It’s not straightforward being a Democrat in these Trumpian occasions, as every day brings recent tales of conquest and pillage.

Nonetheless, regardless of all that, 4,000 stiff-upper-lipped partisans confirmed up in Anaheim over the weekend, looking for solace, inspiration and a successful method ahead.

As mouse-eared pilgrims plied the sidewalks exterior, the get together trustworthy — assembly a number of lengthy blocks from Disneyland — engaged in their very own little bit of escapism and magical considering.

“Joy is an act of resistance,” state get together Chairman Rusty Hicks gamely instructed at a beer-and-wine reception, which opened the get together’s annual three-day conference with as a lot conviviality because the downtrodden may muster.

That’s definitely one approach to cope.

However the weekend gathering wasn’t all hand-wringing and liquid refreshment.

There have been workshops on high of workshops, caucus conferences on high of caucus conferences, and speaker after speaker, wielding numerous iterations of the phrases “fight” and “resist” and dropping sufficient f-bombs to blow decorum and restraint clear to kingdom come.

President Trump — the satan himself, to these roiling contained in the corridor — was derided as a “punk,” “the orange oligarch,” a small-fisted bully, the “thing that sits in the White House” and diverse unprintable epithets.

“My fellow Golden State Democrats, we are the party of FDR and JFK, of Pat Brown and the incomparable Nancy Pelosi,” mentioned a not-so-mild-mannered Sen. Adam Schiff. “We do not capitulate. We do not concede. California does not cower. Not now, not ever. We say to bullies, you can go f— yourself.”

The street from political exile, many Democrats appeared to really feel, is richly paved with four-letter phrases.

A extremely caffeinated New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, of 25-hour filibuster fame, summoned previous glories and urged Democrats to search out their method again to the get together’s grounding ideas, then struggle from there.

“We are here because of people who stood up when they were told to sit down. We’re here because of people who spoke up when they were told to be silent. We’re here because of people who marched in front of fire hoses and dogs,” Booker hollered in his greatest preacherly cadence. “We are here because of people who faced outrageous obstacles and still banded together and said we shall overcome.”

Tim Walz, the get together’s 2024 vice presidential nominee and the weekend’s keynote speaker, was available after jetting from a morning look in South Carolina. He delivered essentially the most thorough and substantive remarks.

He started with a short acknowledgment and because of his 2024 operating mate, Kamala Harris. (She, too, stayed away from the conference whereas pondering her political future. The previous vp’s sole presence was a three-minute video most noteworthy for its drab manufacturing and Harris’ passion-free supply.)

In contrast, Walz gleefully tore into Trump, saying his solely animating impulses have been corruption and greed. He famous the callous hard-heartedness the president and his allies displayed throughout California’s horrific January firestorm.

“They played a game, a blame game, and they put out misinformation about an incredibly tragic situation,” Minnesota’s governor mentioned. “They didn’t have the backs of the firefighters. They didn’t hustle to get you the help you needed. They hung you out to dry.”

Retaining with the weekend’s expletive-laden spirit, Walz blasted Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bull—” laws and mocked congressional Republicans because the “merry band of dips—” who lend him their timeless assist.

However a lot of his 30-minute speech was dedicated to flaying his personal get together — “like a deer … in goddamned headlights” — saying Democrats can blame solely themselves for being so feckless and off-putting they made the odious Trump appear preferable by comparability.

“There is an appetite out there across this country to govern with courage and competency, to call crap where it is, to not be afraid, to make a mistake about things, but to show people who you truly are and that they don’t have to wonder who the Democratic Party is,” Walz mentioned to a roaring ovation.

“Are you going to go to a cocktail party with somebody who’s super rich and then pass a law that benefits them?” he demanded. “[Or] are you going to work your ass off and make sure our kids get a good education?”

And but for all of the cursing and swagger and bluster, there was an unmistakable air of tension pervading the glassy conference heart. It is a get together in want of restore and lots of, from the conference ground to the hospitality suites, acknowledged as a lot.

Alex Dersh, a 27-year-old first-time delegate from San Jose, mentioned his younger friends — “shocked by Trump’s election” — have been particularly anticipating change. They only can’t agree, he mentioned, on what that ought to be.

Certainly, there have been seemingly as many prescriptions on supply in Anaheim as there have been delegates. (Greater than 3,500 by official depend.)

Anita Scuri, 75, a retired Sacramento legal professional attending her third or fourth conference, instructed the get together must get again to fundamentals by talking plainly — she mentioned nothing about profanity — and specializing in folks’s pocketbooks.

“It’s the economy, stupid,” she mentioned, recycling the message of Invoice Clinton’s successful 1992 marketing campaign. “It’s focusing on the lives people are living.”

Gary Borsos mentioned Democrats must cease dumbing-down their message and likewise stop harping on the president.

“There’s a lot of ‘Trump is bad,’ ” mentioned the 74-year-old retired software program engineer, who rode eight hours by practice from Arroyo Grande to attend his first conference.

“What we’re doing is coming up with a lot of Band-Aid solutions to problems of the day,” Borsos mentioned. “We’re not thinking long-term enough.”

Neither, nonetheless, expressed nice confidence of their get together going ahead.

“I’m hopeful,” Scuri mentioned. “Not optimistic.”