EVERY Democrat should be talking about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race on April 1. This is THE most consequential electon of '25. If the liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, can win, it will show that the democrats are energized and prepared to fight. But, more importantly, the new liberal court majority will be able to throw out the current gerrymandered congressional districts, require a new map to be drawn that would result in a pickup of 2 or 3 new democratic congressional seats in '26. They will also be able to declare a draconian 1849 anti-abortion law unconstitutional. If the MAGA Repubican wins, the gerrymandered map stays in place and this 1849 law is revived.
This. I want to scream every time I see Chuck Schumer behind a podium. Who the hell even cares. Where is the messaging on TikTok? Instagram? Where are the democratic podcasters? Young people are getting their information from algorithms on social media not the nightly news.
OMG, yes! He may be a good backroom operator, but he’s a disaster before the public.
Senate Democrats need Elizabeth Warren, Tim Kaine, and Adam Schiff out there - Schiff isn’t dynamic but he’s so spot-on regarding the law. AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost, Jamie Raskin, and a few others.
And for heaven's sake, replace Gerry Connelly as Government Oversight ranking member. His MSNBC interview the other day where he said they made the GOP committee members break a sweat to defeat a call to get Elon Musk to testify? Embarrassing. The message there was “We are trying to get the Elon Musk to testify, under oath, before our committee. He refuses to do it; the GOP majority is protecting him. They are complicit in his illegal activity!”
I wish him well in his cancer treatment, but he is not the man for this moment. Sorry.
Democrats should also attack Congressional Republicans for willfully giving up their power to balance this craziness, a clear abdication of duty. Call them out. Name them. Berate them. Don't let them hide behind Trump or Musk and escape accountability.
While oll of that sounds true, let us remember that Kamala Harris lost my state of PA! She spent lots of time here. What happened? We can't ignore the role that racism and mysogeny played in the presidential election. Nor can we ignore the illegal actions of Elon Musk, putting his thumb on the scale to influence the election. To some extent, the election was bought.
As the harmful and illegal moves of co president Musk are felt by ordinary Americans, they react. Witness the demonstrations in all fifty states as well as by our service members families in Germany!
Let's find those farmers in the heartland who are being hurt by the freezing of USAID. Let's help them to amplify their voices. Let's take credit for supporting their cause.
Let's point out that firing the FBI, the IG, the CPB, is the same as firing police officers. Can we get the Police Officers Union to amplify that message?
We can't have a do-over of the last election. Let's focus on our message and trust that average Americans are not happy with the current regime. Our job is to keep them informed and give them the tools to, as Reverend Al Sharpton would say, "rise up"!
Excellent, thoughtful piece. While I don’t share a lot with AOC, she is an effective messenger. Her questioning in hearings is well thought out and to the point. I wish she had been elected to ranking member of the oversight committee. My Rep, Elijah Cummings, who sadly died too soon, was her mentor. She learned much from him
This just isn’t helpful. Tip O’Neil said “All politics is local”. I want MY Congressperson rallying here, in her district. TikTok, Instagram, etc. have been banished from my device because I can’t stand or support their ownership. I think every Democrat should do the same. Go to Substack or BlueSkye. Very few human beings have the personal charisma and rhetorical dazzle of AOC, or Jasmine, or Jamie Raskin, or Raphael Warnock.
Democrats want a superstar to magically appear and lead to…..something. Folks, how are you doing in your neighborhoods? Please stop hoping for a bolt of lightning! We are getting our butts kicked, and we need to campaign for the 2026 elections every day. Say what you think the superstar should say. To borrow a line: “STOP THE STEAL”!
This lecture on the obvious is easy to agree with. It isn’t helpful.
I agree with the part about politics being local - though it's both, local and national. To borrow a phrase from the Miller beer commercials, "It's Both!!!" Not everyone can work the back roads of cattle and ranch country in my mother's native, conservative swing state, but such places exist. Treating them like they don't exist, well, we've reaped the consequences. I myself cannot do that, because I work in the city, far from said backwoods. But I will support it 1010% (not a typo).
As for the article not being helpful, I strongly disagree. This is not the "lightning bolt" we are supposedly "waiting for"; it is ONE more, necessary battle plan on seemingly a thousand fronts. To the degree it's been implemented, it has been highly effective. It just hasn't been carried out enough!
There are plenty of other Dems who are taking the case to the public - Adam Schiff is mentioned; the Dems from CT are also very effective - Blumenthal, Murphy and Himes, very much out front and speaking on TV. As well, Jamie Raskin - MD, Whitehouse - RI. Not all Dems are lily livered like Schumer, Durban, and Jeffries! I hope if we make a big enough stink Congress will rethink their most effective Dem spox, and hand over the mic to many of the more able and honest leaders. They are THERE, just not in leadership positions. Dems have a crisis of leadership, so DO something about it!
Schiff is one of my Senators. I am sort of a politically knowledgeable citizen. However, the only message I get from him is the claim he is fighting for me, and would like some of my money. Why doesn't he put a hold on 2nd and 3rd level appointees, like the Confederate General Tuberville did with military promotions?
Schumer says he's protecting Senators who are up for re-election in 2026. This makes no sense. Senate Democrats should not be filibustering for one night just to show how tough they are. Trump gets his way anyway. Senate Democrats should be filibustering for weeks at a time. Stop this nonsense.
The House Speaker says Trump is doing fine. Why, because he knows Americans want waste thrown out of government and they think what Trump is doing is cutting waste. GOP House members would never cut the programs Trump is cutting on their own because they know their constituents would be outraged. Wait till the farmers lose billion of dollars because Trump defunded USAID. Wait till rural schools in red states find out they've lost funding because Trump is eliminating Dept of Education.
Democrats keep saying they're a big tent; but don't go to red states nor rural areas because they aren't "their voters". It's always "we need to turn out our base".
Finally, Kamala Harris didn't lose because of her lack of message. Cutting taxes for the Middle Class, while increasing taxes for the top 20% and large corporations, re-authorizing the child tax credit, supporting Ukraine while keeping American troops out of the war, passing voting rights legislation, abortion rights legislation, were all American priorities. Even Waltz' "it's none of my business" was popular. The main reasons Kamala Harris lost was:
1. Joe Biden didn't keep his promise to be a bridge, and should have never said he planned to run for re-election. Ms. Harris, unfortunately, would probably not have won a primary but a Democrat would have won the election.
2. Racism: Many Latino and White individuals believe the Democratic Party is solely for the Black American. White women voted overwhelmingly for abortion rights, yet they voted for the likes of Josh Hawley, Rick Scott and Trump.
3. Misogyny: Many Brown, Black and White men believe women should be subservient to men (it's in the Bible after all). Most of these men are simply jealous of the advancements of women in society and just wouldn't do the work, necessary for their own advancement. Sitting around hoping a good paying job comes back is not putting in the work.
Ditto! During the first rally that Democrats held in protest to the Musk-Trump fascist regime gutting USAID funding, some of them were oblivious to the fact that they have the right to legally access all federal buildings, according to what former Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said last week in his interview.
Also, from the clips I saw on TV, their entire rally seemed to center around legal process as opposed to the impoverished people in Africa not getting the food and medicine they need due to the cruelty and illegality of the ingrates in the Musk-Trump regime breaking the law.
From at least a moral standpoint, this act of the Musk-Trump regime is something akin to murder, in my judgement. And it is also in violation of the Congressional Impoundment Control Act of 1974 as well the 1975 Train V. City of New York U.S. Supreme Court decision that essentially deemed impoundment unconstitutional.
I am not an attorney, but this despicable conduct by the Musk-Trump regime would seem to me to meet the criteria for being a high crime and misdemeanor and grounds for Trump being impeached for the third time, given how flagrantly illegal and immoral it is. Maybe Democratic members of Congress could have pointed this out at that rally instead of partaking in stupid chants.
Finally, Democrats are likely going to have to enable a federal government shutdown after March 12 and possibly even a default on U.S. Treasury securities later this year in the way of not negotiating or working with Republicans on anything until the law breaking and Constitution trashing by the Musk-Trump regime stops, as catastrophic as these events would be due to the immense suffering they would cause almost everyone. But if American democracy permanently collapses, it will ultimately lead to even far greater suffering for nearly everyone.
American democracy, in and of itself, is the transcendent national interest. Hence, Congressional Democrats and the American people must do everything that is lawful and within their power to prevent it from collapsing. “No retreat, no surrender!”
All good points. We need a lot more consistent social media outreach and engagement. I'm less certain that algorithms tilted to the right help us, but maybe its stimulation that matters. These strategies are great for reaching young, urban people who historically are not reliable voters and we need to turn them out in much bigger numbers in the next cycles to improve our results.
But its not the right strategy to turn the country. To do that we must reach the reliable voters in red states -- people over 45 -- who do not consume Instagram or TikTok and are overwhelmingly influenced by more traditional television formats: Fox News and the 294 local news broadcasting stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. We cannot solve our problem without making inroads in that population. They are well programmed by their preferred media; there the GOP has been allowed to define Democrats negatively with little or no push back. That is the barrier we need to break. We have no Congress people representing those areas that we can rely on to sell our message.
What to do about it? I believe we need to re-establish a more personal connection with red state rural voters. Part of the problem is they only hear from us during election cycles, and I think that is what has to change. We have to apply the same engagement principle, but instead of social media it has to be in person. That means that surrogates who are effective at personal outreach need to be present everywhere people gather in groups, big or small, listen carefully to complaints and try to compassionately respond to genuine issues while dispelling myths about the Democrats.
Trump is handing us issues on a silver platter. The USAID fiasco, which hits middle American farmers in particular, and a couple of other programs that have been yanked by Trump, all present an opportunity to talk to affected farming communities and establish a new relationship without the pressures of a campaign. This would be a new trick for the Democrats, but I think it could be done and it could, for example, help us flip Texas where we have the urban communities but the rurals seem out of reach.
There are five kitchen table issues: 1) economy--employment, inflation; 2) health; 3) education; 4) personal safety; 5) housing. The message that is coming through to me is the professional Democrats aren't focused on these issues, nor are the pundits. Olivia Julianna noted two of the issues--health and education, but to cite AOC going after oligarchs is praiseworthy shows she is also part of the bubble. And as far as the Democratic Senators, they are a total waste of my time. Norm Ornstein listed seven actions the Senate can do and I don't see any of them them doing any of the seven actions. I read today that a Republican Senator has a bill to protect famers hit by one of the 78 year old convicted felon's executive orders. Will there be any Democrat that will use its privilege to have the bill read in its entirety three times? Will any Democrat insist the funding bill, must be read in its entirety three times?
Olivia, thank you for pointing out exactly what I've been saying for many months. Yes, AOC and Jasmine Crockett are two great examples of being heard. But where is everyone else?
The election shock should have worn off by now, it's been well over three months. I want to hear from Kamala, Pete, Hakeem, David Hogg and many others. VERY LOUD AND VERY CLEAR. Many supposed Democratic "leaders" need to be replaced.
Olivia OLIVIA! You are a voice, a FORCE! Everything you talk about is absolutely right on to this 73 year old woman. WE are THE PEOPLE who elected these ineffectual, ineffective so-called leaders and they have completely failed EXCEPT for Maxwell Frost, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Jamie Raskin, and J Moskowitz!! None of them are from CA, my state. Two represent the RED Florida, one from NY, one from RED Texas. And let me tell you something, my parents were Holocaust victims who were welcomed in America. My dad even went into the Army to pay back that kindness. I will NEVER GIVE IN nor will I NEVER GIVE UP!
Credit to Steve Schmidt for this comparison : The current Democratic leadership has a lot in common with the 15 Republican candidates for president ion 2016 that were not Donald Trump. They are party insiders tied to numerous interest groups within the party bubble and completely disconnected from the wider party base. And like the Republican hopefuls of 2016, easily swept aside by Trump. Democrat as need new leadership who can speak to all of America, not just party insiders. Rep. AOC and Sen. Chris Murphy fit the bill and there are others. But Sen. Chuck Schumer and many others are well past their sell by date.
EVERY Democrat should be talking about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race on April 1. This is THE most consequential electon of '25. If the liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, can win, it will show that the democrats are energized and prepared to fight. But, more importantly, the new liberal court majority will be able to throw out the current gerrymandered congressional districts, require a new map to be drawn that would result in a pickup of 2 or 3 new democratic congressional seats in '26. They will also be able to declare a draconian 1849 anti-abortion law unconstitutional. If the MAGA Repubican wins, the gerrymandered map stays in place and this 1849 law is revived.
https://www.crawfordforwi.com/
This. I want to scream every time I see Chuck Schumer behind a podium. Who the hell even cares. Where is the messaging on TikTok? Instagram? Where are the democratic podcasters? Young people are getting their information from algorithms on social media not the nightly news.
OMG, yes! He may be a good backroom operator, but he’s a disaster before the public.
Senate Democrats need Elizabeth Warren, Tim Kaine, and Adam Schiff out there - Schiff isn’t dynamic but he’s so spot-on regarding the law. AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost, Jamie Raskin, and a few others.
And for heaven's sake, replace Gerry Connelly as Government Oversight ranking member. His MSNBC interview the other day where he said they made the GOP committee members break a sweat to defeat a call to get Elon Musk to testify? Embarrassing. The message there was “We are trying to get the Elon Musk to testify, under oath, before our committee. He refuses to do it; the GOP majority is protecting him. They are complicit in his illegal activity!”
I wish him well in his cancer treatment, but he is not the man for this moment. Sorry.
My Senator, Chris Murphy-CT, is also part of that group. He's posting excellent reels/videos on Instagram and You Tube.
Democrats should also attack Congressional Republicans for willfully giving up their power to balance this craziness, a clear abdication of duty. Call them out. Name them. Berate them. Don't let them hide behind Trump or Musk and escape accountability.
Exactly right and so well explained! Thank you, Olivia. I'm sharing this message with my congressman today.
While oll of that sounds true, let us remember that Kamala Harris lost my state of PA! She spent lots of time here. What happened? We can't ignore the role that racism and mysogeny played in the presidential election. Nor can we ignore the illegal actions of Elon Musk, putting his thumb on the scale to influence the election. To some extent, the election was bought.
As the harmful and illegal moves of co president Musk are felt by ordinary Americans, they react. Witness the demonstrations in all fifty states as well as by our service members families in Germany!
Let's find those farmers in the heartland who are being hurt by the freezing of USAID. Let's help them to amplify their voices. Let's take credit for supporting their cause.
Let's point out that firing the FBI, the IG, the CPB, is the same as firing police officers. Can we get the Police Officers Union to amplify that message?
We can't have a do-over of the last election. Let's focus on our message and trust that average Americans are not happy with the current regime. Our job is to keep them informed and give them the tools to, as Reverend Al Sharpton would say, "rise up"!
This!
Excellent, thoughtful piece. While I don’t share a lot with AOC, she is an effective messenger. Her questioning in hearings is well thought out and to the point. I wish she had been elected to ranking member of the oversight committee. My Rep, Elijah Cummings, who sadly died too soon, was her mentor. She learned much from him
This just isn’t helpful. Tip O’Neil said “All politics is local”. I want MY Congressperson rallying here, in her district. TikTok, Instagram, etc. have been banished from my device because I can’t stand or support their ownership. I think every Democrat should do the same. Go to Substack or BlueSkye. Very few human beings have the personal charisma and rhetorical dazzle of AOC, or Jasmine, or Jamie Raskin, or Raphael Warnock.
Democrats want a superstar to magically appear and lead to…..something. Folks, how are you doing in your neighborhoods? Please stop hoping for a bolt of lightning! We are getting our butts kicked, and we need to campaign for the 2026 elections every day. Say what you think the superstar should say. To borrow a line: “STOP THE STEAL”!
This lecture on the obvious is easy to agree with. It isn’t helpful.
I disagree, we're not the ones that need to be reached, we are in our own bubble. Reps need to reach people who didn't vote for them.
I agree with the part about politics being local - though it's both, local and national. To borrow a phrase from the Miller beer commercials, "It's Both!!!" Not everyone can work the back roads of cattle and ranch country in my mother's native, conservative swing state, but such places exist. Treating them like they don't exist, well, we've reaped the consequences. I myself cannot do that, because I work in the city, far from said backwoods. But I will support it 1010% (not a typo).
As for the article not being helpful, I strongly disagree. This is not the "lightning bolt" we are supposedly "waiting for"; it is ONE more, necessary battle plan on seemingly a thousand fronts. To the degree it's been implemented, it has been highly effective. It just hasn't been carried out enough!
I think that was my point!
Okay.
There are plenty of other Dems who are taking the case to the public - Adam Schiff is mentioned; the Dems from CT are also very effective - Blumenthal, Murphy and Himes, very much out front and speaking on TV. As well, Jamie Raskin - MD, Whitehouse - RI. Not all Dems are lily livered like Schumer, Durban, and Jeffries! I hope if we make a big enough stink Congress will rethink their most effective Dem spox, and hand over the mic to many of the more able and honest leaders. They are THERE, just not in leadership positions. Dems have a crisis of leadership, so DO something about it!
Schiff is one of my Senators. I am sort of a politically knowledgeable citizen. However, the only message I get from him is the claim he is fighting for me, and would like some of my money. Why doesn't he put a hold on 2nd and 3rd level appointees, like the Confederate General Tuberville did with military promotions?
This is an excellent post.
Schumer says he's protecting Senators who are up for re-election in 2026. This makes no sense. Senate Democrats should not be filibustering for one night just to show how tough they are. Trump gets his way anyway. Senate Democrats should be filibustering for weeks at a time. Stop this nonsense.
The House Speaker says Trump is doing fine. Why, because he knows Americans want waste thrown out of government and they think what Trump is doing is cutting waste. GOP House members would never cut the programs Trump is cutting on their own because they know their constituents would be outraged. Wait till the farmers lose billion of dollars because Trump defunded USAID. Wait till rural schools in red states find out they've lost funding because Trump is eliminating Dept of Education.
Democrats keep saying they're a big tent; but don't go to red states nor rural areas because they aren't "their voters". It's always "we need to turn out our base".
Finally, Kamala Harris didn't lose because of her lack of message. Cutting taxes for the Middle Class, while increasing taxes for the top 20% and large corporations, re-authorizing the child tax credit, supporting Ukraine while keeping American troops out of the war, passing voting rights legislation, abortion rights legislation, were all American priorities. Even Waltz' "it's none of my business" was popular. The main reasons Kamala Harris lost was:
1. Joe Biden didn't keep his promise to be a bridge, and should have never said he planned to run for re-election. Ms. Harris, unfortunately, would probably not have won a primary but a Democrat would have won the election.
2. Racism: Many Latino and White individuals believe the Democratic Party is solely for the Black American. White women voted overwhelmingly for abortion rights, yet they voted for the likes of Josh Hawley, Rick Scott and Trump.
3. Misogyny: Many Brown, Black and White men believe women should be subservient to men (it's in the Bible after all). Most of these men are simply jealous of the advancements of women in society and just wouldn't do the work, necessary for their own advancement. Sitting around hoping a good paying job comes back is not putting in the work.
Ditto! During the first rally that Democrats held in protest to the Musk-Trump fascist regime gutting USAID funding, some of them were oblivious to the fact that they have the right to legally access all federal buildings, according to what former Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said last week in his interview.
Also, from the clips I saw on TV, their entire rally seemed to center around legal process as opposed to the impoverished people in Africa not getting the food and medicine they need due to the cruelty and illegality of the ingrates in the Musk-Trump regime breaking the law.
From at least a moral standpoint, this act of the Musk-Trump regime is something akin to murder, in my judgement. And it is also in violation of the Congressional Impoundment Control Act of 1974 as well the 1975 Train V. City of New York U.S. Supreme Court decision that essentially deemed impoundment unconstitutional.
I am not an attorney, but this despicable conduct by the Musk-Trump regime would seem to me to meet the criteria for being a high crime and misdemeanor and grounds for Trump being impeached for the third time, given how flagrantly illegal and immoral it is. Maybe Democratic members of Congress could have pointed this out at that rally instead of partaking in stupid chants.
Finally, Democrats are likely going to have to enable a federal government shutdown after March 12 and possibly even a default on U.S. Treasury securities later this year in the way of not negotiating or working with Republicans on anything until the law breaking and Constitution trashing by the Musk-Trump regime stops, as catastrophic as these events would be due to the immense suffering they would cause almost everyone. But if American democracy permanently collapses, it will ultimately lead to even far greater suffering for nearly everyone.
American democracy, in and of itself, is the transcendent national interest. Hence, Congressional Democrats and the American people must do everything that is lawful and within their power to prevent it from collapsing. “No retreat, no surrender!”
All good points. We need a lot more consistent social media outreach and engagement. I'm less certain that algorithms tilted to the right help us, but maybe its stimulation that matters. These strategies are great for reaching young, urban people who historically are not reliable voters and we need to turn them out in much bigger numbers in the next cycles to improve our results.
But its not the right strategy to turn the country. To do that we must reach the reliable voters in red states -- people over 45 -- who do not consume Instagram or TikTok and are overwhelmingly influenced by more traditional television formats: Fox News and the 294 local news broadcasting stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. We cannot solve our problem without making inroads in that population. They are well programmed by their preferred media; there the GOP has been allowed to define Democrats negatively with little or no push back. That is the barrier we need to break. We have no Congress people representing those areas that we can rely on to sell our message.
What to do about it? I believe we need to re-establish a more personal connection with red state rural voters. Part of the problem is they only hear from us during election cycles, and I think that is what has to change. We have to apply the same engagement principle, but instead of social media it has to be in person. That means that surrogates who are effective at personal outreach need to be present everywhere people gather in groups, big or small, listen carefully to complaints and try to compassionately respond to genuine issues while dispelling myths about the Democrats.
Trump is handing us issues on a silver platter. The USAID fiasco, which hits middle American farmers in particular, and a couple of other programs that have been yanked by Trump, all present an opportunity to talk to affected farming communities and establish a new relationship without the pressures of a campaign. This would be a new trick for the Democrats, but I think it could be done and it could, for example, help us flip Texas where we have the urban communities but the rurals seem out of reach.
There are five kitchen table issues: 1) economy--employment, inflation; 2) health; 3) education; 4) personal safety; 5) housing. The message that is coming through to me is the professional Democrats aren't focused on these issues, nor are the pundits. Olivia Julianna noted two of the issues--health and education, but to cite AOC going after oligarchs is praiseworthy shows she is also part of the bubble. And as far as the Democratic Senators, they are a total waste of my time. Norm Ornstein listed seven actions the Senate can do and I don't see any of them them doing any of the seven actions. I read today that a Republican Senator has a bill to protect famers hit by one of the 78 year old convicted felon's executive orders. Will there be any Democrat that will use its privilege to have the bill read in its entirety three times? Will any Democrat insist the funding bill, must be read in its entirety three times?
Olivia, thank you for pointing out exactly what I've been saying for many months. Yes, AOC and Jasmine Crockett are two great examples of being heard. But where is everyone else?
The election shock should have worn off by now, it's been well over three months. I want to hear from Kamala, Pete, Hakeem, David Hogg and many others. VERY LOUD AND VERY CLEAR. Many supposed Democratic "leaders" need to be replaced.
Democrats, get started already!
Olivia OLIVIA! You are a voice, a FORCE! Everything you talk about is absolutely right on to this 73 year old woman. WE are THE PEOPLE who elected these ineffectual, ineffective so-called leaders and they have completely failed EXCEPT for Maxwell Frost, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Jamie Raskin, and J Moskowitz!! None of them are from CA, my state. Two represent the RED Florida, one from NY, one from RED Texas. And let me tell you something, my parents were Holocaust victims who were welcomed in America. My dad even went into the Army to pay back that kindness. I will NEVER GIVE IN nor will I NEVER GIVE UP!
Please give Kamala Harris a platform- she can do this!!
Credit to Steve Schmidt for this comparison : The current Democratic leadership has a lot in common with the 15 Republican candidates for president ion 2016 that were not Donald Trump. They are party insiders tied to numerous interest groups within the party bubble and completely disconnected from the wider party base. And like the Republican hopefuls of 2016, easily swept aside by Trump. Democrat as need new leadership who can speak to all of America, not just party insiders. Rep. AOC and Sen. Chris Murphy fit the bill and there are others. But Sen. Chuck Schumer and many others are well past their sell by date.