If you're waiting for some big national organization or some big donor network to change the Democratic Party, a bad news for you. It's not going to change, or at least it's not going to change in the direction you want. So if you would like the Democratic Party to be better, I don't think it's enough to just say, I'm disappointed. It's not enough just to call out Chuck Schumer and say, I don't think he's a good leader. If we want a better Democratic

Party, we all of us, we have to do the work to demand that party. And that means getting

involved in these primaries. That means getting involved with the attention we give candidates,

with the votes we give candidates, with the money we give candidates. This is all going to play

out in the coming few months. And so the question is really, do we take

advantage of this opportunity? I really hope folks around the country, especially in these

key districts and states do.

Hello, and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host Lee McGowan. Let's get into it.

So, as I said last week, today we're going to be talking about the disappointment people felt when certain Senate Democrats capitulated to the Republicans and after a 40-day government

shutdown, voted to reopen the government

without getting any concessions. The takeaway from the election was that Americans are sick to death

of what the Republicans are inflicting on us. From ice raids to the government shutdown, to the lack of

care for our health and food, we are tired of Donald Trump and his lies and his cabal of sycophants, and we came out across the country to say so.

Election Day was a really good day for people who believe in democracy.

And then five days later, it was a bad day for people who believe in Democrats and Democratic leadership.

After really holding firm, refusing to give the Republicans the votes they needed to reopen the government without an agreement to renew the tax subsidies that make the Affordable Care Act affordable,

seven Democrats and one independent senator defected or sold out or caved, and they agreed to sign the continued resolution to open the government for basically nothing in return.

Not only did it blindside everyone who was finally proud of the Democrats for standing strong

and fighting back, it was a kick in the face to everyone who had just come out on election day

to say we refused to take what the Republicans are doing sitting down. It was a capitulation

that most of us were wholly unprepared for, and it pissed a lot of

people off. One of those people is my friend Ezra Levin, the co-founder and executive director of Indivisible.

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