Declaring their party “invertebral”, Democrats try out an economic populist propaganda

Many frustrated House Democrats said their party announced Tuesday that they were seeking to form a new group to tap into the crisis, informally known as the new economic patriot.

The group is the creative idea of ​​agent Chris Deluzio, a 40-year-old sophomore congressman in a competitive area of ​​Pennsylvania who criticized his party members as Wimps in a speech in the House on Tuesday and called on Democrats to declare a “fighting spirit of economic populism” that he believes could make them politically stand out.

Mr. Druzio said: “Too many in our party have lost their way and it is time to wake up their troubles, and later declared: “The era of an invertebrate Democratic Party must end. ”

The answer, he said, is to get the party to focus on attracting workers on economic issues, but it is unclear how his plan differs from those that many in the party have already advocated. Still, Mr. Druzio’s efforts are the latest signal that Democrats are demoted to Washington’s minority, desperate to find a more coherent message after the devastating 2024 losses, but are still struggling in political debates about how to move forward.

Mr. Druzio stressed his position as a young MP who beat former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 general election held in key areas of key battlefield states for why he is the right person to help lead his party.

Mr. Druzio said in an interview that the labels of “progressive” and “medium” no longer work because his entire ragged party needs to be reorganized around an economic populist message that he said he has been chosen by the rights.

“I’m not interested in a weak Democratic Party,” Druzio said. “For years, the party has invested too much stock in avoiding fighting and naming large corporate villains.” He said it’s time for Democrats to return to their working class roots.

The new group includes a diverse group of Democrats, including former chairperson of the Forward Caucus, Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal, and moderate New York Democrat from the swing area. The group, on the floor of the House, has not included in particular any Democrats who won the Trump area in 2024, or any Democratic Congressional Movement Committee identified as members of its “frontline” members, who are considered the most vulnerable.

“What people are asking for is a more populist direction,” said Greg Casar, a Democrat in Texas and chairman of the Progressive Caucus, who is also a member of the new group. “Even if they disagree with us, populists mean we provide to workers within the scope. The way we bring conservatives is that we are economic populists willing to stand by them.”

Mr. Casar made his weekend debut on Fox News, trying to engage with conservative voters, argued that Democrats cannot be parties representing vulnerable people until they are seen as parties for all workers.

New Economic Patriots meet every other week to amplify a new platform, and some people circulate a five-page mission statement among their colleagues trying to resolve what they believe is the party’s crisis.

“Some of us think we have to focus on the economy,” said Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative in California. “We have to focus on the issues that affect people’s wallets, which the Democrats have never done effectively in years.”

Mr Khanna added: “We don’t recognize how angry the information in 2024 is. We don’t realize that the departure department at work is happening, we don’t recognize the pain people are still feeling, and that our information is not transformative enough.”

Mr. Druzio said Democrats have existing information transmission and policy issues that need to be resolved.

“Voters don’t think Democrats put lower costs first, and neither does this group,” he said. “It’s not just putting the economy first; it’s also clear why it’s deprived. We know very well who those villains are.”

But Democrats have been talking for months about President Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, who leads a radical government-cutting campaign as the primary villain of the young administration.

When the group made its debut Tuesday, Connecticut Democratic Representative Rosa Delauro delivered a series of speeches on the floor of the House, which sounds no different from the dozens of people she and other Democrats have been striking against Mr. Trump’s policies in recent weeks.

Mr. Druzio brought a poster committee that read simply “Anti-Corruption, American Dream.”

Some of their colleagues are skeptical of what the group is trying to achieve. For years, the Washington Democrats represented Marie Gluesenkamp Perez had argued that her party was not in line with the needs of working-class voters. Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez was invited to attend the new group’s meeting and its performance in the House, but she refused to speak on Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Druzio said Tuesday’s flooring action was just “open Salvo” and that the group will propose a clear platform for the effective way voters are desperate to oppose the Trump administration to revive the Democrats.

Last weekend, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attracted thousands of supporters to their “fighting oligarchs” journey, focusing on the needs of workers.

Mr. Druzio and his colleagues say their people are the right message for Democrats and voters are prepared to make a bigger party revamp. (Neither Mr. Sanders nor Ms. Ocasio Cortez are part of his team.)

“Too many Americans think that Democrats have become elite parties and have stopped meeting with the people they are in,” Mr Ryan said on the floor of the House. “This moment is not ideology. It’s about who fights for the people and who fights for the elite.”