Democrats are famous for pulling hairballs from their cats instead of winning gracefully and with confidence. The 2024 election demonstrated that in full. OM goodness, how could Trump win? Everyone knew what he would do. It was going to be his first term on steroids. No one is surprised.

Without going down the rabbit hole of was the 2024 election rigged, it is cause for questioning the viability of the Democratic Party. Given the performance of Jeffries and Schumer in Congress since the election, you gotta wonder.

With millions participating in the No Kings protests, many people are wondering where the Democratic Party is at? Why didn’t the Democratic Party help organize the protests? How will the Democratic Party capitalize on the political capital and energy that these protests provide them?

I used to think that conservatives needed to organize themselves into a political party as an alternative to Trump, to split the vote and reduce MAGA’s chances of winning. I still think that is the only sane and honest response to Trump. That anti-Trump conservatives are only trying to cash in on Trump criticism on social media and liberal infotainment outlets, tells me that conservatives are not serious about American values and democracy.

Now, though, I have to question whether the Democratic Party is serious about opposing Trump and MAGA. It seems that only in crisis are the Democrats willing to take a stand and only when it is clear that there is no choice. They compromised with the Republicans in the spring to keep the government open… I couldn’t understand what they thought they were going to gain by doing so. Now, they find out that Republicans are not willing to compromise on funding the government. What did they think was going to happen?

Now, they are for Cuomo and against Mamdani in NYC; for Mills and against Platner in Maine (even though, the dude has some baggage). It seems like the Democrats are more for the status quo, meaning systemic racism and exploitative corporate capitalism, than they are for progressive democratic ideals. They seem to have lost their way since FDR, JFK, LBJ, and Obama.

Even if you thought Clinton and Obama had some pretty milquetoast ideas, they had some big ideas. Finding a way to expand healthcare coverage was a big fucking deal to quote Joe Biden. Paying down the deficit and the national debt was a big fucking deal that no Republican has been able to accomplish. Creating and expanding economy is a big fucking deal. Investing in clean energy sources and turning away from fossil fuels is a big fucking deal.

But, we’re not getting anything from the Democratic leadership other than we’re not going to let health insurance premiums increase under the Trump budget. Which is a laudable goal, but they aren’t exactly hit a home run with it.

Our democracy is being threatened like it has never been threatened before. The Republicans want to have a pseudo-democratic single-party white-minority-rule autocracy. White people will still vote. Democrats will field opposition candidates. And, Republicans will win all of the elections.

It will take something more than business as usual to survive this time. When we have ICE agents on the streets of American cities, pulling people kicking and screaming from their beds like it was Kristallnacht and marching them off to be tortured in detention centers, national guard troops “patrolling” the streets of major American cities, and Antifa being declared an international terrorist organization so the FBI, DoJ, and IRS can go after whoever they declare to be a member, we need something more than strongly worded letters and stunts on the floor of Congress.

Perhaps a party fielding true progressives would be part of the solution. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Image Attribution

The image was found on Alternative History using a Creative Commons licensed search.