The anger fueling the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez barnstorming tour

Democrats have sometimes seemed confused about how to confront the second Trump administration, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are responding with boldness. They are roving across red states — and drawing big crowds — with a series of anti-Trump rallies.

The duo took Sanders' "Fighting Oligarchy" tour "deep into Trump territory this week," said The Associated Press. What's more, they are seeing the same crowds "they got in liberal and battleground states" earlier on the tour. A Monday rally in Boise, Idaho, drew 12,500 people in a county that has 11,902 registered Democrats. An earlier event in Salt Lake City pulled a reported 20,000 attendees. "When it comes to standing up to Trumpism there is no such thing as a red state," said Sanders on X on Sunday. The events offer a "dose of hope to progressives living in the places where they're most outnumbered," said the AP.

A party looking for 'fighters'

Democratic voters are "terrified, angry and desperate for leadership," said Lauren Gambino at The Guardian. They see much of their party's leadership as "unable or unwilling to stand up to [Trump]." Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, both self-identified Democratic socialists on the leftward edge of the party, are "stepping in to fill the void."

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The big crowds for Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez do not mean Democrats are "clamoring for the party to become more progressive," said Perry Bacon Jr. at The Washington Post. They are furious at figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), whom they perceive as "hesitant to take on President Donald Trump and Elon Musk." What rank-and-file party activists want "aren't necessarily socialists, but fighters." If Kamala Harris, Barack Obama or any other "center-left Democrat with a national following" went on tour, "they, too, would draw big crowds."

Attendees at the rallies are frightened that the "country they'd always counted on" is "sliding away because of Trump," said Megan K. Stack at The New York Times. They are "wondering how much leaner things could get" if a recession hits. And they are alarmed as Trump and Musk upend parts of government that "long seemed as unremarkable and permanent as boulders." But Sanders is saying the same things he always has. His longstanding warnings about oligarchy now seem "prescient and thoroughly relevant."

'A vehicle for their anger'

If AOC is the Democratic Party's future, the "party is even worse off than we think," said Rich Lowry at the National Review. The New York congresswoman is being spoken of as a "potential primary challenger to Schumer, and even a national leader for Democrats." She may be "charismatic and adept at social media," but her "woke" politics make Ocasio-Cortez a "cartoonish version of the Democratic Party that the GOP hopes to run against."

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are giving voters a "place to gather, scream, and feel a little less helpless," said John Hendrickson at The Atlantic. Democrats lost to Trump "because they've become the party of elites." The duo may point to a way back. "What Sanders and AOC are addressing" is that "people want a vehicle for their anger."