Patricia Murphy: Trump tanks in Georgia. But Democrats do worse.

The results might be a gigantic chance for Georgia Democrats to say, “I told you so!” Except for the fact the only thing less popular than Trump and his policies in the poll is the Democratic Party itself.

Although the president’s approval rating is at 43%, when Georgia voters were asked how they feel about the Democratic Party, just 35% said they have a favorable impression, compared to 58% who have an unfavorable impression. More concerning, some of the disapproval is coming from unexpected quarters, with 35% of liberals, 51% of young voters (people 18-29), and 61% of people with a high school degree or less saying they’re down on the Democrats.

So what gives? I’ve been hearing different versions of the same complaint from Democrats’ most loyal supporters since the president took office. While those voters have been feeling an existential threat from Trump since he’s been back in the White House, they say they’re not seeing an existential response from the Democrats in return.

Alec Angell is an Uber driver from Duluth who considers himself a Democrat. But he said party leaders are “weak little pacifists,” people whose opponent brought a gun to a knife fight — and they don’t even know it.

“Democrats are basically lying down like a dead dog,” he said. “I want them to be as obstructionist as possible. Bar the doors if they have to. They need to protect our Constitution...Th … literally won’t do anything.”

I heard a similar frustration from people who went to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s “Rally for the Republic” last month. Voters there were looking for marching orders about how to push back against Trump. They said they felt like they got a stump speech instead.

“We need to see a different message and a better message. We’re losing the Constitution piece by piece,” said Stephanie Davidson from Atlanta. “I’m well-informed, I care, I vote. I was looking for ways to contribute my energy, and I didn’t get that.”

It was the same frustrated message last week at an Ossoff town hall in Cobb. There, voter after voter looked to the senator for answers about when, where and how Democrats are going to stop Trump’s fire hose of executive orders, mass firings, immigration crackdowns and confrontations with the federal courts.

“Where are the calls for impeachment?” yelled Kate Denny from Avondale. “Do you think there’s nothing that can be done? No. Do something more. I like you, and I will vote for you if you are brave.”

Credit: Jason Allen/AJC

Credit: Jason Allen/AJC

Ossoff said he was there to tell people the truth, and the truth is there’s not much any of them can do to stop Trump in his tracks without a Democratic House and Senate.

But Kenny wasn’t buying it. She told reporters she may not vote for Ossoff after all if she doesn’t see in him the same willingness to fight that she has.

“He works for me. I am his employer,” she reasoned. “I go to a protest and, if he works for me, why isn’t he there? Why aren’t my employees showing up?”

It’s a three-dimensional puzzle for Democrats in Georgia, where no Democrat, including Ossoff, has been elected statewide in the past 20 years without a huge turnout of Democrats and at least some Republicans voting for them.

Should Democrats go hard left to get the base engaged? Or to the center and hope the base comes along?

The contest this weekend for a new chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia could at least partially answer that question.

Charlie Bailey, a lawyer who lost his race for lieutenant governor in 2022, is running against five other hopefuls. He said Democrats need to focus on what people really care about and tell them they have a right to be angry, even at the party’s leaders, for the state of affairs today.

“Being, being active, being vocal, being focused and being real in our communication, just saying it like it is, I think people view that as doing something,” he said.

Wendy Davis, a former Rome city commissioner who challenged Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for her seat in Congress, said Democrats need to also communicate to voters what they’re for.

“We have to go beyond just being louder. We need to show how we would do it differently,” she said.

In reality, the job might be even harder than that. When a president has historically low approval ratings, but the opposition has a rating significantly lower than that, or when your own supporters say you’re “lying down like a dead dog,” or your voters want to know where their employees are, it’s time to start over and redefine what it means to be a Democrat in the first place.

Anything less will put Democrats in last place in Georgia for Trump’s entire time in the White House — and probably long after that.