Democrats are furious. And they want their leaders to get mad, too.

“I wish you’d be angry,” a constituent told representative Gil Cisneros, a Democrat of California, at a recent town hall. At an event in Minnesota featuring a panel of Democratic attorneys general, an activist voiced a similar sentiment: “Get angry, man,” punctuating the message with a profanity.

The anger roiling the party, slow to build, is now a forceful current coursing through the electorate and pulling in Americans terrified that the country is descending into authoritarianism. Democrats – with no leader to guide them and little power to wield in Washington – are scrambling to harness the sudden fury.

At rallies, town halls and protests, voters are venting their fury with Donald Trump and his empowerment of Elon Musk’s full-frontal assault on federal agencies, stoking what progressive activists believe are the embers of a populist backlash against the president – and the Democratic leaders they believe are not meeting the moment.

  • SGGeorwell@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Bernie is touring with AOC for a reason. He’s demonstrating the next leader now. She’s already here.

    • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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      9 days ago

      If America were drowning, and a woman offered to throw them a life preserver, America would rather wait for a man to help instead and die. Perfect candidates? Maybe not. But both Clinton and Harris were abundantly qualified, and we chose, CHOSE, a dictator, an unapologetic misogynist, a criminal, a failed business man, a known Epstein associate, the playboy of the 80s, a bona fide piece of shit, instead, the same one, TWICE, even after his absolutely chatoic first term. I don’t want to die due to the ignorance of others, but it’s tough to argue we don’t deserve it.

      • Catoblepas
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        9 days ago

        Let’s not rewrite history, this is Trump’s first win through the popular vote. The American people chose Clinton the first time around, the electoral system set up to appease slavers 200+ years ago is what put him in power in 2016.

        • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
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          8 days ago

          It should have never been close enough the first time for gamesmanship. And regardless, it’s academic. The first time he was an unknown quantity. This second time is completely unforgivable. We have sleep walked into the second term with absolutely no excuses.

        • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          But then the country really and truly did vote for him. And that ~36% who didn’t vote at all did vote for Trump. That is not up for debate.

          • Catoblepas
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            8 days ago

            That is also an oversimplification, because you’re assuming that all 36% of the people who didn’t vote had the option to vote. We are the most imprisoned population on earth, with some states (including one of the 2024 swing states) removing voting rights from people convicted of felonies.

            That’s not even going into things like people working in jobs that have no problem violating the law and refusing to let them take time off to vote, people being illegitimately denied the vote at the polls over ID issues, long poll lines that mean some people wind up unable to vote for unavoidable reasons (childcare, disability, etc), 14 states don’t allow no-excuse voting by mail, I can keep going on with all the problems people run into while voting in the US if you want.

            Obviously that’s not all of that 36%, but you are living in a dream world if you think every American citizen that wanted to vote got to.

              • Catoblepas
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                8 days ago

                You’re asking me if it’s better that there are ~14 million less Nazis in the US than you thought?

      • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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        8 days ago

        Blaming Kamala’s loss on her gender is beyond stupid.

        There is a large group who voted both for Trump and AOC. Not for Kamala though.

      • alkbch@lemmy.ml
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        8 days ago

        Maybe it would have helped if Clinton & Harris weren’t war criminals.

    • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I completly agree with you. But…

      The DNC would never endorse her and she would get a media blackout as an independent. Democrats would rather be irrelevant but rake in corpo money than pivot to anything progressive.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        8 days ago

        Which is one of the reasons that going forward, I’m now considering third parties a completely fair choice. If DNC leadership continues to refuse to pull their heads from their asses, I’m not going to give a shit about casting a “spoiler” vote, considering the existing leadership have not only refused to relinquish their chokehold on power, but also because they have shown themselves to be their own spoiler party in most cases, and the outcome would be functionally identical (looking at you, Schumer, you vapid, spineless, fascist enabling cunt).

      • Muehe@lemmy.ml
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        8 days ago

        Well I don’t know about that. Maybe if this current outrage gets enough people to engage in internal party politics the DNC can be reformed? I’m honestly not too knowledgeable about that area of US politics, but my understanding as a layperson was that there isn’t really anything (except for party-internal conflict obviously) preventing registered democrats from trying to reform or even replace the DNC.

        But even if that is possible not sure if it would be fast enough. There are probably a host of different internal elections involved to gain the required influence, and the next national midterms elections are probably way beyond Trumps deadline for going completely mask off “I’m your dictator now”-fascist.

  • UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    It’s as though there are two Democratic parties

    One that yells and protests and works for change and another that makes sure nothing ever changes

    But your never really sure who is in which group

    • MisterOwl@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      But your never really sure who is in which group

      It’s pretty easy to determine which group our representatives are in.

  • Apricot@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    We need a person that can easily break down the real reasons people are suffering, that can reach the average American without coming off as belittling or consescending, and that can unite wide coalitions and instill a renewed sense of trust into disaffected voters. The left needs a populist. And in my opinion, after listening to her speaking on the Fight Oligarchy Tour, AOC fits this bill. Whether it is her or someone else, the Dems need a united front of this messaging, or they will allow us to get fucked once again. No more of the old guard, neoliberal, Chuck Schumer bullshit or we’re toast.

    EDIT: spelling