How Despicable Are Democratic Leaders?
NOV 07, 2026
This week’s elections were obviously a cry for change by the American people. Angry at Trump for failing to keep his promises to put America first, voters dealt MAGA and the Republicans a severe rebuke. The only real choice Americans had to express that rebuke was to vote blue, and they did.
And then I saw this tweet this AM:
Yes, Democrats are choosing leaders with LOWER favorability than Trump:
🔴 DONALD TRUMP = 38.5
🔵 HAKEEM JEFFRIES = 28.0
🔵 CHUCK SCHUMER = 24.7
*****
It’s not yet a done deal that Jeffries will be Speaker and Schumer will be Senate Majority Leader, but either or both will serve to block meaningful changes to help workers in America. (One bad sign: Trump says he’s looking forward to working with Schumer again.)
An old friend and Democrat described Jeffries as an “odious hack,” to which I sent this reply:
Yes, just so. If the Democrats choose two “odious hacks” as their leaders in the House and Senate, I fear nothing much will change—and we truly need real change. I’ve heard both men talk, and they are specialists in empty blather and sweet-sounding BS. It’s time for REAL leaders. No more bought-and-paid-for hacks!
What I fear is what Chris Hedges and Ralph Nader fear: a Democratic establishment that thinks business as usual is the answer. The dishonest approach of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker after the 2006 midterms and the demoralizing approach of Barack Obama after he was elected president in 2008. Incremental changes around the margins while serving and empowering Wall Street, Israel, the military-industrial complex, Big Pharma, the banks, all the usual suspects.
The comedian Jimmy Dore has a great joke about this. Imagine a boisterous political rally where Democrats have gathered, then imagine the following loud call-and-response:
What do we want? Incremental change!
When do we want it? Eh, whenever, no hurry. At your convenience.
Americans voted for real change, and men like Jeffries and Schumer must either lead that change, follow the lead of the American people, or get out of the way. I’d much prefer that last choice: get out of the way.
In my subtitle above, I asked how despicable Democratic leaders will prove to be in this historic moment of need. I thought about “dumb” or “detached,” but these leaders are neither dumb nor detached. They are compromised. They are corrupted. And to expect them to change, to expect them to embrace workers and a more populist platform of concerted activism, is, well, unwise to say the least.
My Democratic friend is more optimistic than I am and is willing to give the leadership a few months to show their true colors. He wrote to me that:
If they haven’t passed three major economically populist bills by April (say, major minimum wage increase, major wealth tax, closing corporate tax loopholes, expanding Medicaid and holding hearings/vote on Medicare for all, limiting/banning stock buybacks, reining in worst practices of private equity (PE) and raising taxes on PE profits, etc), then I’ll accept that this system is unredeemable.
My worry is that it’ll be too late by April to do anything if the Schumer/Jeffries wing once again prevents meaningful change. We must force the Democrats to push for real change now, to hit the ground running now, for them to have any chance of preventing our country from slipping further into despair and desperation and toward fascism.
Keep the pressure on, everyone.
