Count me as one of the extremely fucking frustrated

Cause it sucks to be always caving.

of making the Democrats "more liberal" or "more progressive" or "more perfect". The obsession with perfection and other purity tests (and punishing the party) only serve to benefit the GOP.

Never held responsible for nothing. They are miserable bastards!

It's a stacked deck against us, Republicans are happy to cause pain.

What does "fighting hard against Trump" look like?

When we don't have control of Congress there is little we can can do other than give it lip service. We can blab all day long but it does not mean a thing.

The real fight is on the campaign trail. Developing candidates that can actually win a Presidential election in a country where the cards are stacked against us via the Electoral College.

Democrats need to get out of the cities and the suburbs and infiltrate rural areas. Because he who controls the geography in this country controls it all.

They’re what I envision as fighting back.

He doesn't take any Trump crap.

That's part of the left's problem to begin with: thinking social media posts or post-election campaign rallies are """fighting back"""" -- fighting back is ultimately done on Election Day! And that's where we have been getting screwed over by our so-called allies on the left.

Without the votes, all of that other bullshit is just performative nonsense meant to make you feel better for LOSING elections.

Because just when it appears that they will “fight hard” they collapse

Which the right wing owns most of. So that's another problem.
But it can be overcome with the right messaging and messengers.

Obama won with a stacked EC.

Why voters find some elections compelling and others, with the exact same issues at stake, not, is beyond me. To me, that shows that the voters are personality obsessed. If they cared that deeply about the issues, they would understand that voter turnout is paramount to success and then out to vote on a reliable basis.

Procedural hurdles, coherent and coordinated campaigns. Yes.... viral Tik Toks, mean tweets, LOTS of social media. More Democrats doing podcasts. We need to be seen pushing back anywhere and everywhere. This is a fight for survival. EVERYTHING is on the table.

Then optics matter. And the optics of caving are not good. They have literally thrown away the momentum of our recent small election victories.

Im trying to take solace in the fact I dont think that Trump plans to allow us real elections in the future, so maybe none of this mattered anyway.

and Jeffries wouldn't even endorse Mamdani after the primary - even though Mamdani won his district.

This is so not even remotely 'effective leadership' that I don't even know how to describe it.

And to do THAT we need to WIN
And to do THAT we need to pick the best people who have the best chance to WIN
everything else is just noise.

the White House. You have to be able to take back Congress. Remember how the Republicans denied Obama a Supreme Court pick because they claimed that the right should go to the next elected President? If Republicans keep Congress they would just block everything. When you don't actually care about anyone that frees you up dig your heels in and force the Democrats to perpetually cave.

Republicans focus on getting every victory no matter what the election from top to bottom. Democrats did well in the to ast election. But they cannot afford to lose any election because they need to build up from the bottom. It is a 50 state strategy.

% of Democrats with a favorable opinion of Chuck Schumer 📉

47% in May 2024
43% in January 2025
35% in September 2025

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

— John Gramlich (@johngramlich.bsky.social) 2025-11-10T14:28:02.324Z

I want a Senator version of a Nancy Pelosi type of leader.

Senator AOC sounds good right now

AOC needs to run

He lost, he is clearly not up to the roll he has taken. Its time to go. Resign leadership, probably resign the senate, become a private citizen.

But he will hang on and try to hold power. Like Cuomo and many others unsuited to leadership rolls in the democratic party.

Schumer needs to go now. He caved and should go away now. Bye bye.

Being a centrist is fine. Constantly caving, despite what the majority of your party wants you to do, is idiotic.

We are still bringing wet noodles to a gun fight.

Being a centrist is not fine. As the right keeps moving rightward the centrist keeps moving right. So no, it's not fine being a centrist.

Compromise is ultimately how democracy works. That is where the move to the center occurs. It loses its effectiveness when one side doesn’t believe in government.

Schumer still thinks the genteel Senate of decades still exists, or can return. They will not. The Senate is a knock-down, drag-out, bare-knuckles affair now. And he doesn't act like it. He gives tepid speeches about "fighting" while looking over his reading glasses. That simply will not cut it. We need someone not only willing to duke it out, but anxious to do it.

Most of America is moderate. The "MAGA" cult is at BEST 25-30% of the vote. They dont win elections. Independents do.
Its time we realize it.

is the way to go, thanks.

Because I know several. Is that a poll nationally? No, but my friends in other parts of the country say the same thing
We lost for 3 major reasons, but HERE we can barely talk about only one of them. This isnt a discussion board as much as an echo chamber.
But if you think we lost because we weren't far ENOUGH Left, feel free to show which House or Senate seats we wouldve won by running a MORE left candidate compared to the one who lost.

affordable housing, economic inequality, etc etc only applies in certain areas of the country. So the path we must take to win elections is to lean more to the right. Thanks again

And do you think we lost the '24 election because of ANY of those issues? How on earth was trump BETTER on them? He certainly wasnt.
So that wasnt the problem.

And then they tapped!!!

Repukes learned Dems are scared of the nuclear option of ending the filibuster. So threatening to ending it gets them what they want. Repukes learned that Dems don’t stand for what they claim to believe.

I think the time lapse is part of the frustration that many of us are feeling. We've seen this far too many times and far too often.

I am a lifelong Dem. In fact, I have said before and still make the claim that I have NEVER voted for a Republican. In my red-ass state of Texas, I don't vote straight ticket because there are going to be races where there is no Democratic choice. I take the time to vote AGAINST the Republican in each of those instances.

And I am completely and totally frustrated and very near just saying - "fuck it" because what we obviously indicate to our party leaders that we want and need gets completely ignored.

It is time for some massive change. And I do mean massive if we are to continue to be taken seriously at all. We want leaders who will be strong and assertive - like Newsom and Pritzker. Who will get out there and meet the Republican rhetoric with strong force and intelligence. Who have the ability to change people's minds with fast facts and undeniable truths. We need well spoken Democrats out there every single minute of every single day WITH a plan and an easy and simple explanation of what that plan is so that the poorly educated in America can understand what is being explained to them. And that needs to be delivered with strength and resolve and confidence. Not some whiny apologetic voice asking permission to speak.

Hell, let Jasmine Crockett and Nancy Mace "take it outside". It might get some blood moving through the veins of this party again. Instead, we've got the "we have to get along" mentality. Republicans capitalize on that at every opportunity and Democrats have NEVER learned to hit back hard.

all were disappointed on weak minded

... not even those on SNAP. ALL of them are not just disappointed, but angry.

THEY CAVE!!!!

I've just called my two Democratic senators, Murphy and Blumenthal. Their phones are busy and left a message. Appeasement never works with dictators.

Now, it's up to the Resistance. RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES.

Now it caves too easily. I have friends who are hard core liberals who said they are leaving the party and becoming Independents because our leadership is weak and not willing to fight. I'm still hanging in there - for now.

before Nov 4, frustrated because of the fewer Democratic votes turnout in 2024. Even though the numbers were close, there were demographic shifts away from Dems.

And so putting Dems only in minority party functioning, try as the Dem minority might, and it has tried mightily since. But structurally, it just can't do enough, and their frustration HAD been about "not doing enough".
Party members' frustration wasn't founded on the facts as much as on their own impatience and distrust with minority messaging and leadership.
So their frustration was instead re-channeled more toward in working hard to regain majority status. Now, because of November 4, there is a probability that 80% of what they were frustrated about will get solved, as they're learning not to succumb to corporate media's constant barrage of criticism and parroting of republican lies, and getting more objective no-corporate media information.

These poll numbers above are no longer as important as winning.
LANDSLIDE WINS actually happened after this poll was taken.
So, to continue posting pre-Nov 4 negative polling is to intentionally or not, undermine the dynamics of the Big Win on November 4.
Going toward 2026 midterms, it will be more helpful to post information that comes from polls taken since November 4.

But this is a "No-Dems bashing" site, so I moderate my criticism.

The lack is not one of leadership -- that's down on the depth chart. The lack, IMO, is of any fire or desire to do anything other than perpetrate the Neolib agenda, which is nothing more than mainstream Republicanism by another name. I think at least part of the reason that the GOP has shifted so far Right is that the Democrats refuse to move one inch Left. The GOP had to distinguish themselves from the Dems somehow, and Fascism has always appealed to them.

Preserving the status quo may be the safe formula to keeping your seat in government, but if you're not going to do anything with that seat, or that government, then it is just wanking. Worse, it doesn't even work anymore. So the Dems have been faced with a couple of alternatives recently: lose gloriously, or try to stay in their cush gigs and do nothing but write stern letters. Most of them appear to have opted for saving their paychecks.

-- Mal

Very telling.



Enjoy your stay.

and will try to maintain this extremely lucrative relationship

for the most part, and I’m so frustrated about the small group of dems who cut a deal with MAGA.

They squandered the only leverage we had. Now, so many people wlll lose insurance.

Sigh.

You risk getting soundly berated for daring to say anything that even remotely has the slightest odor of the very hint of a thought of a complaint about our leadership.

Can't bash (*) Democratic leaders, you know!

Hard to show 'respect' and 'play nice' under the circumstances!

(*) 'Bash' . . . aka show disappointment in, complain about, criticize.
mumble, mumble . . . 1st Amendment . . . mumble.

The old guard infuriate me in both action and inaction.

For the individual voter the only bargaining chip he has is his vote.

The two party system: AKA lack of proportional representation.
Two Senators per state: Extreme lack of proportional representation.
The Electoral College / winner take all state elections for president. More lack of proportional representation.
Campaign Finance rules that encourage Big Donor Dominance.

In truth we don't have a democracy. We have a rigged Game with rules meant to maintain an Aristocracy.
Yes, it's frustrating.

"The American Dream is dead" was a true statement?

Just a marketing scam.

I hate it. I contributed to Jon Ossiff when he was running for Congress, attended fund raising events, and he actually called me. Now, if I get near contributing, I get harassed with texts for days. It feels like a facebook ad instead of a connection.

Democratic leadership isn't anywhere close to taking full advantage of the gift that trump is inadvertently giving us. Enough.

The threat of being recalled just might be an incentive to do right!

the invasion of Iraq.

Trump is just the most recent iteration.

like Lyndon Johnson to lead the Senate. You didn't tell him no.