‘Show Up for Us’: 13 Democratic Voters on Trump, ICE and Their Frustrations With the Democratic Party

‘Show Up for Us’: 13 Democratic Voters on Trump, ICE and Their Frustrations With the Democratic Party

Donald Trump’s second presidency has remade American life in just a year. Many Democrats and others worry about the erosion of civil rights, cuts to the social safety net and the significant, aggressive increase in deportations across the country.

Amid major debates among activists, pundits and elected officials about what direction the party should take, Times Opinion assembled 13 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters to ask how the party is handling the moment, what changes and reprioritizations they want to see, and what kinds of Democrats are standing out.

Participants in our group weren’t unclear about what the party stands for — the greater good and the protection of civil rights — but many also expressed dissatisfaction with a lack of resolve this past year, during shutdown fights as well as more broadly. Even recognizing that there isn’t always much Democrats can do out of power, people wanted more action and more aggression, especially if and when Democrats take power again.

In particular, they wanted candidates who were young, progressive and from a more modest or working-class background, with clear and simple messages. And as for the Democrats who are standing out to these people (Jasmine Crockett, Pete Buttigieg, Zohran Mamdani, Gavin Newsom), many of them are the ones who’ve made a point of appearing in combative media environments. Invoking a famous Michelle Obama quote, after the past few years, these voters no longer want a party that goes high.

Fill in the blank for me. I’m feeling _____ about the way things are going in the country these days.

Confused about the direction the country is going.

Terrified and angry. Disappointed.

I was going to say frustrated.

Tired. Tired and sad and upset.

Anybody have a positive word?

No, I don’t. No, absolutely not.

These are tough words. Candy, let me start with you. You said frustrated. Tell me why.

I know people who are immigrants. So just what’s going on with immigration, and even myself being a U.S. citizen, I’m concerned about getting pulled over and shot and killed, or one of my family members is going to get discriminated against. I’m scared to leave my home. I already work at home; now I feel like I have to stay here because I’m so scared.

Have other people had an experience like Candy’s?

My family is all immigrants, and we’re all citizens. But I worry about my parents going out. They learned English later in their lives. I’ve heard that ICE is near where we live. I’m wondering if I need to have them carry their passports around when they go to get groceries and things like that.

I have family members who are immigrants. That concerns me, that even though they’re citizens, they could be out doing normal day-to-day things, especially with the kids in tow, and just be yanked off the street, and we wouldn’t be able to intervene in any way.

Yeah, I just feel we’re at the point right now that we’re being treated like animals. I’m Puerto Rican, and I speak full Spanish. So sometimes I’m scared to go out and speak my native language. My mother, I’m afraid for her because she’s older. They might just judge her by the way she looks. So I’m very, very frustrated.

I want to hear from some other folks. Like, what was on your mind when you said all the words that people said — discouraged, frustrated, terrified, et cetera?

People who are maybe not even immigrants, but minorities and things like that, are just being targeted. There’s a lot in my community about ICE coming and pulling over people. And it’s disheartening, actually, for anybody that lives in America. You shouldn’t have to be afraid.

Christian, you said “discouraged.” What are you discouraged about?

One, a lot of the economic policies that have been put in place. Looking at the job market, looking at the numbers that just came out today, worst numbers in years. It feels, just economically, there’s no real light at the end of the tunnel. The immigration policies are also a disaster, and they’re inhumane. Socially, some people have just embraced being blatantly racist, whether it’s toward immigrants, whether it’s toward African Americans. It’s been normalized. Not to say it ever fully went away, but we’ve just regressed.

I wake up in the morning and I look at my phone, and it’s another headline. I saw something on Facebook the other day that was from The Onion. And I had to double-check to make sure that that’s where it was from because, the reality that we’re living in right now, it’s hard to tell the difference between real life and satire, which is not a good place to be in.

I would say that I’ve been discouraged since 2016, Trump’s first term. Nothing’s changed since then. It’s just gotten worse and worse and worse. Now people are being shot in the street, and it’s like, well, how far is it going to go now? It’s just not right.

Until about 10 years ago, I used to think that things would get a little better every year or over time. Now it just seems, for the most part, the government is putting into place policies that are meant to take advantage of the people who need the most help, and to benefit the people who are well-off. How do you get ahead when this is the situation?

I feel the same way. I feel sorry for the people that are going through this in their lives. I know I’m not targeted because I’m fair-skinned. And it’s just not right that we’re being ruled by a dictator.

Does that characterization feel true to you?

Definitely. We’re going backwards.

Once he’s out of office, what’s going to happen on some of the things people have been bringing up tonight — immigration, economic policy, women’s rights, gay rights?

I say it entirely depends on what party has power and who gets elected. I don’t know if we’re going to be living in a pendulum situation for years and years and years after this, where one party does these things and the next party tries to undo it, and on and on. My concern is that the things the Republicans are doing now, they’re going to be hard to undo.

Yeah, it depends on who comes in power next, I guess. But if they don’t wield it as brazenly as he’s wielding it to undo some of the things that he’s doing, without asking the voters what we want to do or asking anybody besides just whatever he wants to do — the Democrats are too afraid to do anything, I feel like. So if they come into power, they’ve got to do something.

How often do you feel like you’re thinking about politics or thinking about Donald Trump right now?

A lot. I wake up in the morning and the news always has something goofy that he invented to say today. And I think it’s all to take our mind off what’s going on with the Epstein files.

If you asked me this 12 years ago, it was something no one really talked about. And now it’s a daily conversation. My son’s 16, and even they’re just so exposed to politics now. It’s like, daily, you could have three or four things that you would never even think 10, 15 years ago would happen.

I’ve dialed it back. I mean, it used to be so often I’d look at it. I just can’t continue to give that my whole being. I’ve got to find a way to digress. It’s absorbing me and everybody around me, America.

I try to avoid it. I mean, I don’t like talking about politics. I never have. But sometimes you can’t have a conversation with a person because that’s all they want to talk about.

Do you talk with somebody about politics at least once a day?

It’s all day for me now because of Instagram.

Every day, every day.

Every day.........

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