The New York Times has crowned a fresh Resistance leader to fight back against the fascist Trump/Musk administration: a former establishment neoliberal posing as a populist who makes Hillary Clinton look like a rogue libertarian strapped with an AR-15.

Okay, not actually, though. The new prince in question, Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, is pretty much the male version of Clinton and embodies everything that has made the Democratic Party’s brand unpalatable in the Trump era. Elitist career politician? Check. Pedantic user of the notorious d-word, ‘democracy’? Check. (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)

In a glowing profile, The Times gave Murphy a journalistic tongue bath, raising his status from little-known senator of a tiny New England state to vaunted, national voice on social media for a new generation of liberal politics. But his new position within the party may end up being a gift to President Donald Trump and Republicans precisely because he is no different than those establishment Democrats who came before him.

Murphy has expressed a desire for Democrats to breakaway from decades of neoliberalism, which he describes as the “belief that markets and in particular global markets will work for the benefit of the common good with light adjustments here or there by the government,” and even acknowledged that the Democratic Party’s brand is in shambles and desperate need of rebuilding.

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 4: U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks to a crowd gathered in front of the U.S. Treasury Department in protest of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency on February 4, 2025 in Washington, DC. Several Democratic members of conference joined the rally to protest Musk’s access to the payment system of the Treasury, which houses the private information of millions of Americans. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

“It’s an overwhelming moment,” Murphy said in a recent interview on Wednesday. “Our political brand is fundamentally broken, the rule of law is disintegrating and a lot of people still don’t know what Trump’s actual agenda is.”

He also believes the likes of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders should no longer be treated as cranky radicals and that their left-wing ideas can win back voters who ditched his party for Trump’s.

But at the end of the day, he is a terrible messenger, a person who, as The Times described, “can sound like a high school history teacher giving a civics lesson.” Case in point, he still thinks the majority of Americans get off on the d-words and fascism fear-mongering: Trump is a , Trump is a , Trump is a threat to .

“Dictators and despots, they use law enforcement to try and compel loyalty,” Murphy said in a recent video about the Justice Department dropping charges against Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams. “They threaten you with arrest if you’re not loyal; they will let you get away with crimes if you are loyal. That’s what’s happening in America today.”

During an appearance on ABC earlier in February, the Connecticut senator mimicked his party’s new favorite talking point that Trump is ushering in an unprecedented “constitutional crisis,” and went turbo-charge Resistance mode when the word “democracy” was mentioned. He sounded like a die-hard MSNBC viewer who poured one too many glasses of pinot during Rachel Maddow’s first segment. (RELATED: CNN, MSNBC Hyped ‘Constitutional Crisis’ Over 200 Times Since DOGE Shut Down USAID)

“I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate,” Murphy said. “The President is attempting to seize control of power, and for corrupt purposes.”

“I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly, since Watergate,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy tells @MarthaRaddatz.

“The president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes.” https://t.co/XbLNUK9FRE pic.twitter.com/mzJMn0uscV

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 9, 2025

“Democracies don’t last forever,” the senator declared, “and what those who are trying to destroy democracies want is for everyone to stay quiet, for everyone to believe that the moment isn’t urgent. They want to use violence and the threat of violence and the threat of arrest to keep the opposition at home. We are not going to do this. We see this as a crisis of epic proportions. We are watching the billionaires try to steal government from the people, and I think the broad cross-section of the American public, as you have seen in the last week, is going to rise up and say, enough.”

When was the last time we heard a Democratic politician claim that billionaires and Republicans are conspiring together to turn the United States into a Nazi regime that will quash all the inalienable rights you hold dear? That’s right, just last year, when Kamala Harris, a creature of the establishment, attempted to frame herself as a champion of freedoms and liberal norms but lost big time because Americans could see right through the BS.

Murphy may be making the rounds on YouTube and political podcast shows to reach younger voters, which is smart, but he’s hawking the same old Joe Biden/Harris platform that cost Democrats dearly in 2024: we are the populists, and we are going to protect you from fascists and save American democracy.

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