Cable news veteran Chris Matthews returned to MSNBC on Wednesday and blasted Democrats for being smug elitists who have lost their appeal to working-class Americans and non-college-educated young voters. Instead, those Americans gravitated towards President Donald Trump, Matthews said during his appearance on Katy Tur Reports. The people that didn't go to college are voting for Trump. Why? Because the snobbery and attitude of Democratic politicians, Matthews said.
It seems like Arthur Miller's The Crucible always finds its way back into my life somehow. From first reading the play in high school to performing in it a decade ago to rolling my eyes at Aaron Sorkin's sexist misinterpretation of it, the quintessential "political play" finds new and interesting ways to once again grab my attention, faults and all. I thought of it again after the past week's exciting political developments.
The convention was held, somewhat awkwardly, at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., and was intended to be the first annual send-up of the Democrats' big-tent coalition. Gone are the days of choosing between a former intelligence officer and a democratic socialist; the party is now asking: Why not both? And at every panel, speakers repeated the week's key takeaway like a mantra: "Democrats don't have to agree on everything."
Mamdani and Lurie have a tremendous amount in common. Both are scions of privilege who bring little political experience to their jobs. The 34-year-old Mamdani, the progeny of a noted academic and an accomplished filmmaker, has been a state lawmaker for all of four years. Lurie, 48, grew up wealthy after his mother married Peter Haas, an heir to the Levi Strauss blue jeans dynasty. Before becoming mayor in January, Lurie had founded an anti-poverty nonprofit but had never held elected office.
Because at the end of the day, what people want they want fighters. The divide right now in our party is not ideological, nor is it age. The divide, right now, is between those who are fighting, and those who're sitting on the sidelines. I reject this idea there's plenty of older elected officials and older candidates, frankly, who are fighting.
The big picture: Even as Democrats celebrated late Tuesday, it was clear the results didn't settle the Democratic Party's civil war over the best way to move forward after its crushing losses in 2024. Progressive and moderate Democrats both emerged with genuine measures of victory Tuesday - and they're already wielding it as evidence that it's their side that should lead the party out of the wilderness in 2026 and 2028. Progressives in New York City and California fired up their base to elect Mamdani, and to redraw California's congressional map to help Democrats' push to flip five U.S. House seats next year.
Every pressing question about the Democrats hinges on who their next generation of leaders will be. It has taken an excruciatingly long time for them to emerge. But on Tuesday, three new candidates are getting their auditions. Abigail Spanberger is running for governor in Virginia; Mikie Sherrill is the nominee for governor in New Jersey; and Zohran Mamdani has led in polling in the race for mayor in New York City.
"It was the most painful thing I've been through since my own parents aging," she said of her up-close experiences with the former president. "Nobody wants to face incapacity." It forced Kuster to look hard at her party. Months before the fateful presidential debate that exposed Biden's frailty, Kuster, at a mere 68 years old, announced her retirement, having served in Congress for 12 years after turning a red seat reliably blue.
Democrats enabled Donald Trump to become president twice because of repetition compulsions that still propel the party's leaders undermining the party's potential to end the real-life nightmare of Maga control over the federal government. Scrutinizing how this century's Democratic leaders set the stage for Trump's electoral triumphs is crucial not only for clarity about the past. It also makes possible a vital focus on how such failures can be avoided in the future.
The election playing out on both sides of the Hudson River is something of an experiment about the Democratic Party during the second Trump era. Is the future Mamdani, a movement politician fluent in social media who commands the attention of both his faithful and his detractors? Or is it Sherrill, who has the sort of résumé and mainstream credentials that Establishment Democrats have long thought is the key to winning over voters skeptical of their party?
This week, live from Chicago to celebrate 20 years of the Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Trump vs. Chicago showdown and the dynamics between progressive and centrist Democrats with former Chicago Mayor and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, what threat President Trump poses to the future of American elections and how to push back, and memorable moments from Gabfest history.
"The world is changing, the Democratic Party is changing, and it's time," Wiener said in an interview with The Times. "I know San Francisco, I have worked tirelessly to represent this community - delivering housing, health care, clean energy, LGBTQ and immigrant rights - and I have a fortitude and backbone to be able to deliver for San Francisco in Congress."
After years of pretending that no other qualities mattered in a politician besides one's race, sex, and sexuality, Democrats have discovered that competence and charisma, two traits without which candidates will fail, are far more important than whether you are black, gay, or non-binary. For the past few months, three of the Democratic Party's most beloved DEI stars have been taking arrows left and right from the very same party establishment that elevated their careers in the first place.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Friday endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in the New York City mayoral race, just weeks ahead of Election Day. "He's running to make NYC more affordable for everyone and has captured the nation's attention with his incredible campaign," Martin, who was elected by fellow Democrats to his position earlier this year, wrote in a post on X. "Go vote for Zohran this November!"
On a recent panel of progressive activists analyzing what went wrong in the 2024 election, the author, activist, and failed political candidate Qasim Rashid spoke with confidence about the way forward for the Democratic Party. The problem, he insisted, was not that Democrats had strayed too far from public opinion but that the party had grown too solicitous of it. "Saying the right thing timidly," he proclaimed, "is less effective than saying the wrong thing loudly."
As a and lifelong political junkie, and for the last six years as a journalist, I've seen my party stumble before. I've watched us weather humiliating losses, recover, and reinvent ourselves. But rarely have I felt as demoralized as I do now. These past eight months under Trump's second (failed) attempt to be president, with his reckless presidency, a far-right and compliant , and a rubber-stamping Supreme Court all against us, have been among the darkest periods in modern Democratic history.
The Democratic Party establishment isn't having a great year. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani pummeled Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayoral primary and is cruising to another landslide victory in November. If a Senate primary were held today, Chuck Schumer would lose to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by double digits. And the party's traditional pro-Israel consensus has become deeply unpopular, with three-quarters of Democrats supporting an arms embargo and agreeing that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Author Joan Williams argues that elitism has weakened the party and pushed people towards populism. As the popularity of the United States Democratic Party reaches historic lows, author Joan Williams argues that the party's elitism is still pushing people away. Williams is the founder of the Equality Action Center at the College of Law at the University of California at San Francisco and author of Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back.
DNC resolutions, on their own, mean little as Israel continues to bombard and starve out Gaza, where the death toll exceeds 60,000. Donald Trump controls the government, not the Democrats, and he has enabled, like his predecessor Joe Biden, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at every turn, pumping the nation with armaments and sanctioning all military action. But the feebleness of the Democratic Party is notable; its leaders truly have no sense of the current moment.
