Opinion: Are Democrats disappointing you? | Forum
On a bonus episode (first released on April 21, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: We asked: Why did Democrats lose in November? Does the Democratic Party need to transition ideologically? Forum is a series from Paste BN's Opinion team, dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Michael McCarter:
Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President and Group Editor of the Opinion Sections of Gannett, the parent company of Paste BN. This is a bonus episode of The Excerpt, highlighting a series from Paste BN's opinion team that's known as Forum.
Today, we're hearing from a few folks about their feelings on the state of the Democratic Party. After an overwhelming loss in November and as President Trump pursues his aggressive agenda, where do Democrats go from here? How can their leaders meet the moment and learn from their mistakes? Here's what readers told us.
Nate Segal:
I think that Democrats lost in November because there was a lot of just messaging that was not consistent, and it just seemed like the issues they were talking about were high and mighty, and what they were telling the voters was going to happen. While true, it just didn't resonate.
Michael McCarter:
Nate Segal is a 20-year-old from Kissimmee, Florida. He thinks that the party needs to focus on restoring the power of Congress and to address issues that people in the middle class care about.
Nate Segal:
I don't think there's anything that Democrats could really say right now because Donald Trump and all of his cronies like Elon Musk are just frying themselves because not only are they debating each other, they are just making horrible policy decisions. So I don't think there's anything Democrats could say or should say, but I do think that Democrats need to start to, like I said, coalesce around a unified front because we don't want to have another situation like Joe Biden dropping out late, and we don't want to have another situation where we have multiple candidates running very close to the end of the election.
Nobody likes a king. I mean, come on. That goes back to the Revolutionary War. You've got to respond with increasing the power of Congress, increasing the power of the people. I feel that if somebody from the Biden White House or Biden administration ran in 2028, it might just be a clear direct connection to that, and the Republicans would hone in on that and focus in on that way too much.
So I think for 2028, we need to keep it simple. We need an experienced politician who's been in government for a while, but has not really been connected too much to the Biden administration. I think we also need to work with the anti-Trump movement that is growing. We need somebody to respond heavily to what has happened with the 2024 election.
Michael McCarter:
Next, we have Rhonda Graham who lives in Pinetop, Arizona. She's disappointed in the direction of the Democrats and wants to see a new leader rise to the challenge. She's 63.
Rhonda Graham:
Well, there's going to have to be a hell of a lot more activism. They are going to have to be the leaders of the people. I mean, the people obviously need leaders in order to know what direction to go. We've been given way too many things to rebel against, so we need our leaders to come forward and provide a path of resistance that we can all get on board with and follow. We can't be everywhere, do everything all the time. I do believe that we've got to attack on many fronts what's happening to us, but it has to be done in a much more organized and streamlined way.
I think that we need younger people to represent us because the policies, like I said, have just gotten so extreme when it involves LGBTQ and what have you. They've pushed things so far. I, for one, am a hardcore Democrat, but I don't believe in the males transitioning to females and being in women's sports. And it has given the other side a lot of ammunition to work with, but we do focus too highly on those issues. We passed laws for those kinds of things that we didn't need to do. We have done a lot for disenfranchised segments of the population.
I lean towards the Maxwell Frost types, the Cory Booker types, AOC. Those aren't the ones necessarily that I would like to see there, but they're more forward-thinking, they're more youthful, and we have got to get off of this dinosaur path that we are on.
Now, my hat's off to Bernie Sanders because I don't know that anybody else would've supercharged the party and what they're doing and what is happening with them right now, but I think they've got to be the voices behind whoever our new leader in our party's going to be. I just don't clearly have a vision for who that is yet. I'm not sure that we know who it is yet.
Michael McCarter:
Ellis Bailey is 26 and lives in Tampa, Florida. He thinks that the party should embrace more progressive policies and take a stronger stand against Republican obstructionism.
Ellis Bailey:
It's really weird because in this country, things like universal healthcare or an arms embargo for Israel are wholly popular, especially in the Democratic Party, but we don't see any of these candidates who are pushing any of this.
When I think about Kamala Harris's campaign, the only things I can really think about, and I was following it pretty closely. I did vote for her. The only things I can think about were her policy to help out first-time homeowners and small businesses, and a majority of Americans, I feel like are not in either of those positions right now.
Frankly, I am very frustrated with the lack of actual action from the Democrats right now. They seem to be falling back to their performative actions that they've been doing for a long time now. What I would like to see Democrats do more of is actually stand up and be obstructionists.
We saw Republicans be extremely obstructionist over the past decade or so or even more, and they were extremely successful with doing that. And right now, Democrats are simply falling in line, and in some cases, they're even helping out Republicans with their votes.
I think Marco Rubio, who's currently committing war crimes in Yemen, was unanimously voted on by Democrats and Republicans. So I frankly don't see that happening if they were the other way around.
The Democrats definitely need to shift their ideology. Americans are hurting, and they were looking for someone who's willing to shake things up and fundamentally change them. Kamala ran on a campaign of keeping things the same, and a lot of Americans just don't want that right now. We've had that for so long. I think they're really looking for an FDR type or Bernie Sanders who's willing to actually fight for the working class and actually improve things in this country.
Who I think should be the face of the Democratic Party in 2028 is a hard question. I do see some people talking about Tim Walz, and I like that idea. I see people talking about Bernie being too old, and I somewhat agree with that unfortunately. Right now, I'm seeing a lot of inaction, but if I had to pick someone at the moment, it would probably be Tim Walz.
Michael McCarter:
Danny Martinez, who is 56 and hails from Clovis, California, told us that the Democrats lack unity and a clear plan.
Danny Martinez:
If they do have a plan, they're not doing a really good job of explaining what their plan is. I think the biggest mistake they're making is that they think that the American public is going to somehow be dissatisfied with what's going on with the current administration and then just vote and make those changes. But yeah, that's not going to happen, not without a legitimate plan and explaining to people what they're voting for.
The Democratic Party does, I think, need to have a new focus, whether it's ideology. I think they're caught up in a pre-internet ideology. The Republican Party, in particular President Trump, he doesn't sugarcoat things. The internet has allowed you not to do that. You don't have to worry about hurting people's feelings so much anymore. Maybe use some of their tactics. I hate to say that, but they obviously have been pretty successful.
I think whoever can kind of put together a plan that better reaches across the aisle. What I think most Americans are tired of is it's my way or the highway. I really think society is looking for someone who can stand up in an aggressive manner and just say, "Hey, we need to work together and actually have a plan to do that."
I personally think a great person, although I don't know that you'd ever be able to convince him to do it, would be Mark Cuban. I feel confident that if when he does stand up and defend himself, he's not guessing, he knows the issues, he's very intelligent, he's run multiple businesses, he made himself a billionaire, so he knows the ins and outs. He's very IT-savvy. If the Democratic Party was going to knock on somebody's door, it should be him.
Michael McCarter:
That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at Paste BN, where we invite our readers to weigh in in writing on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com.
Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow with another episode of The Excerpt.