“One month after President Trump was sworn in for a second term, Democratic despair and denial are giving way to an angry message from party activists and voters to their leaders,” the New York Times reports.

“Do something.”

“Across the country, anti-Trump protests and fiery town halls are flickering back to life. In polling, Democratic voters are venting disapproval at congressional Democrats. And in interviews this week with voters, activists and elected officials, many said Democrats were failing to curb Mr. Trump or offer a meaningful countermessage.”

Amy Walter: “The good news for Democrats: Everyone in the party agrees that they are in trouble and in desperate need of a new direction.”

“The party’s favorability ratings are at a record low. The party that was once most closely identified with middle and working-class voters is now seen as the party defending the elites. A recent poll by the Democratic polling consortium Navigator found that a majority of independent voters were more likely to see the Democrats as the party representing the wealthy than standing up for the middle class.”

“The bad news for Democrats is that there’s not an easy or universally agreed-upon fix to their political problems.”

A new Quinnipiac poll  finds just 40% of Democrats approve of the way the Democrats in Congress are handling their job, while 49% disapprove and 11% did not offer an opinion.

Said pollster Tim Malloy: “It’s a sobering slap down of historic proportions for the Democrats in Congress. Their Republican counterparts take a victory lap as the Democrats try to get their footing.”

“Amid Democrats’ shock and bickering over how much to respond to President Donald Trump is a deeper question rippling through leaders across the Capitol and across the country: How much should they rely on the same institutional and procedural maneuvers they used during the first Trump term, and how much are they willing to wield their own wrecking balls?,” CNN reports.

“Democrats remain essentially leaderless, with prospective future presidential candidates largely sitting back and allowing others to be the first ones through the buzzsaw of Trump and his cheerleaders, none eager to be the face of a party just yet.”

Politico: Dems concede Republicans “running circles” around them online as Trump remakes Washington.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) has a blunt assessment of the Democratic Party’s struggles in the wake of its crushing losses in the last election, Politico reports.

Said Warner: “I think the Democrats’ brand is really bad, and I think this was an election based on culture. And the Democrats’ kind of failure to connect on a cultural basis with a wide swath of Americans is hugely problematic.”

Gallup: “Support for a more moderate Democratic Party among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents has grown by 11 percentage points, to 45%, since 2021.”

“At the same time, Democrats’ and leaners’ desire for a more liberal party has declined five points, to 29%, and preferences for no change in party ideology have fallen nine points, to 22%.”

“Amid the turmoil and controversies of President Trump’s opening weeks, Democrats see an opening with working-class voters wooed by Trump’s movement,” the New York Times reports.

Punchbowl News: “While party activists want a re-run of the 2017 ‘Resistance’ and anti-Trump movement, Democratic leadership knows this is a very different moment. Trump won solidly in November, even carrying the popular vote. He led Republicans into the Senate majority. Trump’s polls are better than ever. Average Americans aren’t going to get upset that federal workers are being laid off, not with a $1.9 trillion deficit and $36 trillion debt.”

“Schumer and Jeffries are honing in on an economic message to explain exactly how Trump’s spending and tax cuts will affect their lives. Yet all the messaging in the world is unlikely to satisfy irate party activists who loathe Trump.”

“For now, Democrats will have to bide their time before two deadlines that allow them to gain back leverage: the March 14 government funding showdown and the upcoming debt-limit cliff.”

Brian Beutler: “If Democrats provide the decisive votes to fund this government, it will reverberate through history for all time.”

“Speaker Mike Johnson said Democratic lawmakers’ lack of clear leadership and vision is hampering their ability to effectively counter Republican moves and measures,” Politico reports.

Said Johnson: “There’s plenty of time for all the negotiation and we’ll get to that and, you know, the Democrats, frankly, are flailing right now. They don’t have an identified party leader. They don’t have a real vision for the party, and the blitz of all the Trump executive actions have them just at a dizzying pace.”

“For eight years, Democrats saw Donald Trump as the most toxic brand in politics, a singular figure who unified their disparate factions and filled their political coffers with campaign contributions. The limits of that strategy became evident in November,” the New York Times reports.

“They are now turning their attention to a new supervillain: Elon Musk.”

“In the early weeks of the second Trump administration, Democrats are seeking to highlight the prominence of Musk, the polarizing technology mogul, in the new administration.”

“The strategy is the first sign of unified opposition for a rudderless and leaderless Democratic Party.”

Jonathan Last: “Don’t ever do this again.”

“Chuck Schumer should not be the face of your party. Leading chants is imbecilic. Showing up outside a building is nonsensical. People don’t care about buildings. They care about stories.”

“Further: You are not winning and have no chance to win anything for 21 months. Your message is absurd on its face.”

“Your job as Democrats is to lead the opposition to Trump, which means making Trump unpopular. Right now there are only two engine governors on Trumpism: The courts and his popularity. You can’t influence the courts, but you do have input on public opinion. Stop wasting it.”

“Congressional Democrats’ offices are being inundated by phone calls from angry constituents who feel the party should be doing more to combat President Trump and his administration,” Axios reports.

“Some lawmakers feel their grassroots base is setting expectations too high for what Democrats can actually accomplish as the minority party in both chambers of Congress.”

Jonathan Chait: “The Democratic Party, at least in theory, is an organization dedicated to winning political power through elected office, though this might seem hard to believe on the evidence provided by its official proceedings. The DNC’s meetings included a land acknowledgement, multiple shrieking interruptions by angry protesters, and a general affirmation that its strategy had been sound, except perhaps insufficiently committed to legalistic race and gender essentialism.”

“The good news about the DNC, for those who prefer that the country have a politically viable alternative to the authoritarian personality cult currently running it, is that the official Democratic Party has little power. The DNC does not set the party’s message, nor will it determine its next presidential candidate.”

“Many Americans say they do not believe the Democratic Party is focused on the economic issues that matter most to them and is instead placing too much emphasis on social issues that they consider less urgent,” the New York Times reports.

“Asked to identify the Democratic Party’s most important priorities, Americans most often listed abortion, LGBTQ rights and climate change, according to a poll from The New York Times and Ipsos conducted from Jan. 2 to 10.”

“The issues that people cited as most important to them personally were the economy and inflation, health care and immigration, the poll found.”

Washington Post: Democrats are in trouble, and a provocative analysis offers ideas to repair the party.

“As Democrats face the reality of President Trump’s second term, they share a fundamental belief: This moment calls for an inspirational message from their party,” the New York Times reports.

“They just cannot decide what, exactly, that should be.”

“In private meetings and at public events, elected Democrats appear leaderless, rudderless and divided. They disagree over how often and how stridently to oppose Mr. Trump. They have no shared understanding of why they lost the election, never mind how they can win in the future.”