Leah Midgarden

If you are feeling weary; I am, too.

Lean on me. We’ll carry each other.

Another human killed by the regime today.

They want us to surrender to fear and anger. They want your compliance.

I’ll stand with you against this tyranny.

Proud to stand with @ronharrismn.bsky.social @benhackett.bsky.social @iamvirgo.bsky.social

Marion Cotesworth-Haye, an irksome and self important character from the fictional American TV series “The West Wing” presents her fictional award, the Francis Scott Key Key to the worst American President Donald Trump during a time of global and domestic upheaval because he’s trying to avoid disclosing the Epstein files.

A fake award from a fictional character for the Orange Menace who takes credit for other accomplishments to fill the dark soulless void of being unloved by his daddy.

Can someone make an image of Trump getting the Francis Scott Key Key from Marion Cotesworth-Haye?

#privateers. #WestWing

Building the communities we deserve isn’t fast or easy but it’s worth it.

When your candidate or electeds ask for your help in getting those solutions enacted; help them help you. Ask those same neighbors to help get the things they need. Yes, we know our party needs to build trust and respect and we can’t do that without people helping us to do that.

Those goals need to be tangible and visible and that means being focused on each district and each voter individually.

So how do you help? By asking questions and asking for solutions. Engage your neighbors and ask. Let your candidates and electeds know what the local issues and solutions are.

Voters prove over and over again they want to vote FOR. Getting folks onboard is about making sure they are centered and seen and included. We need folks to be with us doing the work; not watching waiting for us fail. They will do that when our candidates give them goals to work toward.

We need to avoid having national solutions for local differences. And we have GOT to stop talking like we’ve memorized the thesaurus when talking to voters. Not because they’re dumb; but because this work isn’t about “proving” how much smarter you or I are from others.

If we want to expand our base and our power, we have got to let and even insist our candidates and our elected officials serve their districts first. Wyoming and Massachusetts have different needs and common concerns. National consensus should be built around those common concerns.

If voters don’t know how Democrats have made their lives better, if we aren’t humble enough to admit our efforts still left too many out in the cold; if we’re fulfilling the worst caricature of who our opponents say we are; of course the average American is going to think the parties are the same.

Our opposition has also created a caricature of our party and our candidates as out of touch cultural elites. Too often, we have left that narrative unchallenged and also fulfilled that stereotype by treating our opponents as dumb and stupid and insisting on our intellectual superiority.

Our opponents have spent decades telling voters that government is the problem and then spent every iota of their power to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our party has failed. I have said often that Democrats have a hard time claiming their wins and even then, we don’t talk smart.

If you’re a follower of mine, you probably agree with me that both parties are not the same. And here is where I think voters who think this way are correct and why we’re headed into an anti-incumbent wave next year.

I believe in my soul that Americans fundamentally just want fairness. They want to work and afford the things they need and yes, even have some left over to enjoy life; that includes income and time. When voters tell us the “both parties are the same” we need to pause and listen.

The school curriculum isn’t front of mind when your kids are are off at a private boarding school in Switzerland. But that’s not the reality for 99% of Americans. So no, voters are dumb or distracted, the realities of trying to build a life hanging by a thread means the issues change.

The vast majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. They aren’t dumb, they aren’t distracted. They are laser focused on the immediate problems in front of them. Most Americans don’t have the economic luxury to ignore the cost of living.

There is a dangerous attitude among some in the political chattering class that voters are dumb. No, it’s dumb to treat voters like they’re dumb. Voters are smarter than too many operatives give them credit for, including those who support our opponents.

It’s an old truism that all politics are local. The “winning” message for Mamdani in NY isn’t necessarily the winning message western MN just as it wasn’t the winning message in Virginia.

This cannot and it has never been about a top-down message from the “DNC”. I can’t tell a democrat I don’t know in a district I’ve never been to how to win that race by telling what to say or what issues to focus on.

This is my prediction for 2026

There is no blue wave coming. It’s about anti-incumbency 🧵

We need to start NOW on supporting our incumbents by letting them focus on their districts and the issues locally. We need to give our candidates in open races the best chance to flip by doing the same.

If the GOP is serious about wanting to find solutions, if they insist that Democrats compromise, we must hold the GOP to the same standard and insist they also compromise. Renew the ACA credits and reverse their draconian regulations on SNAP benefits.

I will continue to use the power I have as a leader in this party to push our elected officials to do better and I will be lobbying my GOP congressman to do better.

So if you’re wondering what the next step is; I encourage you if you live in a district represented by a Republican; keep called and demand the ACA subsidies are renewed. Demand they restore full programs like SNAP. It’s up to us who live in GOP districts to pressure them to serve us.

We had an opportunity to use the momentum for last week’s election results to deliver for people and we failed and for what? A vote that we know we we are going to lose? When we could have provided real solutions to help people? When we could have run on our success rather than GOP failure?

I hope that my one voice as a member of the DNC will be one that helps people by helping our electeds have the courage to do the right thing. This shutdown was a hostage negotiation. People will be paying more for their insurance than their mortgage. People will still go hungry.

So many people need us to stand against the greed that says people must choose between healthcare and food. We failed. We had momentum, despite the harm to and struggle of the least powerful; to deliver some help and we failed. We need elected officials willing to sacrifice their jobs to help people

I know I can never pay back all those people whose names and stories I will never know; all those people who invested in me throughout my life. I can only pay it forward so someone else whose name and story I will never know can also have the opportunities I had.

They didn’t know that by doing their job, they literally and figuratively held the door to America open that night for two little orphans to come in from the storm and home to their family. My life is possible because so many people did their small part to make life easier for someone else.

Hundreds of workers did their job even though they probably wanted to just get out of the storm and go home to their families. They kept the runway clear and the airport running.