Since Donald Trump was reelected president, the United States has been on, what has felt like, an unending downward spiral fueled by unbridled greed and a cynical lust for power. President Trump’s administration has pushed the boundaries of the power of the state as the federal government is ignoring court orders, sending the national guard to intimidate protesters and flagrantly rounding up and deporting thousands of hardworking people without the right of due process.
With all this happening, the current leaders of the Democratic party aren’t fighting hard enough to counter the Trump administration’s actions at a time when the American people’s democratic liberties are under threat of being taken away. One could reasonably ask, “Where is the opposition? Where are the Democrats?” The conclusion one could come to is that the Democrats are willingly sabotaging their own party.
The current leaders of the party, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have done nothing but make pathetic gestures against the current administration’s recklessness.
In July, when Trump was pushing his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) through congress, Schumer only had the name of the bill changed, while Jeffries posed for an Instagram post of him with a baseball bat captioned “Protecting your healthcare is as American as baseball, motherhood, and apple pie.” Neither of them did anything of major effort to block the bill, like Republicans did during the Obama administration with their endless filibusters.
The month prior to the OBBBA being passed by congress, New York City held its Democratic primary election for mayor. In a major upset victory, Zohran Mamdani, a New York State assembly member, beat former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the election.
Zohran’s successful grassroots campaign has become a model on how to successfully run as a progressive for political office. As a political outsider, Zohran ran the exact opposite type of campaign compared to Cuomo. He made frequent use of social media, made identity politics a central part of his campaign, was vocally pro-Palestinian, and advocated for affordable housing and city owned grocery stores.
Zohran is the type of Democrat, or rather progressive leader, that America needs more of. The optimism that he brought to New York City politics was able to mass mobilize young voters to go out and vote. Young voters are the demographic that are often characterized as being apathetic or no shows when it comes to voting, but all you need to get people to vote is to have a positive authentic message and something feasible to believe in.
Many prominent Democrats have refused to endorse Zohran after his victory, notably Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both of whom represent New York City. Another progressive, Omar Fateh, was endorsed by the Democratic party as candidate for mayor of Minneapolis. However, a few days ago on August 21st the party revoked their endorsement and instead decided to endorse Jacob Frey, the current mayor of Minneapolis.
Here lies the biggest problem with the Democratic Party and why the party seems to be sabotaging itself so much. The mainstream Democratic party is funded by large corporations, conglomerates and super PACs which it puts in favor of its actual voter base. A good example of this would be Israel. According to a poll done by Quinnipiac University in June this year, 60% of registered Democratic respondents had more sympathy for Palestinians, while only 12% of Democratic respondents said they sympathized more with Israel in the conflict. Whereas most Democratic voters support the Palestinian effort, the majority of Democratic lawmakers in the high echelons of the party overwhelmingly support Israel’s side.
The reason for this is simple. It’s money. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbies millions of dollars to Democratic lawmakers across the country to ensure that they support Israel through legislation. According to the campaign finance data website OpenSecrets, Chuck Schumer has received $1,727,974 in lobbying money from AIPAC and Hakeem Jeffries has received $866,550 from AIPAC in campaign donation contributions since taking office.
To fix the Democratic party is to eliminate money from politics. Politics is life, it’s how we organize society, and if money is the motivator for politicians, then only a select few people will benefit while the rest suffer.
The American people are starved for a meaningful opposition that caters to their class and material interests. Zohran and like minded progressives have sparked a movement that could change the party as a whole. Voters want politicians that will stand up for them and their needs. If the party elite stubbornly refuses to accept the reality of what its voter base wants then this could spell a bad future for the Democrats.
