Democrats are in a funk. Poll after poll finds opinions of the party in the basement. Even Democrats don’t like themselves all that much. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to support the Republican-backed government funding bill continues to dog him, with many Democrats openly questioning whether he should stay on as leader.
It’s also raised the question of whether Democrats are going to have their own version of a “Tea Party” moment, where frustrated partisans upend party leadership and reorient the party’s messaging and strategy to take a more confrontational approach to governing and campaigning.
In 2024, Democrats made an impassioned case for how and why Donald Trump was an existential threat to democracy. Their voters, who see daily confirmation of the horrors that Harris and Biden warned them about, want to see their leaders do more to stop him. Process arguments by Schumer just don’t cut it.
But first, it’s important to set a baseline of understanding of where the Democratic Party sits today.
A recent CNN poll found favorability of the Democratic Party by self-described
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