposedly lives in a diner, owns one flannel shirt, and changes his vote based on whether a Democrat uses the word “diversity” too many times. Sorry, but it’s easier finding a politician reading a bill before voting on it.

It’s my view that there’s less in the center ready to come over, than voters on the Left yearning to be swooned again.

What’s the old saying? Republicans fall in line. Democrats fall in love.

Meanwhile, young voters are wondering whether anyone in the party can speak like a human being, fight with conviction, present solutions as to why life is so expensive, say climate change without sounding afraid of oil executives, defend equality without making it sound like they’re in a hostage video, or talk about decency without auditioning for a commemorative PBS special.

And they need to see the Party step forward now, not after November.

Hope is a Choice.

Democrats should not wait until after the midterms to promote the new coalitions.

They need to stop hiding the next generation behind people whose political instincts were formed before the internet became a daily battlefield. They need to put the younger coalition forward now. Put the sharper voices forward now. Show unity now.

Hold a press conference that actually looks like the future is walking into the room and taking the microphone away from the past. Let the old guard stand there if they must. Let them smile, clap, and experience the unfamiliar sensation of not being the center of attention.

Then let the new blood speak. Let them say what needs to be said: we are done with cruelty, chaos, politics as insult comedy for rich men with legal problems (cough) Epstein (cough), and pretending that wanting healthcare, a livable planet, equal rights, and basic decency makes us radical.

Show us the pendulum is swinging back towards a nation of empathy, thoughtfulness, and passionate voices.

Sorry, Hakeem. Sorry, Chuck.

This is not personal. It is political survival. You are not the future of the party. You are reminders of how badly the party needs one.

Pass the torch. Not eventually. Now. Lose the ego. Step aside. Help build the next coalition instead of standing in front of it like a velvet rope at a club nobody wants to enter.

I can already hear it now, “Wait, until after the midterms.“, “Don’t draw attention until after November.”

The Democratic Party is likely to achieve their blue wave, but it needs new blood, visible courage, leaders with followers instead of titles, and a movement that can look a tired country in the eye and offer politics with a spine, and leadership with decency.

That will give them a blue tsunami. That will get them the Senate.

And if Democrats cannot sound inspiring in the age of Trump, then they should stop blaming voters and start realizing that is why they are on life support.

Again, we’ll likely have a blue wave in November simply by letting Trump continually shoot himself in the foot (metaphorically.) But, if we really want to repair this nation, we’ll need a blue tsunami, and for that we’ll want people to run into the arms of the democratic party.

And that needs a promise for the future. Not a return to the status quo.

I highly recommend listening to Michelle Obama’s speech from the opening day of Barack Obama’s Presidential Library. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SyRLxPFCZg (jump to 14:00 if you don’t want to listen to the entire speech, but you should, you really should.)

I love and agree with her statement, ‘Hope is a choice’.

And yes, we need a leader to carry that message, but we also need a Party that identifies itself as the future, and the future needs to be young, resilient and empathetic.

But for now we have entrenched, tired and booooooooooring.

The Democratic Party needs to stop waiting to coalesce around a frontrunner in 2028.

It needs to show that the Party itself isn’t one person we all rally around, but its own personality, a presence, a platform that people want to stand on.

And it needs one right freakin’ now.

FYI, this blorg was written by an actual human creature. Not AI, no AI, never AI.
We like to use good, old-fashioned brains.