Democrats Need a Jobs Program Now
We have to invest in new leaders NOW in order to beat Republicans later.
Screen shot of S and P 500 on April 4, 2025, the second day of the Republican trade war. The S and P 500 has lost 16% since Trump was inaugurated for his second term.
Day 75 of POTUS 47. This is not how the vast majority of Americans thought it would be. A minority of Trump voters did anticipate this level of economic, government, and leadership disruption. They wanted to tear it all down. A minority of Democrats anticipated this level of chaos. But others were expecting something less draconian, especially the business community.
After leaving USDA on Inauguration Day, I had been planning to work on a book while I looked for my next job. Instead, I started Growing New Leaders: Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm. This is my 18th column. Today, I’m reaching 1000 subscribers.
Thank you to everyone who has supported my voice with a subscription. By liking, sharing, commenting, and restacking my columns, you are helping to advance new leaders and new ideas across the political landscape. Together, we are building a community of Americans committed to elevating the values that will bring our nation back together.
These are values that can help us rebuild from the purposeful attacks on our nation by Trump, Musk, and the Republicans. I wrote about them in my first column in January.
Around Iowa and throughout rural America, you can still find the shared values that will help move our nation forward. Although increasingly under attack, these values are critical to elevating new leadership in communities of all sizes.
We must celebrate the importance of smart government, like supporting public schools.
Democracy provides the primary way to expand power and elevate the best ideas.
Diversity is the cornerstone for all resilient natural systems and must be celebrated as a necessity to advance human progress.
We have a responsibility to support freedom for all, especially when “all” includes people beyond who we might think of as members of our own groups.
The powerful glow of these deep American values, promising a hopeful and abundant future, isn’t getting brighter right now. Until we build a stronger team to advance these shared values, that light will continue to dim. To build that team, we must unleash the power of progressive rural Americans. We also need to expand that leadership.
On day 75, Republicans have crashed the markets; seriously dismantled major parts of government of, by, and for the people; compromised national security on an epic scale; undermined US international influence in both hard and soft power elevating Russia and China; and spread all of our personal information controlled by the federal government to all corners of the internet.
In our names, the federal government snatched off the streets Kilmar Abrego Garcia the father of a five year old American citizen. He is also the husband of an American citizen. He had legal status to be in our nation waiting on a legal process that was unfolding. In our names, the Trump administration sent Kilmar to a prison in El Salvador. Republicans did this without due process and in fact are arguing that the law doesn’t apply to the father of this little American boy.
On November 23, less than three weeks after the election, Robert Leonard at Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture provided a prediction and a call to action for draconian and lawless attacks on immigrants in his column Document the Atrocities: The time to prepare is now...
On the economic front, we are now in a recession. We won’t officially know that until six months after we’ve entered it, that’s how the official status works. Republicans will keep claiming we aren’t until it’s been declared retroactively that we have been. While I’m not hoping for a recession, I’m willing to take a tiny step onto a really solid limb that we’re already in one.
It’s irresponsible for anyone in the business community or the media to be projecting that we “might” be headed for a recession. Every indicator is pointing towards one. This month’s jobs report was better than expected, but have any of the federal job losses shown up yet? Does anyone even know how many jobs have been lost? Does anyone know what the targets for job cuts are at each federal agency that the Republicans are demanding?
The damage of the trade war is only going to accelerate downward pressure on every indicator. The most conservative thing anyone can say with any credibility is that “the likelihood that we are in or will be entering into a recession is growing rapidly.”
POTUS 47 and all the national Republicans have tanked the economy. It’s been intentional. And what isn’t fully comprehended yet, is that they have dismantled the federal government’s ability to respond to the economic crisis they have manufactured. Can anyone remember the last time we came out of a recession without the help of smart government investments?
Before the election, I hoped that Republicans wouldn't replace Trump as their nominee. I said that "Trump is not capable of winning again." I stand by that opinion. And before I'm accused of being an election denier, I always followed with, "but Democrats can lose."
As a Democrat, I'm willing to own the fact that we lost the election. Republicans nominated Trump and stand by him, even as he tears down every part of our great nation. But he didn't win the presidency because Americans wanted the chaos in front of us, he won because Democrats failed to invest in building a political movement to respond to the challenges and opportunities at this moment in human history.
And now on the 75th day of Trump 47, national Democrats have squandered over 150 days since we lost the election to build a resistance movement. And beating that dead horse, I’m not talking about the Democrats who are signing up again to run in local elections after getting beat last fall.
I’m not talking about the Clarke County, Marion County, and Monroe County Democrats I’ve been with in the past two months in rural Iowa. I’m not talking about the millions of Democrats making calls on a daily basis and who will be showing up tomorrow for a day of action around the country. We have all been ready for the fight, showing up for the fight, and using our own resources to wage the fight.
I’m talking about the national leaders in the Democratic Party. I’m hearing stories of infighting between the Biden folks and the Harris folks during the election campaign.
In talking with the rural organizers for the Harris campaign back in October, I sensed that they were given unrealistic goals without the support and resources needed to do the work they clearly knew how to do. I’m speculating that the same challenges were experienced across every constituency organizing group in the campaign.
Celebrities and other wealthy donors who rose to the occasion to fund the Harris campaign have shown little interest in making similar investments in the past 150 days since the election.
While frustrated with Democratic leadership, I’m not blaming any Democrats for what Trump is intentionally doing to our nation. This is all on the Republicans. Every person who loses a job can legitimately blame Republicans.
Every social security beneficiary in crisis because the check comes late. Every senior planning to retire in 2025 trying to figure out how they will manage retirement as the markets crash because of intentional Republican actions. Every child who goes without medical treatment because of cuts to Medicaid. Every volunteer at a food pantry heartbroken because the demand is overwhelming the supply. Every farmer trying to figure out how to cash flow in the Republican trade war.
All of this is because of Republicans.
In the next 150 days, we must continue to organize and act. We’ve got to keep demanding that the wealthy and powerful who controlled the 2024 election for Democrats immediately invest in those of us who have been raising the alarm, making the phone calls, writing the letters, and speaking up in the press to tell the stories of what’s happening across our still great nation.
As Republicans tear down the economy and unleash a wave of unemployment, it's going to be Democrats who rebuild. And that starts now. National leaders in the Democratic Party must start hiring the organizers, creatives, makers, managers, artists, and emerging social entrepreneurs to manage and lead.
First, we have to build the political recovery to hold Trump and Republicans accountable for tearing down the fabric of our nation. We can’t wait for more damage. We have to respond now with even more urgency than we’ll have for the midterm elections. And we’ve seen that kind of investment and a great win in Wisconsin. Ads helped, but it was foot soldiers and organizations on the ground that made the difference.
We need to build a powerful force in the next 150 days that we can continue to build into the midterms. We will need to use that power, even before the midterms, to start rebuilding the economic recovery through creative, competent, and confident governance. While the governance will be challenging until new leaders are elected in 2026, the work of framing how we’ll govern has to align with the values we’re going to need to do it: smart government, democracy, diversity, and freedom for all.
In order to get our nation back on track, our economy working again, and our global leadership re-asserted for good, the left needs a jobs program now to hire and resource new leaders. We especially need young Americans who have the skills, worldview, passion, optimism, commitment, and vision to lead our nation into a hopeful and abundant future.
As Republicans start to blink in their defense of Trump and his radical administration, it's clear they will not do anything meaningful to stop our nation spiraling into chaos and decline. It's going to take Democrats to first correct this incredible mistake of leadership and then rebuild the nation. And it starts NOW. The left must hire the new leaders who can do the political work now and the work of governing to come.
Matt, you are so right. After talking with many Republicans they also have had enough, even though they won't openly admit it. There are many great raising Democrats out there but the older guard needs to let lose of the reins and let them take over. The Democrats should obtain the list of the deleted voters that haven't actively voted for a while from the State list and each and every County Democrat Committee should be calling them asking for their support. Have you considered running? You have all of the traits and leadership skills needed to be successful.
So…. I need a job. Badly. I have organizing and campaign and activism experience. And graphic design and video and social media creation. I’ve just been through a week long training with George Goehl from Fundamentals of Organizing. Went thru DirtRoad Organizing training last year. I’ve taken every invitation offered to step up. I’m based in Grundy county. I do art activism workshops with Progress Iowa, we have 4 left this year. Former Disability Caucus Chair two terms. I hope someone will take a chance on me.