I think THE main problem is voters (and even worse, those who don't vote). A democracy is a government that is only FOR the people to the extent that it is BY the people. All too often, we think that politicians should "lead", by which we mean: run the government on their own. History proves that that never works. That's why the slogan "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" is and remains so important.
If you look at what Democrats in DC did, knowing how the democratic process works, I really don't see a lot of reasons to blame them for anything. They did their job, as best they could, under usually very difficult circumstances.
Remember the 2010 mid-terms? THAT's when we saw how utterly weak and ill-informed most voters were. Obama had to work through the Great Recession, and did so in a very successful way (again, taking the equation in Congress into account) and yet, progressives and other Democratic voters massively stayed home or even voted for the utterly insane and corrupt Republicans. It massively slowed down any progress that Obama and the Democrats could and would have made if voters had maintained all Democrats in office and replaced Joe Lieberman with a real Democrat (albeit a blue dog).
Also, I don't think the Koch brothers are still relevant today. They are neocons. They abhor Trump and the MAGA 2.0 neofascists (the tech billionaires and Christian Nationalist Heritage Foundation). Neocons, in the end, are pro-democracy. They do imagine that you have to lie to voters because they'll always be too stupid/politically illiterate to vote for their own interests, so neocons created the problem of fake news that allowed neofascist Republicans to build on it and turn the GOP media landscape into a truly fascist propaganda machine. But the Cheney's never ever wanted fascism, and that also goes for the Koch brothers.
Finally, Harris and the Democrats were CONSTANTLY telling us that Projec 2025 is what Trump would install, and that it's 100% fascist. Biden had been saying the same thing for years. My guess: there is an anti-intellectualism in the US (including at many universities) that made people unaware of the fact that the GOP became the victim of a hostile takeover by real ideologues (pseudo-intellectuals who are passionate about fascist ideology, write about it, hold meetings about it, and who are passionate about the nitty-gritty of governing). That's why most "ordinary citizens" didn't see this coming. Weeks AFTER the DOGE purge started, even progressive comedian Jon Stewart still ridiculed the idea of a "purge" or "fascism".
Conclusion: I think Democrats (the DNC and its leaders) have always been lucid about what is going on. But if the media don't inform "we the people", then we'll only wake up when it's (almost) too late...
The Dems have been living on lattes, a wing and a prayer for 20 years while the Koch Bros were playing the long game of all politics is local.
I think THE main problem is voters (and even worse, those who don't vote). A democracy is a government that is only FOR the people to the extent that it is BY the people. All too often, we think that politicians should "lead", by which we mean: run the government on their own. History proves that that never works. That's why the slogan "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" is and remains so important.
If you look at what Democrats in DC did, knowing how the democratic process works, I really don't see a lot of reasons to blame them for anything. They did their job, as best they could, under usually very difficult circumstances.
Remember the 2010 mid-terms? THAT's when we saw how utterly weak and ill-informed most voters were. Obama had to work through the Great Recession, and did so in a very successful way (again, taking the equation in Congress into account) and yet, progressives and other Democratic voters massively stayed home or even voted for the utterly insane and corrupt Republicans. It massively slowed down any progress that Obama and the Democrats could and would have made if voters had maintained all Democrats in office and replaced Joe Lieberman with a real Democrat (albeit a blue dog).
Also, I don't think the Koch brothers are still relevant today. They are neocons. They abhor Trump and the MAGA 2.0 neofascists (the tech billionaires and Christian Nationalist Heritage Foundation). Neocons, in the end, are pro-democracy. They do imagine that you have to lie to voters because they'll always be too stupid/politically illiterate to vote for their own interests, so neocons created the problem of fake news that allowed neofascist Republicans to build on it and turn the GOP media landscape into a truly fascist propaganda machine. But the Cheney's never ever wanted fascism, and that also goes for the Koch brothers.
Finally, Harris and the Democrats were CONSTANTLY telling us that Projec 2025 is what Trump would install, and that it's 100% fascist. Biden had been saying the same thing for years. My guess: there is an anti-intellectualism in the US (including at many universities) that made people unaware of the fact that the GOP became the victim of a hostile takeover by real ideologues (pseudo-intellectuals who are passionate about fascist ideology, write about it, hold meetings about it, and who are passionate about the nitty-gritty of governing). That's why most "ordinary citizens" didn't see this coming. Weeks AFTER the DOGE purge started, even progressive comedian Jon Stewart still ridiculed the idea of a "purge" or "fascism".
Conclusion: I think Democrats (the DNC and its leaders) have always been lucid about what is going on. But if the media don't inform "we the people", then we'll only wake up when it's (almost) too late...