US Democrats anoint new leader, Ken Martin, to take on Trump

US Democrats picked Ken Martin as their new leader Saturday, who now takes on the task of rebuilding a party still reeling from last year’s crushing presidential defeat — and figuring out how best to oppose Republican Donald Trump.

“The Democratic Party is the party of working people, and it’s time to roll up our sleeves and outcompete everywhere, in every election, and at every level of government,” he said in a statement.

The 51-year-old progressive activist, a relative unknown outside of the party, stressed the need to reconnect Democrats with blue collar voters, and to take the electoral fight to all 50 states — even bastions of conservative politics.

“Today’s elections mark a new chapter in DNC leadership, and Donald Trump and his billionaire allies are put on notice — we will hold them accountable for ripping off working families, and we will beat them at the ballot box,” Martin said.

Party grandees are meeting in a large hotel near Washington, where members of the Democratic National Committee, the party’s governing body, are carrying out a postmortem of their November loss.

They have elevated Martin, formerly the chair of the party’s Minnesota branch, to devise their national battle plan.

“This is not a game of chess where everyone is moving their pieces back and forth in a respectful, timed manner. This is guerilla warfare in political form,” said Katherine Jeanes, deputy digital director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, ahead of the vote.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a rising Democratic star, warned ahead of the vote that the party must “not to go into hiding until the next general election.”

The moment calls for boldness, added Shasti Conrad, chair of the party’s Washington state branch, warning that many Americans have lost the faith.

“They don’t trust us to be able to make things better. They don’t trust that when we are given power, that we know how to use it,” Conrad said.

And the fight starts now, she added — there can be no waiting until the next presidential election, set for 2028.

Hemorrhaging’ young male voters –
Democratic candidate and former Vice President Kamala Harris defeated Trump in Martin’s Minnesota — but lost the majority of traditionally conservative states in the center of the country.

Facing a Republican majority in Congress and a second term for Trump, who has roared back into the White House with all the provocative rhetoric of his first administration, Democrats say they must pick their battles.

“We have to be able to decipher crazy rhetoric versus policy violence,” said Conrad, and not be like a “dog chasing the car.”

All the more so in a sharply polarized political landscape.

“This Republican Party doesn’t care. It doesn’t care about the norms, doesn’t care about institutions,” Conrad said.

While many are “exhausted” after the last election campaign, Jeanes said the party must learn to respond to the frantic pace of shock moves from the Trump administration.

Much of Democratic success going forward will be in how the party presents itself to an American public weary of politics.

That includes going into new spheres, often far from the traditional media — which will mean being “in places that have sometimes been uncomfortable” for Democrats, according to Conrad.

Last year, Jeanes said, Democrats “didn’t realize until it was too late that we were in an echo chamber of our own making.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party was “hemorrhaging” young male voters who were being “fed part and parcel through the alt-right pipeline” to the Republican Party, according to Jeanes.

After his victory in November, Trump credited a series of interviews on largely right-wing podcasts, including the popular “Joe Rogan Experience,” for aiding his return to the White House.

“We need to be getting on sports podcasts and video games and trying to make sure that we’re reaching into apolitical spaces,” Jeanes said.

AFP