Alan Zendell, April 29, 2025

Ever since Donald Trump began his second term, Democrats have been treading water, (some people would say drowning,) hoping a leader would come along to throw them a lifeline. If it were only the Democratic Party’s future that was at stake, I’d say it was time for a complete makeover. The only positive thing about Democrats is that they’re not MAGA Republicans. For Democrats to point fingers at gutless Republicans who won’t stand up to Trump is to ignore the fact that they themselves have been completely impotent in the face of Trump’s race toward Oligarchy and Fascism.

Both parties have failed us badly. Except for the madman at  the helm, neither party has a viable leader. The Democrats don’t deserve another chance, but there’s far more at stake than their political future. The survival of our democracy depends on Democrats getting their act together and unifying into a force Americans can relate to. Since the disastrous cover-up of President Biden’s declining health, Democrats have been like an ocean liner without either a Captain or a steering mechanism floundering in a storm.

When comedian Bill Maher asked Democratic activist George Clooney, who some people believe was responsible for ending the Biden cover-up, who should lead the Democratic Party, Clooney pointed to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Maryland Governor Wes Moore. I admire both of them, but Clooney was wrong. A Governor from a state Trump won by a two-to-one margin can’t lead the Democratic Party, and Moore, brilliant, caring, and eloquent as he is, simply isn’t white enough. Americans made it clear that they’re not ready for another Obama when they chose Trump over Kamala Harris.

Others have pointed to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. But Newsom is too much of a flake for the rest of the country, and my initial reaction to Shapiro was that he was too Jewish. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is too, and he has done little to rally opposition to Trump. If he got under Trump’s skin a tenth as much as Mitch McConnell got under Biden’s, Trump’s stampede would be meeting opposition, but the resistance to date has been from institutions and blue states fighting against Trump’s attacks on their own, without unified support. When CNN’s Kaitlin Collins asked California Congressman Robert Garcia who he thought should lead his Party, he couldn’t answer, but finally opined that Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez would be his pick. One of the most radical progressives in the House? Absolutely not!

And then, along came Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. His rallying cry over the weekend converted me instantly. After hearing him speak about massive demonstrations and fighting every day against MAGA and Trump, urging us to give Republicans no moment of peace until they stand up to Trump, I realized that his courage and leadership easily transcend the fact that he, too, is Jewish. He’s also a billionaire, the heir of the Hyatt Hotel empire, but he’s not one who flaunts his wealth or disdains working people and the middle class. His entire rallying cry was about caring for the needs of average Americans and preserving Constitutional guarantees for everyone.

I also realized that my concern that Americans are not ready to elect a Jewish president were irrelevant. Pritzker laughed when asked if he planned to run in 2028. He is the leader we need to rally the nation to flip the Congress in 2026. His speech last Sunday was fiery, direct, and forceful, calling out Trump for what he is, a madman drunk on power driven solely by ego and lust for revenge against everyone who ever opposed him. And he was very clear about what every American has to lose if Trump isn’t stopped.

Pritzker called for nonstop, nonviolent resistance to MAGA and Trump. Yet, one of Trump’s most despicable attack dogs, Stephen Miller, who loudly supported the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, called his words “dangerous.” That tells me that the thing Trump most fears is a revitalized Democratic Party ready to fight him at every turn, and Pritzker can be the one to make that happen. My favorite line from Pritzker’s speech was, “Standing for the idea that the government doesn’t have the right to kidnap you without due process is arguably the MOST EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN IN HISTORY.”

I also found myself thinking about how Trump himself might respond to Pritzker. Trump has been casting himself in the role of a leader fighting against anti-Semitism, something about which he couldn’t care less. I wonder how the pretend defender of American Jews will respond when a Jewish Governor who is more eloquent, smarter, and undeniably more likable than he is emerges as a leader capable of bringing him down.