I have shared in this space previously how I have served under mostly poor leadership models in my time spent mostly in the church, specifically the United Methodist Church. In fact, most of the examples of leaders that I look to have been peers rather than people adorned with titles, even more, they actually have been outside the church setting. One of the things I look to in leaders is a vision for what the world should look like, and a drive to creatively bring that vision into reality. The truth is that there are a lot of amazing leaders in the faith and nonprofit world who are bravely and often anonymously working to make a world where all people are treated with dignity and respect into fruition. 

With my suspicion of people with fancy titles being thought of as leaders, it should come as no surprise that I have not been all that impressed with the Democratic Party these days. It has been deeply frustrating to watch the opposition party – the Democrats – wallow around in empty forms of supposed resistance that have been lame and mediocre at best. We all saw this almost as soon as trump took office and then gave his State of the Union address. As usual, trump was making his usual ridiculousness and illegal claims and in response, Democrats made the “bold” decision to sit quietly and hold up signs of disagreement. The one Democrat, Al Greene, who stood up and verbally responded was quickly ushered out of the chamber – not a single Democrat coming to his defense or joining him. 

Then came March when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voted for a Republican continuing resolution spending bill that included $13 billion in cuts to non-military spending and contained no limits on unelected billionaire Elon Musk or trump as they sought to eviscerate federal agencies and unlawfully withhold spending authorized by Congress. Republicans in the Senate needed Democratic support and Schumer, without anything given back to him, gave them his full support and the spending bill passed. 

Or more recently, when Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani ran an inspiring and captivating campaign capturing the Democratic nomination for New York City Mayor, many New York political leaders, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and once again Schumer, have done all they could to avoid endorsing him. And I honestly cannot figure out what the deal is on this. Are they afraid of being associated with a Democratic Socialist? Do they know that distancing themselves from Mamdani convinces absolutely no one on the right that they aren’t already Democratic Socialists? 

Of course, national Republicans have relentlessly attacked Mamdani, even urging DHS Secretary Noem to deport him, while Schumer and Jeffries have largely left him fending for himself. I keep thinking the easiest thing for NY Democratic electeds to do right now is to stand beside Mamdani and say, “If you want to call him a socialist, then I am a socialist too. If you want to deport Mamdani, then deport me too.” That alone would make attacks on him look like exactly what they are: ridiculous racist rhetoric meant to inspire their racist base. 

But instead, Democrats are once again weak, feckless, ineffective, spiritless, and uninspiring. It’s exhausting. 

But are we surprised? Hardly. Resisting and mocking an outlaw administration isn’t really in the toolkit for career politicians. They write letters, hold briefings and press conferences, and make speeches. That toolkit however, isn’t making even a dent in the illegal armor trump and his corrupt cabinet have shielded themselves behind. 

Yes, there have been moments of leadership. Senator Booker’s 25 hour filibuster on the Senate floor – the longest on record – was truly inspiring. Democratic representatives repeatedly seeking to get inside horrific immigrant concentration camps like “Alligator Alcatraz” and then getting illegally arrested by ICE agents have been encouraging. And the well-coordinated resistance on the part of blue state Attorneys General and Governors against trump’s ludicrous Executive Orders and now the promise of California Governor Gavin Newsom (and other blue state governors) to gerrymander his state if Texas Governor Abbot goes ahead with his unethical plan to gerrymander Texas. This is all very effective and useful. 

Yes, it has been nice to see signs of life, but they are all too rare. I think House and Senate Democrats need to stop hiring so many lawyers and policy wonks and instead, hire some community organizers. We need sit-ins, not more speeches. Elected officials have the least to lose and they refuse to take chances. 

To be honest, the most inspiring and encouraging actions this year have been led by groups of people – large and small – organized around similar passions taking action together. I do not know if anyone has kept track of all of the public protests that have happened this year opposing trump, but it has to run in the tens of thousands. Literally millions of people – some for the first time in their lives – have taken to the streets to protest the massive cuts to Medicaid, to protest the state-sponsored terror of ICE, to protest the illegal firings and decimation of the federal work force, to protest the wide-open corruption by trump and his mafia family, and to protest so much more!

But just as important, if not more so, so many protests and public witness events have been focused on what we are for: a world where people have a right to an affordable home, health insurance, food, voting representation, and for their basic civil and human rights to be respected. Yes, there are signs of life here and there are some Democratic officials effectively resisting the harm being instituted by this administration. But there aren’t enough. The Democratic Party would do well to catch up to the passion and authentic leadership that is being seen every weekend and almost every day in the streets. Those are the leaders I am following.