Commentary: Democratic voters want more of everything

Marj Halperin, Chicago Tribune on Mar 25, 2025

Published in Op Eds

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

What, exactly, does the Democratic base want? More. More of everything. Including new leaders.

When will Democrats step up to “flood the zone” with the vigorous fight for our democracy that this moment demands?

Our elected leaders repeatedly complain about President Donald Trump’s domination of the daily news cycle. Why didn’t it occur to them then that Democrats could do the same, holding a news conference every single day to shine a light on the three most egregious ways Trump and Elon Musk are stealing our freedoms? There is no shortage of fodder for daily “save our freedoms” news conferences, whether it’s arrogantly tossing public services such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Park Service into the wood chipper, launching an ill-conceived trade war that is hurting American farmers and consumers, or pushing the SAVE Act that would deny the right to vote to married women whose current identification doesn’t match the name on their birth certificate (that’s some 67 million). Yet, so far, we see very little pushback from Democratic leaders.

It was late February when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries brought his book tour to Chicago, complaining that Trump was dominating the news cycle daily, promising “a series of things” he would be rolling“out shortly.” In the three months since Trump’s election, Jeffries and other leaders hadn’t come up with anything more than this empty promise. A month later, we still haven’t seen Democrats launching a strong offensive game as Trump lets Musk and his team of unvetted tech bros implement Project 2025’s fascist vision for our country.

What we’ve seen instead: Democrats sitting in quiet protest for Trump’s speech to Congress, wearing symbolic colors and holding meek signs of protest as the president attacked and ridiculed them. GOP leaders, meanwhile, lustily cheered Trump’s promise to continue to tear down public services our communities depend upon, publicly encouraging Musk to continue ripping the heart and soul from a government that was formed to serve us all. Only Democratic Texas Rep. Al Green stood to shout in protest, and when he was ushered out of the chamber, every Democrat should’ve followed him. Instead, 10 of his party colleagues joined Republicans in voting to censure him.

House Democrats finally unified when it came time to vote on the continuing resolution to keep the government open and give Trump and Musk more leeway to cut government services, only to be betrayed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He promised to join them, then flipped at the last minute, leading nine other Democrats, including our Sen. Dick Durbin, to rescue the Republicans and pass their bill — getting zero in return for this cooperation.

Which leads us to another thing the Democratic base wants: new leadership. Jeffries, Schumer, Durbin and too many other leaders of the Democratic Party have demonstrated repeatedly that they can’t adapt to the new political landscape. Their old-school playbook just doesn’t meet the moment. They’re failing us on every front, caring more about Beltway protocol than the pain we’re all feeling across the country. Schumer spent more time in one week defending his continuing resolution vote than he has, so far, calling out the illegal actions of a renegade team destroying the basic services we all depend upon.

He may soon have to defend not only his leadership but also his place in the Senate, as many are encouraging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to challenge him in the 2028 primary. In response, across the country, we’re seeing new, young candidates rising up to challenge the old guard in upcoming primaries. I, for one, hope the majority of them are successful.

To be clear, there is certainly waste to be cut from the federal government. But that would require audits and a thorough understanding of how each agency and department works — and doesn’t work — for the American people. Instead, Trump has authorized Musk and his team to cut first and ask questions later. This is how they have made countless errors, leading to continual edits to the website that touts savings that turn out to be fake, whether it’s laying claim to cutting a$1.9 billion contract already ended by President Joe Biden, or eliminating Social Security recipients they claim are ineligible, only to have to restore the benefits because they were legitimately earned, such as those for a U.S. citizen born in Germany — on a U.S. military base.

Today, Musk’s “wall of receipts” has been redesigned to mask those errors as they occur. Rather than slow down the attacks on our freedoms in favor of a more professional approach to cutting waste, Musk and Trump would rather keep making mistakes. They just don’t want us to know about them.

Democrats are proving every day that they don’t have what it takes to stand up to them.

____

Marj Halperin is an award-winning journalist and former Democratic analyst for WGN-TV. She can be heard on WGN radio’s “Mincing Rascals” podcast. A community activist, she’s a leader of the Chicago neighborhood group One Community Near South and Indivisible Chicago’s Blue Beginning chapter.

___