More Americans appear to be hitting the streets in protest of the unconstitutional, mostly illegal actions of a renegade Presidency than at any other point in our history, with the possible exception of the Vietnam War era. Even conservatively biased polls are indicating that the number of Americans showing dissatisfaction with the first 100 days of the second Trump administration is heading onward and upward toward the 60% mark, and his job approval ratings are even lower than the records he set during his first term.
You're not reading the words of someone here who trusts most of the data that now comes out of what are mostly corporate-owned media pollsters. Anything associated with the far right conservatives hasn't been trustworthy or truthful for a long time. So I do have some doubts when I see headlines from Newsmax or Newsweek making note of a 29% or 26% approval rate for Democrats. But there's a little more than just their bias involved in my observations of what's actually going on.
I'm a lifelong Democrat, and while I'll admit that feelings are not the best way to validate poll results, what I'm seeing in writing, on social media, from a lot of Democrats, is that some of the disapproval and dissatisfaction with Democratic members of Congress may be coming from within the party. For me, that doesn't mean I'm not going to vote when the time comes. Even a weak, self-absorbed Democrat is better than any Republican. But being weak and conciliatory, now, during this time, is unacceptable.
The Messaging Dilemma is Rearing Its Ugly Head, Again
The best message we had, going into the 2020 election, was that Donald Trump is an existential threat to American Democracy. We got that right. We had four years to see that he was, and we've now had another 100 days to see just how right we were. But this is a dilemma for us, because in spite of getting this messaging right, we can't seem to respond to this threat effectively.
We had a huge advantage after his first four year disaster in office that proved he's mentally imbalanced, emotionally incapacitated and incapable of providing the kind of leadership we expect in a President. We complain that the Republicans have control of media silos through which they keep their followers blinded to the truth. But the party's approach and response to that, other than the whining and using it as an excuse, is to go back to the traditional means of trying to get media attention from the other mainstream outlets, amidst all of their "Trump, Trump, Trump" coverage.
If a comparison exists somewhere, between the amount of television news coverage Joe Biden was given during the four years of his Presidency, and the amount of coverage Trump got during the four years of Biden's presidency, Trump would win hands down walking away. My guess is that he got ten times the amount of network news time that Biden did.
And whose fault is that? It can't all be blamed on the mainstream media. They cover what they're given.
"But this is just the way Biden does things," we were told. As if what he's done in the past has worked, and there's no need to change. And yes, I found that frustrating. It also turned out to fall short of the goal of eliminating Trump as an existential threat to American Democracy. "The way Biden did things," combined with the way the Democratic party establishment did things, fell far short of its potential effectiveness.
The panic that occurred following Biden's debate performance that triggered the rush to get him to step down from his re-election campaign said an awful lot about why the Democratic party, my party, was so ineffective in stopping the Trump threat. All that panic and confusion, no real leadership stepping forward, and a small group of powerful major donors calling the shots was all I needed to see. Even at that, at that late date, and with that behind us, the fact that this was still a winnable election speaks more to just how bad Trump really is, than it does to just how well the Democrats can articulate their message.
I will always believe that if Biden had declared, in 2023, that he was not running for re-election, and had organized the party to choose a nominee that could carry and deliver the message, Democrats would have won a landslide in 2024, and we would not be here now. And of course, if Democrats had been more resolute and determined, and united behind the message of Trump's threat to democracy in 2021, when they took power, a few risky but bold political moves would have brought Trump's downfall shortly after the Congressional committee wrapped up its investigation into his starting an insurrection against the Capitol.
Had Democrats marshalled their power, got on message, and moved with some boldness, the disastrous mess that happened with Merrick Garland and the DOJ would never have transpired, and Trump would have been adjudicated and in prison before the midterm winners were sworn in.
So What's the Plan, Democrats, for the 2026 Midterms?
The GOP margins in both the House and Senate are slim. They should be easy to break down, given the disaster that has occurred during Trump's first 100 days. But where is our Democratic party leadership? I can't see anything that they are doing to try and position themselves to win, and I am seeing an increased number of commentators and columnists, and Democratic party media advocates, like Thom Hartmann and Stephanie Miller, who are trying to ring alarm bells and get things moving.
We are 100 days into a disaster. We are seeing rising opposition to this Presidency everywhere. And yet, Democrats in Congress have a 26% job approval rating. Something is seriously wrong, and isn't connecting.
I'm not a "sit on my butt and protect my own interests" kind of guy. I'm on social security, with a modest supplemental income, but I set aside something every month to give to Democrats. I'm getting to the point where standing for hours at a protest isn't possible, nor is making a long march, though I really enjoy doing that. Twice now, in the past year, I have volunteered to knock on doors in neighboring purple state Wisconsin, to help Democrats in elections. And if you want to get a good look at what I consider well-invested time and effort, click this link to The Signal Press and read to your heart's content.
I'm on board with David Hogg's idea to make some changes in party leadership for all of the reasons I've put down here. I'm supporting Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, largely because I really like their messaging, which is clear, to the point, and motivates voters to action, but also because they are doing something in the absence of many other leaders doing nothing. I'm considering myself fortunate to live in Chicago, in Illinois, where our Democratic party leaders are bold, and vocal, and on target with their message, and I'd love to be right at the head of the line when J. D. Pritzker announces he is a candidate for President in 2028.
I would love to be wrong about the silence and lack of forward movement I'm seeing from Democrats. We should be the leaders of the Trump opposition, setting the agenda, but that's happening more spontaneously, in the Indivisible groups that are forming, on the message boards and social media outlets where people who are strongly opposed to Trump, but not necessarily strongly supporting of Democrats, are giving birth to a new political movement.
Trump, and his cronies, are publicly announcing and carrying out plans to steal the midterm elections, right out in the open, suppressing votes that will potentially go against them. They've long since publicly announced their knowledge, and how to implement, all of the things they've claimed have been used against them in election stealing, and they have already implemented them to steal the 2024 election. We knew that, there were thousands of people sounding the alarms, and we kept being told there were law firms on it. Turns out, well, there weren't enough to stop the stealing.
So what's the plan to keep the midterms free and fair?
Tell me there's a plan, a structure, an organization, and on top of that, a genuine desire among Democrats to keep this country free from the tyranny that now has it in its grip.
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