Democrats need to regroup.
Almost two-thirds of House Democrats seeking reelection in 2026 have a primary challenger, according to Punchbowl News. And it only gets worse from there.
Some candidates, like Graham Platner running for the Senate from Maine, are facing potential scandals: Platner’s wife reportedly claims her husband exchanged sexual messages with other women.
In Utah, one Democratic official is being accused of misconduct and another of using language that minimizes sexual assault. Over in California, Rep. Eric Swalwell, once a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, has been accused of sexual misconduct. And the House ethics panel has found Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick committed 25 ethics violations.
This does not bode well for Democrats’ hopes in the November elections. If they don’t get their act together and do it quickly, they’ll only be confirming what cowboy philosopher Will Rogers lamented a century ago: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
— Mike Barrett, Ashburn, Virginia
Democrats and the media
The Tribune asserts that, after Jill Biden’s comments, the Democrats “have a fresh opportunity to fully acknowledge that they broke the trust of the American people and, while doing so, to pledge they’ll never repeat the mistake.” (“Jill Biden’s comments on her husband’s debate disaster highlight unfinished Democratic Party business,” June 1). Oh good, I feel better now!
Thank God the Democratic party and its co-conspirators in the media that gave us Russiagate and ignored Joe Biden’s obvious decline, Clinton’s emails, Hunter Biden’s laptop and the Biden administration colluding with social media tech companies to censor conservatives (to name but few ethical transgressions) has decided to be earnest upholders of truth.
Can we please admit that, despicable as Donald Trump may be, there are few paragons of virtue to point to in either party or the media?
I’ll keep searching however.
— William Johnson, Lake Bluff
Democrats’ message
To the Democratic Party,
I read your recent email asking Democrats to donate money to candidates trying to qualify for the ballot. I understand the difficulty of being a Democrat. I live here too. I know exactly what it feels like to wear Democratic merchandise in public, to deal with MAGA hostility online, and to feel politically isolated in a heavily Republican environment.
However, respectfully, your email unintentionally demonstrates exactly what is wrong with the Democratic Party right now.
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The message begins with genuine emotion and lived experience. Then almost immediately it pivots into donation links, filing fees, campaign mechanics and organizational fundraising.
That is the problem.
The Democratic Party increasingly sounds like an institution more interested in sustaining itself than listening to people outside the existing activist structure. I volunteered here in Florida for the Biden campaign. When I questioned the DNC recruiter about Biden’s debate disaster, I was ghosted.
I attended — by phone — a Democratic Party meeting. I was struck by the lack of open discussion, the lack of curiosity toward newcomers, and the general atmosphere of bureaucratic lifelessness. The meeting felt less like a political movement and more like a church council meeting discussing parking lot resurfacing.
There was no intellectual energy.
No operational imagination.
No real debate.
No excitement.
Meanwhile, the country sits at the center of issues Democrats should own; housing costs, insurance, infrastructure strain, transportation, freight, warehousing, public safety, healthcare access, working-class economic anxiety, collapse of trust in institutions.
Yet Democrats often communicate as though politics is primarily about opposing Trump and asking exhausted people for more money.
That is not enough.
Working-class voters, truckers, young men, independents, moderates, and even longtime Democrats increasingly feel like nobody is listening to them unless they arrive with a donation attached.
The party keeps talking about “saving democracy” while functioning internally like an HR department managing messaging compliance.
People are starving for honesty, common sense, operational competence, and candidates who sound like actual human beings.
You do not rebuild a political movement by endlessly sending fundraising emails to the same shrinking circle of exhausted loyalists.
You rebuild it by listening.
You rebuild it by welcoming disagreement.
You rebuild it by encouraging fresh voices.
You rebuild it by discussing real-world problems plainly.
You rebuild it by sounding alive again.
Right now, too much of the Democratic Party sounds emotionally exhausted, culturally defensive, and institutionally closed off.
And voters can feel it.
Sincerely,
A Democrat who still thinks reality matters
— Brian Watt, Winter Haven, Florida
Public schools
I disagree that families whose personal choice is to send their children to private schools deserve a tax break, (“Voice of the People,” May 29). Our tax dollars should be going to the public schools. If people are given a tax break because they choose to pay tuition at private schools, that tax break money has to come from somewhere. Illinois should not opt in to a federal program that takes away funding from public education.
A country as wealthy as the United States should prioritize funding public schools. We sent our children to a Catholic school and understood that our tax dollars would go to the public schools. Our public schools, particularly in poorer school districts, are woefully underfunded.
— Linda Burke, Indian Head Park
Kennedy Center
So now that a judge has told our president that his name can’t be on the Kennedy Center, Donald Trump says that he will close the center.
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Vanity, thy name is Trump!
— Teri Tappen Zandi, Park Forest
CPS senior released
I was extremely happy to read in the baiduhai that Ricardo Hernandez-Navarrete was released from a Kentucky jail (“After 2 months in ICE detention, CPS senior free to walk Mather High graduation with classmates,” May 29). Hernandez-Navarrete is an outstanding young man whose only ”crime” was that he was an immigrant waiting four years after applying for asylum into our country that never came through!
Some of Chicago’s most famous and influential architects were immigrants who shaped the city’s skyline era.
We have people in high offices who are legal citizens who commit many crimes and are never arrested! I believe our legal system has a crack in it and it better be fixed!
— Charlotte Braun, Glenview
Note to readers
The Obama Presidential Center is opening on June 19. Do you have memories of former President Barack Obama you’d like to share? (Sincere thoughts only.) Send a letter of no more than 400 words by Thursday, June 11 to [email protected]. Include your full name and city/town.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].