We are not going to survive this unless we start punching back hard

I am mad, I am scared — and right now, I am looking for people who will fight with me against the most dangerous attack on our rights, benefits, and Democracy in my lifetime.

Unless we start punching back hard, and right now, we are not going to survive this, good people.

At a time we’ve never needed leaders in the Democratic Party more, we are literally getting less.

And yes, yes, I get it: Republicans are completely reprehensible. I have written about this exhaustively. To repeat: I blame the voters. If not for them, there is no him. Our country is littered with the morally dead.

That is a terrible reality, which makes our situation even more dire. Maybe losing their benefits will change some minds, and owning the Libs will become just too damn expensive, but I am done trying to get in the heads of members of a vindictive, racist cult.

We need fighters, and right now we have two for sure, one of whom is the future of America, and not just some damn political party.

Along with Independent Bernie Sanders, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has more power than anybody in the Democratic Party right now because she’s an old-school Democrat.

That’s called irony.

At a time we have never needed our political leaders to fight for us more, she is on the road hitting all the right notes.

AOC is known as a “progressive” Democrat, but I’ll make a friendly wager with you that before long she will change her political affiliation to Independent. And I will give her a standing ovation when she does.

And that goes for any other Democrat who does the same.

The Democratic Party has no sense of itself right now, or the terror people are going through. I don’t know about you, but we are furious in my house right now.

We are also scared to death.

We are scared of what the Republican fascists are doing, sure, but we are really scared that we don’t have a party fighting for us that understands this.

We have a complete madman attacking us right now, and too many Democrats would rather we focus on elections that are almost two years away, instead of what is menacingly at our doors RIGHT NOW.

Many of you will know, I am an Independent. And if you didn't, you probably should. As a longtime print journalist, I couldn’t be bothered with political affiliations. I saw both parties as flawed, and politicians as people to be scrutinized, not worshipped.

(As an aside: I have been guilty of worshipping a few politicians lately, and am ashamed of myself, but that’s another column for another time.)

I have voted for Republicans and Democrats during my lifetime, and if you’ve read me even for a bit that shouldn’t be news, either. I haven’t pulled the lever for anybody on Right in a long time, though, and doubt I ever will again.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t smelled trouble for Democrats for years now.

This boomeranged at me on my Facebook page earlier this week. I guess I typed it 10 years ago Tuesday:

“You are Hillary Clinton. Literally 117 million Americans hate your guts. Another 90 million say, meh. There are 27 million who love, love, love you. About 100 million don't vote (they are Americans, after all). You are the front-running Democrat. Your party is in trouble.

That’s harsh, sure. It was also 100 percent correct.

I have been writing about this time in history a lot lately, not because I was right — I would have paid almost anything to be wrong — but because we are back in almost exactly the same place we were then, and simply cannot afford to make the same mistakes going forward.

I supported Sanders in 2016, because it was clear to me that the millionaires and billionaires had acquired too much power. Republicans’ Citizens United was a wrecking ball, and unless everybody understood this, it was going to bury us in the rubble.

I am not going to rehash that damn 2016 election, because it is a massive waste of time, but I am going to say we better start listening to this man right now, because along with AOC, Sanders is one of the only people who has correctly taken the pulse of the American people at this crucial juncture in our history.

We are mad.

We are scared.

We HATE these f------ billionaires.

THEY understand this.

Instead, we have monumental weaklings like Chuck Schumer leading the party. It has gone a million miles past pathetic, and the dude needs to go. I am telling you — HE NEEDS TO GO.

In Wisconsin, we have a make-or-break election coming up on April 1st. Everything we have fought our tails off for in this state the past decade, could be incinerated — including fair maps and a woman’s right to choose — if Judge Susan Crawford doesn't prevail over Elon Musk’s lapdog, Brad Schimel in this State Supreme Court Election.

The grotesque Musk is literally buying votes in this state right now. Not enough of this atrocity can be made.

This Supreme Court race here in Wisconsin is a classic bellwether election. If it is seen as a race between a candidate who is representing the people of this state vs. a candidate who is bought and paid for and representing the despicable billionaires like Musk, the left-leaning Crawford will win.

If this election is seen as just another rock fight between a Democrat and a Republican, she will lose.

The issues are on the side of the Left, if only they (we) would just get out of their (our) own damn way and shout them out — LOUDLY.

Which is exactly what AOC and Sanders are doing right now.

Lately, they have been here in Wisconsin and other places rallying tens of thousands of people around the country to “Fight The Oligarchy.”

Their rallies are high-energy and enormous, because their message addresses our anger and our very real fears. There is so much good and common sense being spread in them it is a wonder, that every-damn-Democrat isn’t every-damn-where ringing the same bells loudly.

Instead, too many of these Democrats are capitulating, and treating this assault on their voters as just another breezy political season.

Is it any wonder the party has never been less popular? Just 27 percent of registered voters have a positive view of the party.

Read that again. This is a five-alarm fire.

Look, I didn't write this piece today to insult Democrats. I have worked my a-- off with them to beat back this relentless evil. I wrote this piece because I am angry and scared, and have absolutely no confidence in the party to lead us out of this mess.

I am a fighter, and I am looking for people like AOC and Bernie Sanders who will fight alongside me.

I don’t give a damn if you are a Democrat or not …

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.