voters have a message ...

Voters Have a Message for Democrats - The Atlantic

there are some interesting bits in here:

Julie, a Democrat from Arizona, said this about her party’s leaders in an April 2025 focus group: “They didn’t make people connect to them emotionally enough. And we need that emotional connection. If you look at the MAGA party, they have, albeit a bit psychotically, a very emotional connection. And we need that.” She’s recognizing that Trump built something that Democrats haven’t - a bond that goes beyond policy positions.

the last thing i need is an emotional connection to amy klobuchar or DFL leadership. what i’d welcome is some techocratic leadership with some well placed empathy. some fuckin’ competence and a lot less fecklessness. try good shit. folks seem to forgive failures if you’re actively trying stuff.

Notice that this kind of appeal isn’t limited to either the party’s left wing or its center. It’s more about coming across as an authentic messenger who cares about the issues that ordinary people also care about - not the interminable moderate-versus-progressive policy discourse that animates professional political obsessives.

not being asked to cop to some culpability here is the press. the press has done a ton to stoke this intra-party fueding and debate. that said, i’m with the folks that have a spine and some vision. we don’t have to get into the weeds on the implementation, but some fire would be nice.