no official democrat is touring and drawing crowds like Berrnie's. do we even have any
dems with the star power to get those crowds...or any crowds of size? Or any democrats who want to tour like Bernie is doing? Desperately seeking Susan here
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I have a few friends in the House and Senate, all Democrats, and I can tell you that their schedules are always crazy full, even when we are in the minority. They are constantly traveling back to their home states, meeting with constituents of all stripes, trying to get a grasp on what environmental, educational or business issues are of vital importance back home. It is also of vital importance to try to maintain lines of communication to the other side, if only for occasional damage control. When my brother and I had our “Marks and Johns” dinner in D.C. with three Senate Democrats, two Republican Senators at a table just outside the room popped in to say hi and spend a minute.
On a side note, you would have burst out laughing when the two Republicans, who obviously knew their Democratic colleagues, gave my brother and me the “who the hell are those two guys?” look. Secret behind-the-scenes Democratic movers and shakers? Sons of George Soros? But they did’t ask and we didn’t tell them. If they asked later, they probably would just have gotten the answer, “oh, those guys? Just two guys we know, no one important,” which would no doubt have just reinforced their suspicions that we were indeed secret powers behind the scenes 
They are a really diverse group, even just the ones I know. From the married gay woman in Minnesota to the wicked smart Jewish guy from Georgia. Most are never available on weekends because they are meeting with constituents in their home districts/states. The notion that they have nothing else to do when out of power may fit a certain convenient narrative, but I promise you that narrative is as false as a pillar dollar dated 1879. Fourteen years ago, one friend of mine that took her duty to be regularly available to her district’s constituents seriously got a bullet in the head for her trouble. We had just rung in the New Year together in South Carolina, planned to have dinner in DC two weeks later. But she felt the obligation to be publicly available to her constituents as much as possible.
Don’t confuse being a State Senator with being a US Senator. In many states, being a member of the State Senate is a part time job. I know enough members of the US Senate to confidently state that anyone of them that does not treat their job like a full-time job does a disservice to his/her constituents, and none of my acquaintances do that.
I especially like the pillar dollar reference 
Broad strokes tend to omit a lot of details, and you kindly filled in many of them. Of course members of Congress have important duties related to their specific offices, I don't means to suggest otherwise. The point that I wanted to emphasize is, at base, a simple one.
We have no high profile obvious leader of the National Democratic Party right now. Minority leaders in the House or Senate don't have enough power to simply assume that status unless they win it through their own force of personality and charisma. Neither, for the moment, has. And regardless of the title he holds the public never viewed a Chair of the DNC as the leader of the Democratic Party. Yet it has never been more important for the Democratic message to be amplified nation wide.
We are not in normal times The U.S. constitution is unraveling before our eyes. The United States Government is being dismantled, and all potentially profitable elements of it are headed off to the auction block. Virtually everything else is being starved out of existence. The legislative majorities in Congress refuse to engage in oversight, and literally recoil at the prospect of holding the Trump regime accountable for anything. Without strong public backing, the Courts alone are incapable of holding the line.They are about to be steamrolled by an unchecked Executive branch.
All prior assumptions about the responsibilities of Members of Congress to their constituents and the public have to be reexamined in the above light. All assumed priorities for the use of their time have to be revisited and revised in light of the crisis faced. Bi-partisanship still exists in theory inside the Halls of Congress, but functionally it is a hollow rite until Republicans inside those halls find the voice to publicly oppose unconstitutional administration actions, and those detrimental to our National Security. We need leaders for the Resistance today, and the public to a large extent is judging the Democratic Party by the roll its congressional members are taking on in that fight.
