Amid historic cuts to health care and other critical services and concerns of civil rights rollbacks, the Democratic Party is facing criticisms from its base that it is not doing enough to meet the moment against President Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s MAGA dominance.
Last week’s elections gave Democrats a jolt of confidence with major victories; however, it remains unclear if Democrats are on the same page about how they lead in the era of Trump.
The leadership approach of moderate Democrats, such as U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, differs from that of more progressive leaders like New York City-elect Zohran Mamdani.
During a recent podcast interview, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., said that, in her view, the overall leadership of the Democratic Party is still missing the mark.
“Leadership has to look different than it ever looked before…I don’t think they have the recipe right now,” Lee told the “Breaking Points” podcast.
The 37-year-old congresswoman, who represents Pittsburgh, argued that “traditional” leadership won’t suffice in today’s political environment and that Democratic leaders must adopt a new approach that matches the energy on the ground.
“Leadership traditionally sees itself as leadership as of the caucus….leadership has meant that we have to raise enough money to help the front liners. We have to raise enough money to flip the seats. We have to gain a majority,” said Lee. “But leadership to the country right now looks like marching orders. It looks like being in the trenches.”
Referring to George Washington leading the Revolutionary War, she added, “We have images of like George Washington on a horse…on the front lines. Like that type of leadership. People are looking for that and they’re not wrong.”
Rather than looking at leadership from the halls of Capitol Hill, the Howard Law graduate said of Democrats in Congress, “We’re not asking you to be leaders of each other…We’re asking you to be leaders of our country, leaders of us.”
Referring to social justice organizations and labor unions actively strategizing on how to combat the policies of the Trump administration, Lee asserted, “People want to see people acknowledging that every movement in history was not led by Congress. It was led from the outside. The real movement came from the organized, empowered electorate. How do we get people back into that?”
Ultimately, it’s the American public that has the true power, not the elected officials, she said.
“Trump don’t get to decide if we have a dictatorship…Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t get to decide if we have a dictatorship. We do. And we just want our leadership to be with us on that,” said Lee.
“We all have to figure out better ways of doing that, and it will be hard, because we have spent too much time telling people that the right way to protest is to just vote, the right way to protest is to go run, and not that the right way to protest has always been you’re organizing. It’s always been when you take to the streets.”
