Democrats are suffering because most of their supporters deem the party’s response to Trump insufficient, and not commensurate with the threat he poses to the country’s future. After spending the best part of 2024 insisting that “democracy is on the ballot”, and that the US system of government could not survive a second Trump administration, for the most part Democrats have licked their wounds and sat on their hands in the months since the President’s victory.
That is partly deliberate, with many Democrats heeding the advice of veteran party strategist James Carville. In February, he urged the party to engage in what he conceded was “the most daring political manoeuvre” in its history. Writing in the New York Times, he advised Democrats to “roll over and play dead. Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us”.
The dangers of heeding that advice are now plain to see. A growing number of voters tell pollsters that the party is failing in its civic duty to identify a path out of Trump’s America, to corral public protests, and to demonstrably lead the way.
The i Paper: Democrats waited for Trump to crumble. Now they’re starting to fight back
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