Teen Vogue is the surprising vanguard. Here’s an article by a former Democratic staffer who has some strong criticisms of the Democratic leadership.
I walked away from my job as a writer for Senator Chuck Schumer after realizing the cost wasn’t just political fatigue — it was my values and mental health. I spent a year on Capitol Hill in 2019 crafting messages for Senate Democrats. Every day, I wrote essays that trapped me between the progressive principles I held and centrist compromises that felt like betrayals. Eventually, the disconnect between my ideals and the institution I served became impossible to ignore. Leaving my job in the Democratic Party wasn’t just a career move; it was survival.
This summary hits the nail on the head.
In recent years, Democrats like Newsom and Schumer have embraced centrist, incremental approaches to issues that are fundamentally about humanity and dignity. That disconnect continues to push young voters away. But it doesn’t stop with trans rights. Whether it’s watered-down climate policies or half-measures on student debt and health care, the Democratic Party’s reluctance to take bold, unapologetic stances clashes with what young people expect from a so-called progressive movement. To be clear, we’re not asking for perfection — we’re demanding urgency, empathy, and courage. Instead, we’re met with compromises on core values, as if basic rights are up for negotiation. For a generation facing existential crises, that’s not leadership — it’s alienation.
Young voters have historically trusted Democrats to work against outdated policies and toward systemic change. But the shift in party dynamics has left many young voters increasingly disaffected by politics and disconnected from a party that once felt aligned with our values. Reflecting on my time on Capitol Hill, I notice this rupture more than ever.
Resign, Schumer.
I should read more Teen Vogue.
I’ve taken to sending my own letters back in the return envelopes included in their fund-raising letters. Not every one, because I get fund-raising letters almost daily, but enough.
Letters explaining why I’m not giving them money until they tell me what policies they are actually planning to implement rather than vague hand-wringing and pointing at Trump. It’s not just issues about humanity and dignity, there are also serious issues with climate change and the economy which need to be addressed. The people appear ready to follow if only the democrat’s would lead.
So far I’ve been putting my own stamp on the envelopes, but I’ve considered letting them pay for my letters.
I just posted this on another thread but it can go here as well.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have shown what the Democratic party needs to do.
Be a real opposition and have some values that resonate with the voters.
There are a lot of effective things we can do.
We are after all, the majority by now.
Trump never even won a majority of the vote and his support has been dropping lately.
.1. Primary the old white guy Deer in the Headlights Democratic party leaders like Chuck Schurmer. Especially Chuck Schurmer, the Senate Democratic leader.
He is out of touch with what is happening in the USA and is giving us a good imitation of a fossilized tree stump.
The Democratic party needs to find their brains, gonads, spines, and leaders.
If someone primaries Schumer, I’m donating to them even though I live on the opposite coast.
.2. Get out in the streets and peacefully protest.
Governments fear people in the streets for good reasons. It means the people are fed up and it means the government is losing control.
We aren’t afraid of them.
People in the streets have taken down a lot of governments such as the old USSR, the old Ukraine government, and the Arab spring governments.
It did a lot to end the Vietnam war.
PS The California governor Newsom is a disgrace.
When we need some leaders with vision and courage, Newson promptly runs and hides in the political center.
A lot of people saw that and called him on it.
It’s weird but true. Teen Vogue has been a super progressive outlet for years.
This is why all the people whining that we, “can’t afford to play purity politics”, kind of piss me off. There is a difference between, “This person mostly has the same ideas I have, and I might need to argue harder with them about why we need to do X, or do Y instead of Z.”, and, “Working with this person is compromising my own integrity and ideals, because they are basically just a Republican who has a few ethical lines they refuse to cross, but are still only in it to get reelected, gain more power, and protect their own wealth, and other people are just a means to that end.” What has been running the Democrats for decades is, imho, the second one and we either need to actually impose some “purity” at some point, or call the party a lost cause, and come up with something else.
But, if we do that, for f-ing sake, leave the fringe nuts and the lawyers out of picking the name, or writing some complicated, “Only a lawyer will comprehend this.”, freaking “plan” for what to do. Because, Democrats, or at least its leadership, fail, ALL THE TIME, at actually explaining to people what the F they are doing, why, and why people should want it, even when they are not compromising their plans to “get bills through, even if some garbage got added that, again, undermines their principles.”, just so they can pass something. The GOP is very good at messaging – mind, by lying their asses off about everything, all the time, and conning the public into believing, against all evidence, that its “for the people”, and not, “for the people in power”. But, how many freaking times have the Democrats had a good idea, then not only allowed the GOP to lie about it, until the public became convinced it was bad, it actually was bad, because it was compromised from the beginning, and/or it was so freaking opaque with lawyer crap that even the “public explanation” of it was impenetrable nonsense, with no one having a clue either what it is supposed to do, or why having the GOP alternative to it would be worse? Because, even their messaging gets corrupted by the same process that corrupts its members, and leads them to become less principled, or quitting.
If you look at the Democratic party insiders eligible to vote for party leaders, the list of full of lobbyists, campaign consultants, and big donors. The result is a party that selects timid and conservative leadership and refuses to support grass-roots and non-mass-media communication pathways because there is no money for the lobbyists or consultants that way. While the Republicans have for years fed money to the Joe Rogan’s of the internet, the Democratic insiders fight tooth and nail to make sure every dollar has to go through them.
Bill Clinton said people would rather vote for republicans than for democrats acting like republicans. Still true all these years later.
For a while now, I’ve been thinking that we have Republican and Democratic wings of an Oligarch party. You can participate if you’re a stupid bully or a gormless victim; but anyone who’s a little bit progressive or who wants to take effective action is not welcome.
One thing that keeps me moderately hopeful is that Bernie and AOC seem to be drawing big crowds in places where Trump won.
And I note that there are lots of federal judges, many appointed by Republican presidents, who are making some preliminary rulings against Trump; but IIUC, these cases are all still at the district court level. It’ll be a while until we discover whether at least two of SCOTUS’ gang of six are not totally shameless.
We’ll soon be having state and local elections at various places around the country. For example, the election for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court seat that Musk is currently trying to buy is coming up tomorrow as I write this. Maybe we’ll see some positive trends in the next few weeks. (If not, we might not make it all the way to the midterms.)
“To be clear, we’re not asking for perfection — we’re demanding urgency, empathy, and courage. Instead, we’re met with compromises on core values, as if basic rights are up for negotiation. For a generation facing existential crises, that’s not leadership — it’s alienation.”
While I have great sympathy for the angst here, I wonder what Leah’s choice was: vote for Donald Trump, the most vile, lying, criminal, mentally ill con artist ever to be president; or not vote at all — or vote for a third party candidate, which is essentially the same thing — and rob Harris of a vote that could have put her over the top?
We have a government of the billionalres, by the billionaires and for the billionaires.
Figuratively, the only difference between the corrupt corporate RNC and the he corrupt corporate DNC is one insignificant letter. Third parties are not currently viable, thus we have not supported them.
The duopoly and electoral college, fueled by massive money nullify any benefit to having an alleged democracy in this country.
We look for, but are not finding any power or method that can restore any semblance of honesty and decency to the governing of this country.
Enjoy the ride, while the mump cult and their little cockroaches push us down the death spiral.
p.s. I hope PZ’s front yard plumbing project has been completed successfully.
PZ wrote: Resign, Schumer.
I reply: our fervent desire is for schumer to join the mump cult and C.O.A.D. (Crawl Off And Die)
The first rule in business is: give your customers what they want. The first rule in politics should be: give your constituents what they want. Unfortunately, the Republicans figured that out. The Democrats probably never will.
@11 David C Brayton wrote: The first rule in business is: give your customers what they want.
I reply: but the first rule in big corporate business is: fleece your customers of as much as you can.
And, ‘giving your constituents what they want’, just turns politics into a deteriorating popularity contest without any consideration of ethics or decency. The horrible result of that is the destruction we are seeing and experiencing right now!
@11 David C. Brayton wrote “Unfortunately, the Republicans figured that out. The Democrats probably never will.” Yet a majority of Americans support the Democratic position on virtually all social and political issues — the problem in 2024 was not one of giving or not giving what constituents want, but getting Democrats out to vote. Had Democrats in several key states turned out to vote for Harris in the numbers they did for Obama and Biden, Trump would have lost. The nearest Democrats might have come to your claim could be that the process for selecting a presidential candidate, in the end, was flawed: Biden would have done us a favor by announcing at the start of his term that he would serve for only a 4 years, and a series of real primaries could have been held in 2024 to chose a Democratic candidate.
Re: #8
A person can be completely dismayed with and disappointed in the current Democratic Party and still unhesitatingly vote for the Democratic candidate in the general election. Wanting better doesn’t mean that someone is unable to make the most productive and practical decisions about the mess that we are in. I think that current circumstances demonstrate that a centrist corporation-loving Democrat running things is better than having MAGA running things – but that fact does not cause us to lower our standards to thinking that the “centrist corporation-loving Democrat” is the very best we can do.
True and a good point.
Also an obvious one to most.
The main issues here have gotten a lot bigger and more focused in two months.
.1. Do we want to live in a Democracy or a Techbro dictatorship?
.2. Rule of law. Do we want legal rights and a functioning judicial system or a Soviet Russia style Gulag archipelago where anyone the dictatorship wants can be disappeared to or simply killed if it is more convenient.
Legal rights and Due Process exists to protect the people from the state.
If the GOP gets their way, there is no telling how far we can fall.
Slave labor camps, concentration camps, demonstrators shot down in the street en masse are all possible without human rights, legal rights, and due process.
An imperfect Democratic party is far better for the USA than a Fascist dictatorship of the ultra rich.
This is the fascists latest tactic.
They are going into the immigration databases and changing foreign residents visa status without any notification or warning.
This allows them to arrest any foreigners; students, Green Card holders, resident aliens, tourists, HB-1 workers, etc. for crimes that ICE itself just created 10 minutes ago.
This is what happens without Due Process and Rule of Law is also just disappeared.
It is sick and evil and this is the Trump Musk regime every day.
Hopefully, they won’t go on to getting into the databases and erasing our birth certificates and Social Security cards.
I’m sure they thought of it.
Instant way to create illegal immigrants, arrest them, and deport them even if they’ve been in the USA for 5 generations.
The first rule in politics should be: give your constituents what they want.
That is the premise of representative democracy.
My sense is that neither side represents anything but their own interests, and one is outright awful while the other is skating based on “we’re less awful than the other guys.”
If things haven’t improved when Gillibrand and Schumer are up for reelection, I am not going to vote for them because we will be so far down the hole that any chance of change will require a complete rebuilding process. Anyone who wants to claim I’ll be a “Nader-voter” or whatever should understand that Schumer and the neoliberal Democrats are our Naders – the “alternative” that means we never win anything.
We’re in the middle of an election campaign here in Australia at the moment, and the issues are very much the same. The Labor party, notionally the party of the left, are permitting the wholesale opening of more coal mines and gas wells, the prime minister is overturning his environment minister on protections for endangered species, they have abandoned the workers and cozied up to the oligarchs. The right-wing alternative is worse – Temu Trump – but the Labor party is profoundly disappointing.
If we could only get people to look past scare campaigns and vote Greens… the Greens can’t form government in their own right at the moment, but they could hold the balance of power and push Labor to do more of the progressive things they notionally support but practically abandon.
davetaylor@8 — She didn’t say she didn’t vote Democrat. She said she quit her job because it involved undermining her values for the political benefit of anti-progressives in the party.
@16. raven : That is horrendous and has to be illegal surely? Not that laws seem to matter to the MuskTrump regime..
@ 19. bravus : Yup. Bets case scenario an ALP minority govt with theGreens having the Balance of power as they did under Gillard and the ability tosteer things progresssive-wards.
Worse case scanerio , an LNOP minority with the likes of the One Neuron or Clive Palmer party – this time called Trumpet of patriots – having the balanc eof power. Election on May 3rd.
bravus@19–
So true. Both Labor and the Liberals continue to be bewildered by their fall in the primary vote when it’s so obviously because both parties have betrayed their own philosophical principles in order to appease the right-wing noise machine. It’s why Labor is haemorrhaging votes to the Greens and other progressives and the Liberals are haemorrhaging votes to the “teals”. Unlike the US, Australia has a preferential voting system for the House and a sort-of-proportional system for the Senate, so you can vote for a favoured but less popular candidate without helping your political enemies.
(For non-Australians, the Liberal Party is our mainstream conservative party, named back in 1944 when conservatives still believed in “liberal” ideals. It has undergone a radical decay to the right over the last 25 years, similar to the US Republicans without ever getting quite so insane, and this led to the rise of “teals”: independent candidates, mostly women, in traditionally safe Liberal seats who wanted a moderate option that took meaningful action on issues like the environment and gender parity and so on. Finding no such option, they decided to run themselves. And they won an astonishing 17 House seats and one Senate seat in the 2022 election. The right-wing press of course described this as a sort of conspiratorial betrayal, as in “How dare these people steal seats from party conservatives?” instead of the more obvious “How dare elected representatives hijack parties in ways that undermine the values of their own voters?”)
@ 22. LNP not LNOP, mea culpa
FWIW, Schumer was recently interviewed exoplaining the rationale behind his and the Democrats actions on PBS newshour see previous thread comment #22 here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2025/03/18/primary-schumer/#comment-2258477
Plus Schumer was on Colbert recently plugging his new book as well as defending his actions here – “We Are Going After Trump In Every Way” – Sen. Dem. Ldr. Chuck Schumer* (7 mins) plus part 2 of that interview here – discussing his new book on anti-Semtism. (7 mins long.)
.* Presumably NOT romantically or militarily or chasing him with a meat-axe horror movie style, etc..
A-n-y-h-o-w
Huh. Second link NOT working? Take II “You Can Criticize Israel, And That’s Not At All Antisemitic” – Sen. Dem. Ldr. Chuck Schumer
@ 24 StevoR
No, but we can dream of a brighter tomorrow.
@11 David C Brayton
There is a major flaw in your argument. Its not, “Give your customers what they want.”, in our economy, it has, for a long time, been, “Figure out how to market the new thing you just came up with to people, so they want it, make it for as cheap as you can, for as high a price as the public will stomach.” There is very little interest, among oligarchs, in merely figuring out what someone wants and selling that too them. And, when it does exist its a mix of, “Sell them what they want, even if its not good for them, because they are addicted.”, and, “Hah! We just conned them into thinking they needed this thing, which they never wanted, but now think they desperately need.”
Is it really a surprise that when these people get into politics they treat governing in the exact same way?
Waiting for the Democrats to lead is clearly not working. The people need to lead and force the Democrats to follow them.
Two words:
General.
Strike.
“Two words:
General.
Strike.”
Two words: It will never happen, not in the land that elected Trump.
I assume the Dem leaders think trans kids have three fifths of the value of other kids, or something.* So we cannot have more than small fractal improvements.
And let us not forget, big changes scares away the big corporate campaign donors… which is why Biden promised them in 2019 nothing would change.
I forget if it was three fifths or two fifths, I am no Merican.
Bekenstein Bound @ 28
“…force the Democrats to follow them.”
Primary the dinosaurs. Be ruthless.
The Republican voters have made their politicians fear them.
If the Democratic voters want change, they have to make the lazy bums fear them.
A couple of things about that facile claim:
(1) I very, very much doubt that Trump fears the electorate; and
(2) If that were a true claim, it’d entail that the policitians are indeed representing their voters’ wishes due to it.
Your political nous is remarkable.