But we need all of them to be.

The next election is not about the “leader” of the party. It’s about many candidates coming out with passion to get elected in many different places.

has been saying some pretty wonderful things lately. He's one to look at.

Pete B. and AOC have bene making rounds.

Up and comers: Wes Moore and Abby Spanberger.

Josh Shapiro, Jared Polis, Ruben Gallego are all messengers

They need to bring all the stengths and play to the strength of each.

Rachel recently pointed to "heroes" everywhere, doing small things, But doing things.

There seems to be quite a lot of grass roots activity throughout the country. All of that activity can congeal when the time comes.

And, of course we are seeing more and more people speaking out. I love what Bernie is doing. I donate to AOC from Colorado.

Also, the right wing machine will attack early and often as soon as they can identify a potential national leader.

He won't be re-elected as Minority Leader. He may even be primaried.

civil rights groups came together for planning purposes. It was generally agreed that MLK was the leader. Civil rights groups exhibited an amazing degree of discipline, planning, training, and solidarity. Why can't Democratic groups do this today?

Bernie Sanders (of course), AOC, Pete Buttigieg, Tim Walz, Jasmine Crockett, Eric Swalwell, and Jon Ossoff.

Maxine Waters just came up with a new name for the acronym DOGE: "Department of Greed and Evil." I love her too!

Has made like one appearance in months, other than that silence. Meanwhile Waltz is all over the place raising awareness and fighting.

I’m sure she’s gonna run for California governor in 2026, she wouldn’t win the 2028 primary regardless so that’s her best option politically. Fighting against the current disaster certainly wouldn’t hurt her prospects for California Governor, but who knows.

She is "counting on Democrats who understand how important this moment is to contribute to the DNC..."

So it makes sense he's responding. But her absence is telling. Sadly.

She has much more time than he does to be out there responding, he’s working two fulfilling two full time roles to her zero.

but she's not feeling "the incentive." Which is a problem, and we've got to move on from her.

she should lay low for now. If she was out there giving speeches, protesting what trump and his goons are doing, he would just attack her, and I would not put it past trump to have her arrested.

🇨🇦 Future President of North America 🇺🇲

And called your lack of a dedicated Leader of the Opposition an 'infirmity in the American system.;

Post and article here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220132599

When not holding the White House, the closest we've had to that - and it's nowhere close to it - is the Speaker of the House/House Minority Leader, Senate Majority/Minority Leader, and a few nationally famous, powerful Senators.

I'm well aware of your system (btw what on earth is an alternative prime minister?). Can you not see how the lack of a single, strong voice speaking on behalf of and with the full support of Democrats would be hindering you in the battle for American Democracy?

of the news.

There are many Democrats saying and doing things. Follow those you want or do your own thing.

There won't be a leader until we get a presidential nominee and we have important elections before we can get to that.

some things never change

with one person leading.

People just have to do what they can.

Like what has happened with the Tesla boycott.

We need coordinated effort against them.

I will never understand this shrugging of the shoulders about our elected leaders not leading us in a coordinated opposition at a time when we are about to lose everything and become some bizarre aggressor state when no one wants any of that.

Howard Dean was elected DNC chairman after the 2004 election. He took that job more seriously (and did a far better job) than any party chair since then. Under his tireless leadership, we took back the Senate, the House, and then the White House.

Howard will be 77 in November, and he is not interested in doing it again (it was exhausting work), but he is quite willing to lend his expertise and his advice if someone is willing to listen. I hope Jon Ossoff keeps his Senate seat next year, but if he doesn’t, he might be ideal for party leader. He is young, eloquent, energetic, and probably has the highest IQ of any senator.

Several years ago, a friend of mine was running for a statewide position in a red state. I told him he should talk to Howard. He said he’d love to, but had no idea how to contact Howard Dean. I said “here’s how,” pulled out my phone, dialed Howard and handed him the phone. I don’t know what was said, but they talked for half an hour, and my friend won his race, the only Democrat to win a state-wide race in his state that year.

A DNC chairman has to understand that in a time when we do not hold the White House, the chairmanship of the DNC is not a ceremonial post. It’s WAY more than doing 3 minute segments on CNN or MSNBC. It is not a prestige or glamor job. It is constant work, travel, meetings late into the night, and little sleep. Howard was the last one in that position who had both the smarts AND the willingness to give it the amount of time and effort required to get results. If we can find someone else like him, we can do it again, too, and this time, we have the advantage of Howard’s been-there-done-that expertise to guide the next person willing to put in the time and effort.

Thinking back to previous Republican administrations, I can only come up with emerging leaders and groundswells of support for certain positions. Perhaps being the "loyal opposition" party doesn't or can't come with a leader.

is needed to break through so people understand what is happening to our nation.

If change comes locally, from the bottom up, what's all the obsession with one national leader who is supposed to tell everyone what to do and followed? Wrong party. There are many voices, many representatives of diverse places in a very large country opposing Trump. And when there IS a leader, a Democratic president, it's all criticism and whining anyway.

it's only angrily yelling the same old laundry list of U.S. problems without solutions, as if it's a moral problem you can fix with a pure fighting spirit, same old lies about Democrats ignoring the working class. That's what bugs me, not that Democrats haven't fixed everything in two months.

The obsession with leadership is just the latest way to bash Democrats passive-aggressively, in my opinion.

Trump is doing. He's at 47.8% (RCP) and Democrats have had the lowest polling ever. We need a strong voice.

I did in the 1970s at Vietnam War protests. 🪧 Over and over. We must not stop taking to the streets.

by reciting the list but offering no realistic plans or ideas of how to fix them (like Trump), just that both sides are corrupt and controlled by oligarchs and the answer is simply to elect the morally pure who everyone will listen to and everything magically solved.

Makes it seem so easy that people get angry and blame Democrats for "doing nothing" "not stopping/allowing all the bad things" and it cynically depresses protesting against the actual enemy who actually caused the problems in the first place.

Nothing seems to be good enough for us. Ever. It's either too much of this or not enough of that. I've been a Democrat for over 50 years now and have voted exclusively for Democrats, but...
"I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat". Will Rogers

have one chance to save America. Let's not blow it.

He is taking it to the road and connecting with people.

Last edited Sat Mar 29, 2025, 09:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Bernie is saying what we believe and too many others aren't.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220186932

More high profile people speaking out, the quicker and bigger the momentum we build.

That's why a big battery pack beats a "D" cell.



My cub scout pack had more leaders.

pretty hard on the financial committee. He is also the one who refused to go to State of the union speech and had town hall with thousands instead.

For the party out of power right after a presidential election. Particularly when they aren't in control of the House or Senate.

Trump was an outlier because he is their party now.

But Republicans didn't really have one in 09. Dems didn't really have one in 05 or 01. Pelosi probably was in 17.

We won't likely truly get one until after the nomination fight in 28 unless we win the House in 26, which we almost assuredly will, and then the Speaker would nominally be it.

That was Howard Dean, whose 50 State strategy brought us back the House, the Senate and the presidency four years after having none of them.

It was exhausting work, and at almost age 77, he’s not interested in doing it again, but he is available to coach anyone willing to put in the time and effort.

But he wasn't leading it.

He took over the reins of a rudderless, demoralized Democratic Party and led a practically nonstop campaign to turn our fortunes around. He was everywhere, doing backroom meetings as well as the rallies and talk shows. Howard was both the face of the party as well as its voice. He didn’t stop until his mission really did get accomplished. Without his efforts, there never would have been an Obama candidacy. His hands-off refereeing ensured that the Clinton-Obama rivalry for the nomination didn’t derail the party’s trajectory to the White House. It might not have worked with the “lookit me!” Sanders campaign of 2016, but it was the perfect tactic in 2008.

But he wasn't the leader of the party directing policies or the one face of the party.

Most of his work was behind the scenes.

the nation what is happening to our nation, because most people haven't got a clue.

how does that help the Democratic party? (I'm asking rhetorically.)

Did that person win or was it another candidate?

For example,
See this interview in the Atlantic:
We Are Sleepwalking Into Autocracy - Chris Murphy in New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/senator-chris-murphy-this-is-how-democracy-dies-everybody-just-gets-scared

The rush to embrace a single leader leads to cults like the current GOP. We may fall in love but we will not fall in line.

have a (D) next to their name. How do they get to be "leaders"? Can anyone be one?

Plenty to people trying to jockey for position, but there clearly isn't anyone who has taken hold of it so far.

We have the power! You have the power!

I don't need someone else to tell me this is an authoritarian shitshow that demands my resistance, effort and hard work.

The Democratic Party can't do a God Damned thing, unless and until we give them the requisite power to do a God Damned thing.

It's why I have never, and don't give a fuck about the fucking government shutdown vote.

If enough of "us" get together in a sustained effort to shut this shit down...IT WILL FUCKING SHUT DOWN!

I, for one, am fucking tired of being told I need someone, or something else to fucking lead and fight for me.

At one time, a majority supported slavery, segregation, women being unable to vote...a lot of despicable stuff.

It wasn't "messaging", or Facebook, or podcasts that changed that. It was sustained action by the American people.

My God! People seem to think that what we "really" need to do, is find some attractive (in a 3AM at White Castle kind of attractive way) social media influencers, have them hike up their skirts, or put on a wife-beater T-shirt, and talk about their handjob/blowout preferences on Tic-Toc, and the message of compassion, empathy, justice, fairness and democracy will win out.

If that is where we are. If that is what wrong. If it's "messaging". Then somebody needs to explain to me what's worth fighting for?

This has been a problem for a long time, but now it's even worse with a lot of former republicans under the tent now as well.

That said, leading the opposition shouldn't be rocket science and doesn't necessarily have to involve specific policies other than an opposition to trump's disastrous policies.

So there's two aspects: strategy and execution. Unfortunately, due to the disposition of many of us on the left, the message has to be articulated by a somewhat new messenger (who doesn't have a lot of existing baggage).

Pete Buttigieg is one of the most articulate and thoughtful minds we have in our party today, so he definitely needs to be involved in the strategy part. As far as the communicator, Gavin Newsom would have been good but he's starting to accumulate a ton of baggage.

I suggest Jon Ossoff. He's an excellent communicator who can get straight to the point, and he has an election coming up.