The Capitol Building, weeks into the continuing U.S. government shutdown on Capitol Hill, stands in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 18, 2025. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz
Democratic lawmakers are facing urgent calls for removal over the government shutdown deal.
Podcast host and CEO of The Rothkopf Group, David Rothkopf, writes in an opinion piece for The Daily Beast that Democratic leaders have failed to secure affordable health care for Americans, calling them "spineless, visionless, out of touch with the rank and file of the Democratic Party and clearly not up to the moment of crisis America faces."
He urged people not to give up on Democrats — or the country — entirely, but instead to channel that angry and disappointed energy to "take meaningful action to translate your fury and your disgust into steps that will ensure such political f--- ups do not happen again in the future."
"Do not reject the Democratic Party or officially give up on participating in U.S. politics just because a bunch of clueless, cowardly, capitulating millionaires do not understand their jobs, the stakes of the fight they were involved in or the degree to which they played into Trump’s hands at precisely the moment of their greatest weakness," Rothkopf writes.
"And above all, do not, for one flickering second, attempt to justify or defend the lily-livered choice that did (and will do) so much damage to so many when it is so pathetically pusillanimous and damnably dangerous," he adds.
He argues that the Democratic Party is literally only the main opposition to Trump, despite the "humiliating about-face" and "carefully orchestrated retreat" by Democratic leaders, including Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dick Durbin (D-IL).
However, the current Democratic leadership, he explains, is simply not fit to fight back against Trump and his cronies.
"The fact that Schumer, Durbin and their spineless colleagues have taken to their fainting couches at precisely the wrong moment and, simultaneously, then defend their actions with pablum press statements that showed either a gross misunderstanding of the issues in play or a really low regard for the intellects of their constituents sends only one message: We need new leaders, we need new players on the field. These are not the people to defend the country against the manifold extreme threats to our institutions and way of life posed by Trump and MAGA," Rothkopf writes.