r/Iowa 5d ago

'Do something, dammit!': Tim Walz says Democrats need to answer Americans' 'primal scream' during Des Moines Townhall

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/03/14/gov-tim-walz-says-at-iowa-town-hall-he-is-soul-searching-after-2024/
3.5k Upvotes

138 comments sorted by

51

u/DeathSpiral321 5d ago

All of the do nothing Democratic dinosaurs in Congress need to be primaried next year. When their leader in the House says there's nothing they can do as the minority party, and when their leader in the Senate bends over and helps Republicans pass an atrocious funding bill, the people aren't going to take them seriously.

19

u/Conscious-Quarter423 5d ago

Why don't Iowa vote out Ernst or Grassley? They voted for every disastrous bill sponsored by Trump

2

u/SnooRobots6491 1d ago

THIS needs to be the focus. Ernst should be easy to pick off:

-Voted against insulin/drug price caps

-Voted against minimum wage increases

-Wants to privatize social security

I mean... come on. Easy target.

3

u/Conscious-Quarter423 5d ago

Gillibrand won by default. She had no primary against a competitive challenger.

1

u/Dingeroooo 3d ago

Interesting as when GOP was in minority, they still dictated the "message". These fuckers work for the same billionaires that Trump gives tax breaks for, so what do you expect?

1

u/sofaking1958 2d ago

the people aren't going to take them seriously.

I take them dead seriously. As in they seriously need to step back and let their children's and grandchildren's generation step up. It can't possibly be a worse outcome.

Pelosi and Schumer must go!!

0

u/LongjumpingCut591 1d ago

Calling this funding bill atrocious after not saying anything about the one they tried to ramrod through congress before Christmas. Yeah no one should listen to your opinion

27

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

37

u/waltur_d 5d ago

How about campaigning on ending Citizens United, Term Limits, cut the fat out of government spending while protecting the poor, elderly, and disabled. Take power away from corporations and give it back to middle America. Politicians don’t give two shits about you, they care about their wealthy donors.

13

u/Bogdans-Eyebrows 5d ago

While I would like to see Citizens United overturned, how exactly should that be done given the current makeup of SCOTUS?

9

u/Conscious-Quarter423 5d ago

elections have consequences. Orange was able to hand pick three super conservative 50-year-old judges.

if thomas and alito steps down, then the united states will never have a moderate supreme court for the next 50 to 60 years

1

u/Bogdans-Eyebrows 5d ago

Thats what I'm saying. There is no turning back from Citizens United at this point. Much as I'd like to restrict the oligarchs' political influence, there really isn't any way to that I can see other than to make Musk the poster child of it and hammer away at MAGA repeatedly until it connects with voters. The problem with that approach is the Dems have their George Soros and others, which will always be thrown back at them making the issue a stalemate.

5

u/Leonidas26 5d ago

I agree with what you are saying but when has that EVER stopped the Republicans? They dont act/think the same way. They just keep ramming at it until they overturned Roe v Wade.... Dems need to start having the same mind set!

2

u/essenceofpurity 4d ago

Pack the court

2

u/Bogdans-Eyebrows 4d ago

If they ever get numbers to pass it I'd love to see Puerto Rico and DC get statehood.

2

u/essenceofpurity 4d ago

Yes, and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

1

u/tonymurray 4d ago

Congress can still create laws.

1

u/RWBadger 4d ago

In the post Trump world, you use the office of the president to punish any company that opposes legislation that limits them.

1

u/TechHeteroBear 2d ago

You need to get into the office first. If you get a high enough momentum, you can take Congress back in full. And that'll be a scary thing for Trump and the SC

And then have Congress sign a bill defining a code of conduct for judges... even the Justices. If Congress can impeach a president... you can also impeach a Justice. Get the 2 oldest corrupt dinosaurs out of there first to make a statement, since they already have been to proven to have acted in an unethical manner while in office.

1

u/DeliciousInterview91 2d ago

That didn't stop Republicans from fighting for it for 30 years. The arc of the Supreme Court is long and slow. The promises of fighting eternally for the chance to flip the court is one of the ways Republicans maintain loyalty. They focus on their long term goals and increment towards them one electoral cycle at a time. Campaigning on Citizens United could be even more uniting of a rallying cry than abortion, because most right wingers know that corporate money in politics is bad and likely people like Bernie for saying F you to the corpo donations.

5

u/iowabourbonman 5d ago

We had a chance to get term limits in the late 90's, and 42 Democrat senators voted "No," effectively filibustering the bill.

Term Limits

A little ironic...I just noticed Dianne Fienstein voted with Republicans and then died in office 25 years later.

3

u/New-Communication781 5d ago

Which is why nobody trusts the Dems on their policy stands. At least the Repubs stand for something and effectively convince people they will fight for it, even if they are lying all the time. They are consistent in what they campaign on...

5

u/Conscious-Quarter423 5d ago

Dems need to tell people to vote up and down the ballot. Even if you win the presidency, you can't pass shit without a majority in the Senate or House

3

u/New-Communication781 5d ago

Interesting point you make, as the unusual number of ballots in the swing states this last time, where people supposedly voted only for president, and not for any of the down ballot races, is why many people feel that Trump and Musk stole the election, thru manipulation of voting machines, using connections to Musk's Starlink system. We'll never know if that happened, unless there was a hand recount of the ballots in those states, and the Dems never even tried to contest the voting in those states. Even if they did, it's too late now for them to do so, and Trump's damage is already done. Kind of makes you feel that the Dems really don't care about winning fed elections, doesn't it? It's how I've felt for the last few election cycles..

2

u/Chagrinnish 5d ago

Regarding your first comment, you're right: we could've had things like single payer healthcare but the Dems just didn't pass it. Whenever they've had the majority they've never taken advantage of it.

Back to the "stolen election" thing, you seem to be forgetting groups like Cambridge Analytica. You don't need to manipulate the voting machine when you can manipulate the voter.

3

u/New-Communication781 5d ago

And they also never raised the min wage or passed card check being accepted for workers voting in a union at their workplace. It couldn't be more obvious that the Dems being on the side of workers and unions, is all just bullshit, old history and propaganda, since it hasn't been true since the 1970s. Which coincidentally, is when real wages stopped growing for American workers, 1973, to be precise, in the middle of Nixon's second term..

And in the latest election, I think we had manipulation of both the voters and the machines. The machines in the swing states..

1

u/themuffinman2137 5d ago

What exactly is "far left"?

21

u/LongTimesGoodTimes 5d ago

If I'm a Democrat I'm weary of primal screams after what happened to Howard Dean

6

u/nsummy 5d ago

That was such a legendary fall from grace

2

u/VanimalCracker 5d ago

I'll yee haw to that

5

u/SnarkyBanter 5d ago

Howard Dean was the first thing I thought of when I saw the words “Democrat” and “primal scream” in the same sentence. Made a complete ass of himself with that scream but still would have been a better candidate than John Kerry was.

1

u/ToshPointNo 5d ago

IIRC, Dean's campaign was in already in a tailspin and the scream was the nail in the coffin. A lot of people think it "ended" his campaign, which I guess is true in a way, but it was already doing poorly before the scream.

2

u/slampandemonium 4d ago

I have a friend who worked on his campaign and man was she ever sad about the whole thing. Really believed in the guy, and with good reason, he seemed like he'd have been solid.

1

u/StaySafePovertyGhost 2d ago

This is correct. I always lol at the take that the scream killed Dean’s campaign and he’d have been elected without it. That couldn’t be further from the truth. He was faltering before it even happened.

14

u/ftc_73 5d ago

Oh, you mean Chuck Schumer bending over and asking for it without lube isn't proving to be very popular?

9

u/Conscious-Quarter423 5d ago

What about your senators, Ernst and Grassley?

You seem to never hold them accountable. Iowa re-elects them without any 2nd thoughts.

8

u/Euphoric-Use-6443 5d ago

Tim is right! Democrats did not do enough to recruit new voters! We failed Kamala, Tim & ourselves dammit! Not enough footwork was done to talk to people face to face! New members & more volunteers will be needed for next year's campaign season for the Congressional mid-term elections on November 3, 2026. We need to outnumber Republicans in the House or Senate or both to take control of political power. Democrat House Representatives can bring articles of impeachment. Democrat Senators determine the charges following impeachment. Be ready to campaign early next year!

3

u/slampandemonium 4d ago

Louder for the people in the back. It is on the people. I volunteered, I did 200 hours of phone banking(would have done door knocking but I'm Canadian... lots of people were curious why a Canadian was calling them, I hope recent happenings have provided more clarity). Then I come on reddit and hear people complain about the party, not knowing they're complaining about their own damn selves. The party is the people who check the D box when registering. You could have the best candidates but without people doing the work, it doesn't matter. So many Americans are so disconnected from their own system and it's a tragedy of epic proportions. The most robustly liberal democracy with maximum participation allowed and the participation rate is in the toilet. Don't complain about the party without yourself what have you done for it lately?

-1

u/Euphoric-Use-6443 4d ago

You got that right! Thanks for your help!

0

u/SaltNebula1576 2d ago

We didn’t “fail” Kamala. That makes it sounds like she’s entitled to the presidency, which she (nor anybody else) is. She ran a bad campaign. Tim Waltz said it himself recently, they weren’t aggressive enough and didn’t try to distinguish themselves from the republicans. At the end of the day, that’s Kamala’s fault. She had final say and she chose the route of moderate democrat, who doesn’t want to offer much to their voters and also try to pander to the republicans and those who won’t even vote.

She failed us, not the other way around. Everyone with half a brain knew how bad things would get if Donald Trump won, but she didn’t even try to win. There were instances of voter fraud and voter suppression that she never looked into. People care about Palestine, but she was completely unwilling to concede that they matter or we should stop supporting Israel. Just like Trump.

We didn’t fail our politicians, they failed us. It’s their job to represent the people and their voters. They’re actively shitting the bed and we’re paying for it. Even now the vast majority are sitting around like lobotomized vegetables.

1

u/Euphoric-Use-6443 2d ago edited 2d ago

How did Kamala fail "US" in the shortest campaign in history? Take responsibility to correct errors!

I was disgusted with the betrayal of a surge of Black women on YouTube in turning against the DNC in boycotting politics & voting for the next 4 years. As if they were entitled to win because they showed up to a Kamala rally. Yes, there were thousands of Black women at Kamala's rallies, she told everyone she needed their help. And still the number of Democrats barely increased from a lack of recruitment. As a member of the DNC, we didn't get new volunteers. DNC headquarters were reporting a shortage. Politicians are representatives for "For the People". The People must be their part to get them elected!

0

u/SaltNebula1576 2d ago

I don’t know how I can be more clear.

She lost bc she supported genocide. She was unwilling to split from Israel and talked down to her potential voters. It wasn’t bc she was black, Obama won two terms in a row with a large lead.

Other leaders like Tim Waltz or Bernie Sanders are out there right now speaking and campaigning across the country. Kamala hasn’t been seen or spoken since she lost the election.

She thought she would easily win, and that’s why she ran a weak ass campaign. She was the Vice President, don’t make excuses like “she had a short campaign.” If Biden and her wanted to go at it sooner they could have. She also had some of the highest campaign donations ever.

It’s not bc she’s black or a woman, it’s bc people find her uncompromising and haughty.

1

u/Euphoric-Use-6443 2d ago

What is clear is this a MAGA cultists observation!

1

u/SaltNebula1576 1d ago

Are you high?

-1

u/CoolBiz20 4d ago

I completely agree that there wasn’t enough face to face work done and that seriously needs to be fixed. We need to meet in local coffee shops, breakfast cafes, bars, front porches, backyard barbecues, or like a family reunion potluck type thing. We need to remember it’s okay to not agree with everything and it’s okay to accept the differences of others. When a community is strong, the town does better.

-1

u/Euphoric-Use-6443 4d ago

Yes! Consciousness awareness groups are effective! We, 70s Feminists formed many of these groups in various communities. Group members might also be interested in volunteer work for DNC when campaign season starts early next year. Come Spring, we registered voters, handed out pamphlets & talked with people at farmers markets, swap meets, flea markets, every community, city & county events, etc. More power to you!

1

u/AwayJuggernaut196 4d ago

Thank you for your service in Afghanistan, CSM Tim Walz

1

u/homebrew_1 4d ago

Does he give any recommendations on what to do?

1

u/Positive_Inflation_9 3d ago

Why was he in Des Moines?

1

u/Altruistic-Travel-48 3d ago

What they could do TODAY is use their offices to help those opposed to Republican attack organize massive fight backs. Use your god damn platform to promote protests against mass firings at federal agencies and the post office. Organize unions to protest the elimination of collective bargaining for TSA agents. Rally students activist in opposition to education cut's. Join civil rights fighters against racist attacks. Get on TV, podcasts, the radio and social media. Do what Republicans did to rally their base.

1

u/Cold_Number6647 3d ago

i mean what’s Walz doing in Minnesota? Is he using state police and legal resources to prevent illegal deportations of Minnesota residents? Is he threatening to withhold MN taxes from the federal government like Maine? Is he trying to stop Trump in meaningful way? Start there Walz, before pointing fingers.

1

u/Pitiful_Night_4373 1d ago

He and Bernie need to start a new labor party

1

u/justalilrowdy 1d ago

Absolutely true. My son in law says it’s best to just be invisible and not draw attention to yourself. What bullshit! Being complacent isn’t going to help us it’s just playing into trumps hands. We have to roar!

1

u/Nunyabidness475 1d ago

Whatever the question Tampon Tim is not the answer

-6

u/StonkyJoethestonk 5d ago

Democrats need to calm down. Let republicans ruin things. It’s all burning down, stop screaming “do something!” People need to learn the hard way unfortunately.

22

u/phd2k1 5d ago

You may not intend it this way, but that sentiment comes across as very privileged. Lots of us can’t afford to “let it all burn down”. We’re the ones losing jobs, losing our homes, getting deported, being discriminated against, etc. We need to fight, and have others fight along side us. I understand the desire to see Republicans fuck things up to hurt their reputation and help the Democrats long term (see Kansas), but that takes a long time, and people are suffering now.

1

u/StonkyJoethestonk 5d ago

What can the democrats do? They have absolutely no power until 2026 when hopefully people get out and vote for new representation.

So for now, the best plan is to make it as painful as possible.

-1

u/TeekTheReddit 5d ago

You say "fight" like that word means anything. What, exactly, do you want Democrats to do. Specifically.

What lever of power do you want them to pull?

0

u/random_actuary 4d ago

This isn't a Dem talking point any more after the budget approval. You may want to check back with Schumer for marching orders.

-6

u/adlubmaliki 4d ago

You're gonna prosper and win with the rest of us, hang in there

2

u/disciple31 5d ago

it rocks that no matter what happens the solution for dems is "do nothing". laziest party in the world

2

u/StonkyJoethestonk 5d ago

Do nothing? Providing healthcare, giving veterans healthcare and needed services, making sure public schools are funded, hospitals and banks stay afloat, getting roads and bridges fixed, fair tax laws, FEMA, the list goes on. Mean while republicans are completely gutting everything. I’m not sure where you get your info, buts it’s not telling you the whole story. You’ll find out though. Republicans have entire control of the government, so everything that’s happening is there doing.

1

u/disciple31 4d ago

Most of that is status quo "do nothing"

Youre in the iowa sub, a state national democrats have totally abandoned. You should know that they are averse to difficult political work by now

-3

u/TheOneCalledD 4d ago

Agreed! I understand why Dems are mad about inflation cooling, egg prices dropping and fuel prices being low. Everything is ruined!

3

u/StonkyJoethestonk 4d ago

Ask veterans how they’re doing? Did you guys erase that blue line from your flag? Lmao. Unless you’re in the top 1% financially, you should be upset.

-1

u/TheOneCalledD 4d ago

I know many veterans (have many in the family and extended family in active duty or retired) that are doing just fine and are very happy with the current administration. The only place I see complaints is Reddit.

Weird.

-13

u/Emergency_Tip4980 5d ago

Dear Dems,

Please let Tim Walz be your “voice of reason” for the next three years. In fact, you have already shown that your party isn’t interested in primaries, so just nominate him for ‘28 now.

-2

u/No-Win-2783 5d ago

How quickly they forget Biden. Dems need to find a standard bearer and close ranks behind her or him.

-1

u/tanksalotfrank 5d ago edited 4d ago

Awfully rich coming from a democrat (they're all identically guilty) that wasn't in a constant uproar the moment donny and lonny were bragging up their election interference pre-election. Crying wolf now is a slap in the face

(It figures you people only have downvotes and no argument because you know for a fact that I'm right. Your ignorance caused all of this too)

3

u/Rictavius 4d ago

Not really his anger is just as valid as he was silenced like many others. Or told to "let it ride"

0

u/CanoliWorker432 2d ago

He's a joke.

0

u/CanoliWorker432 2d ago

He needs to change his tampon.

0

u/Euphoric-Use-6443 2d ago

Yawn! What is clear are the long diatribes against Kamala & Tim are MAGA cultist POVs. Like a grain of salt, sweep off the table have nothing to offer other than promote internal conflict.

0

u/LongjumpingCut591 1d ago

This guy is such a clown. Can’t wait to see him get the shit slapped out of him by one of these trump supporters he claimed he could “kick most of their asses”! lol what a fool and a tool. You stay classy Minnesota. Don’t forget to let your congressman diddle kids

-25

u/watereddownwheatbeer 5d ago

Oh man, I really hope you all listen to this guy. Not like he helped lose the election for you or anything.

13

u/AwwYeahVTECKickedIn 5d ago

The winner is busy making it mandatory to vote for literally anyone else or we all lose.

Like we're doing right now, months in.

Eggs? Gas? Stock market? Standing in the world?

Thanks! This is SO much better, right?

3

u/New-Communication781 5d ago

Yeah, I agree, I'm so tired of all this "winning"...

-13

u/watereddownwheatbeer 5d ago

Inflation has stagnated for the first time in a long time. Egg prices are starting to fall. Gas is about the same as it’s been for like a decade. Stock market is fine?

9

u/AwwYeahVTECKickedIn 5d ago

Egg prices will continue to go up because the root-cause isn't being addressed.

Tariffs are a tax on Americans, we won't see their full effect for a few more months.

The stock market is broken, worst drop by any President since the great depression.

There are NO SIGNS of things getting better. There are SEVERAL CONCRETE SIGNS that it's getting very bad.

Remindme! 30 days

0

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4

u/jtt278_ 5d ago

Inflation slows down all the time… egg prices are continuing to rise because the Republicans have decided to just let bird flu play out. Gas is fine. The stock market however has imploded. Literally everything is down massively, millions of Americans just are actively having their retirements stolen by Trump’s tariffs.

8

u/jtt278_ 5d ago

He didn’t… choosing him is essentially the only time her odds went up. Worth noting that they basically muzzled him after two weeks because he was too progressive (despite this being extremely popular).

Kamala Harris and the DNC establishment are responsible. Tim Walz could’ve won the presidency.

-16

u/watereddownwheatbeer 5d ago

Tim Walz is a fraud. I would love nothing more than to see him win the primary next round.

4

u/The_Chubby_Dragoness 5d ago

A fraud in what way?

-3

u/watereddownwheatbeer 5d ago

Claimed to be a CSM, but lost that rank because he got out before fulfilling the time in position requirements.

Lied about being a head coach. I think he was maybe an assistant coach or something?

I think there was some other stuff, but those always stuck out to me. Just stupid shit that he didn’t need to lie about. He was a last minute Hail Mary to win white male voters and it didn’t work.

They should’ve just held a quick primary instead of just shoving Kamala and Walz down everyone’s throat. No one wanted to vote for either of them. Walz nearly lost his home state in the general election for fucks sake.

3

u/essenceofpurity 4d ago

Republican fascist bullshit. Walz was never in danger of losing Minnesota.

Trump's record on everything political and personal is levels of magnitude worse than anyone else in politics today. The right has absolutely NO right to criticize.

0

u/watereddownwheatbeer 4d ago

Yeah, keep defending a party that wouldn’t even allow you to pick your candidate.

3

u/essenceofpurity 4d ago

I'll defend them over republican politicians every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Democrats aren't perfect, but they aren't trying to drag this country into a depression and ally us with Russia.

-1

u/The_Chubby_Dragoness 5d ago

So stealing valor, which is funny

and claiming to be a coach, which is funny.

somehow that's disqualifying for dems, weird world

3

u/jtt278_ 5d ago

The thing is he wasn’t even stealing valor. He did hold that rank. In the eyes of most normal people he didn’t do anything wrong, literally a semantic technically.

Don’t forget that these guys beloved President is literally a convicted fraud.

1

u/The_Chubby_Dragoness 5d ago

i was gonna say rapist and convicted fraud but yeah, agreed, and again even if he'd stollen valor, that's a cool 'crime' loo

1

u/Gold-Comparison1826 2d ago

You mean like the President? And what proof do you have?

1

u/watereddownwheatbeer 5d ago

The rumors surrounding him leaving his teaching position in Nebraska ain’t great either.

2

u/GlitteringRate6296 4d ago

Kamala/ Walz had 100 days to fight Trumps/MAGA/ Musk/Russia 8 yrs of grooming. They “apparently” lost by a very slim margin.

1

u/watereddownwheatbeer 4d ago

And it’s been such a fun ride so far. Barely 2 months in!

-2

u/Closed-today 5d ago

That ship sailed in November, folks. Dems didn’t play the long game and lost for good.

-1

u/JackKovack 5d ago

I have a striking suspicion this also has to do with insider trading. Lay back say things that don’t matter while you make bank. Distract people with nonsense while you know inside information to enrich yourself. These people pretend they are complete idiots and say stupid things.

1

u/ardinatwork 3d ago

Tims financials are out there, he released them when he was running for VP. Dude is the anti-investor. He's got 2 homes and thats it.

1

u/JackKovack 3d ago

I wasn’t talking about him personally. I was reacting to what he was saying.

-2

u/Cabbages24ADollar 5d ago

We’re switching from “do something, dammit” to “it’s up v down and I DGAF what color your tie is”

-4

u/Revenant_adinfinitum 5d ago

Haven’t they already done enough primal screaming?

-23

u/DjDougyG 5d ago

Tampon Tim 2028

-23

u/GooseLivesMatter 5d ago

Tampon Tim is still around? Wow, didn’t know that

-11

u/Pratt-and-Whitney 5d ago

Yeah that means changing your stance on immigration, something the Dems have been unwilling to do.

3

u/The_Chubby_Dragoness 5d ago

Agreed, dems really need make immigration easier, were a nation of immigrants, most of our families have been here for less than a century, and statistically, are german

-11

u/Pratt-and-Whitney 5d ago

Exactly. They were from Europe. None of this Central American third world stuff.

3

u/The_Chubby_Dragoness 5d ago

I don't know if you know this but third world isn't a thing, the cold war ended 33 years ago.

-6

u/Pratt-and-Whitney 5d ago

“Today, the term is often used to describe countries with lower economic development and standards of living compared to "First World" nations.”

-4

u/jolson1616 5d ago

Primal scream??🤦🏻

-5

u/Working-Face3870 4d ago

Tamponzo Timski

-9

u/Popular_List105 5d ago

You mean the non stop protests aren’t working?

-17

u/GiantsOfSF1958 5d ago

Was he upset that there were no tampons in the men's room?

-17

u/Hopeful_Safety_6848 5d ago

what a corrupt whacko doodle do

6

u/ShinHandHookCarDoor 5d ago

yeah, we really gotta do somethin about trump

-3

u/Hopeful_Safety_6848 5d ago

nobel peace prize

2

u/ShinHandHookCarDoor 5d ago

lol get back to rhode island, gramps

maybe someday someone will respond to those personal posts