‘These aren’t normal times’: Frustrated Democrats demand their leaders do more to meet the moment

On a Friday afternoon in downtown Philadelphia, dozens gather on the corner of South 2nd and Chestnut streets. A mix of retirees and fired federal workers, they are teeming with fury, but not just toward President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the early actions of the administration.

On a Friday afternoon in downtown Philadelphia, dozens gather on the corner of South 2nd and Chestnut streets. A mix of retirees and fired federal workers, they are teeming with fury, but not just toward President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the early actions of the administration. They are also acutely angry at a fellow Democrat: Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. These people represent the roughly 73% of Democratic voters in a recent CNN/SSRS poll who say the party’s caucus in Congress is doing too little to oppose Trump. In their view, Fetterman and other Washington Democrats are enabling illegal firings across the federal workforce and the erosion of the rule of law. “I understand the importance of bipartisanship in normal times. But these aren’t normal times,” said Robert Lipartito, a 69-year-old retired music librarian from Pennsport. Lipartito argues the party needs to be more dogmatic and is not sympathetic to the needle that purple-state Democrats believe they must thread. “It’s not just a matter of trying to find consensus when someone is literally dismantling our institutions right before our eyes and turning on our allies. I mean, there’s no middle ground for that,” he said. The group of protesters, organized by a local offshoot of Indivisible, a progressive movement created in 2016 after Trump first took the White House, marched from Fetterman’s Philadelphia field office to Independence National Historic Park chanting “Stand up for us” as people passing by honked and cheered.