Democrats Still Don’t Have a Plan—And America Is Paying the Price

Years of worker-friendly *sentiment* backed by billionaire money helped them win, but it didn’t make workers’ lives better.

Let me tell ya why you should read all the Substack posts, not just the popular ones:

Two days ago, I clicked on someone’s very first article, thinking I was simply gonna do my part to welcome a newcomer to Substack… but instead, I got hit in the face with a dose of truth that’s been stuck in my brain ever since:

“Progressives don’t want to become the authoritarian force they seek to dismantle. They are, at their core, committed to democracy, fairness, and justice. But in a game where the opposition plays dirty and faces no consequences, the question becomes: can you afford to hold yourself to a standard that your enemy ignores?”

DAMMNNNNNN. Touché, right? But here’s the chief assertion:

“Ultimately, the question isn’t just what the left stands for - it’s whether it’s willing to do what’s necessary to make those ideals the law of the land. Because if progressives don’t take power seriously, the right will keep taking it from them.”

Reading these words were infuriating. I wanted to rage, talk shit, tell him all the reasons his position sucks… but I couldn’t do that, because he’s right.

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For 5 weeks now, the American people have born witness to an assault on our Federal government like we’ve never seen before: thousands of employees let go without reason, whole agencies shuttered, an unelected billionaire with murky permission to poke around our most sensitive information, the replacement of DEI with MAGA DEI, the installation of far-right loyalists in what used to be nonpartisan expert positions…. and the Democratic party has been silent.

Yeah, yeah, I know, they’re not in power, there’s only so much we can do… NO. Sorry.

Donald John Trump announced his 2024 candidacy in November 2022. Biden’s approval rating was plenty low enough to warrant concern. It was widely acknowledged there was a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment worldwide, and an inflation crisis in this country particularly.

THEY. SHOULD. HAVE. PLANNED. FOR. THIS.

It is unforgivable that they didn’t.

Now here we are: the American people, by and large, are being confronted with autocracy. It’s obvious, brazen, worse than we thought it was going to be, and it’s happening incredibly quickly. The best Democrats have been able to do so far is land some zingers on the evening news… figures like AOC and Jasmine Crocket have accepted the reality of what’s coming, but their leader Hakeem Jeffries is still parroting the concept of choosing one’s battles. The new DNC chair, Ken Martin, wishes to return to the party of workers; at the very least, the leadership is on the right track, though they’re still missing the chief point:

The party of working people includes no billionaires.

Democrats continue to look ridiculous because their outrage is empty, hypocritical, and nearly impossible to believe; oh, so you’re the party of working people now!?!? You’re the defense against the oligarchs, huh?

…Can’t help but notice you didn’t commit to stop taking their money.

Trump won the 2024 election because Americans know our system sucks, and we’re ready to let it burn and start anew. It’s not just MAGA, it’s the vast majority of the country. Democrats lost because they didn’t have a plan, and Democrats are losing precious ground now because they STILL don’t have a plan.

We need a Democratic alternative to Project 2025. Nobody wants to go back to what we had before, but we aren’t loving where Trump is taking us either; if the Democratic party was a person, I’d be shaking them by their shoulders violently right now:

What is your plan for the world?

Whatcha wanna do? What’s your vision? What would you rebuild and get rid of? After fighting Trump has failed you 2/3 times, is your main plan just to keep talking shit?

PropagandaPanda’s article scared me; it scared me because in my heart of hearts, I don’t believe The Democratic Party is willing to do what needs to be done to wrest control back from the brink. Years of worker-friendly sentiment backed by billionaire money helped them win, but it didn’t make workers’ lives better, and it’s monumentally infuriating to see that, apparently, their plan is to keep doing it anyway.

Will they learn the lessons of their past mistakes? Only time will tell… but their current actions don’t give much cause for hope.

The party of the working people includes no billionaires.