We lost a Presidential election, and in the aftermath of all of that, which included some very strong-armed attempts at pushing narratives to explain why which were not accurate and which missed a lot of what went wrong, no strong leadership has emerged. At a time when it is needed the most, the party appears fractured because a clear leader who has the ability to attract support from all constituencies has not yet emerged.

What appears to have happened, by my own observation, is that all but a few of the Democrats who survived the 2024 election went into turf protection mode. Not much criticism has been levelled at those who plunged the party into mass confusion right after Biden's first debate performance crashed and burned over the manner in which getting him to step away from the nomination was handled. There was absolutely no excuse for that, and regardless of what political analysts who have a vested interest in focusing attention elsewhere have to say, it was, in my opinion, those weeks of confusion and the headless manner in which Democrats handled it, that cost Kamala Harris by the tiny percentages of votes by which she lost the swing states.

That is, by the way, the point at which the approval ratings began to wane. In spite of the messaging that the party was attempting to use to contrast themselves with the GOP, it was the big money contributors who grabbed the limelight, and control of the narrative, and got their way. At least, they got their way for the moment, long enough to convince those who thought the party was different in this regard from the GOP, to stay at home on election day.

Sanders, meanwhile, is taking his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, which is getting bigger crowds than Presidential rallies did for either party in 2024, back on the road, to Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. One stop will occur in Shreveport, Louisiana, in Speaker Mike Johnson's home district. Any kind of showing there at all will be an embarassment to Johnson, and it's getting the point across to all those local news outlets who will be there to cover the event. It also helps support local candidates running for office.

I can't wait to watch coverage of his Shreveport rally.

When we have members of Congress who are committed to serving the interests of the people who elected them, then we have a functioning Republic, and we don't have that now. But I'm more than willing to bet that the members of Congress with the best shot at winning elections will be the ones who are interested in their constituents, and their perspectives, and how they need to be served by the government that belongs to them, find out what those interests are, and become their champion, rather than the ones who are just interested in how to raise enough money to get another term with paycheck and perks.

And when we start seeing Democrats getting out there among the people, listening, and then taking real action to demonstrate that they are sincere, not phonies and frauds, or shills for a more powerful politician, those approval ratings will soar, and they will set the conventional political wisdom of who votes red and who votes blue on its ear.