Boycott The Donald Trump Show
Playing captive to the lies he’ll tell at his coming address to Congress is weak, conveys weakness, and surrenders the whole national stage to him.
There’s one form of mass anger sweeping the country, and it’s all directed at Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and, more recently, JD Vance. (Perhaps he was feeling a bit left out…)
In an irony, we can see the anger most clearly in the reddest states and districts, because that’s where Republican office holders still resemble elected representatives, rather than quislings or Trump vassals. Their electorates are so Republican that they don’t dread town hall events. Letting their MAGA freak flags fly is representative. But they forget that even in 75-25 Trump districts, tens of thousands of voters dislike Trump and grow more impatient with his antics every day.
Because these dustups happen in places that seem unlikely—central Georgia or rural Oregon or flyover country—Trump loyalists have chalked it up to astroturf groups and agents provocateur. Over many years now I have seen both parties make this mistake. If demonstrators are mad at Republicans, it must be due to meddling by groups like Indivisible. If demonstrators are mad at Democrats, they’re surely underwritten by well-heeled lobby shops like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. And though everyone should know better by now, the error is understandable. In our national lore, we tend to decouple the logistical work of organizing and staging from the heroism of public-facing activists, who, we imagine, rise and protest of their own volition, driven by righteous anger. When the people doing the organizing behind the curtain are operatives for corporate front groups or labor unions, it becomes even more tempting to dismiss the significance of the men and women who actually show up to be counted. Just another Brooks Brothers riot.
But the irreducible truth is that nothing like what we’re seeing today can materialize or be sustained if people are literally angry about nothing. Even during the Tea Party, when protesters frequently had no articulable grasp on what had them so upset, or when they said ridiculous things like ‘government hands off my Medicare,’ it didn’t make the fire burning underneath any cooler. The people fanning their anger were surely cynical. But at bottom they were still organizing.
That is the backdrop for today’s politics. If swing-district Republicans weren’t hiding from their constituents, they’d be in for unpleasant encounters. When swing-district Democrats hold town halls, they aren’t spared the anger—it just materializes at them, for not being steadfast enough in their opposition to Trump.
And this is what I hope to impress on them today, when there’s still 24 hours before Donald Trump’s first joint address to Congress. Frontline Democrats are frightened by so many things, but there is only one source of blowback threatening to boil over now, and it’s from these constituents, who understand clearly what is happening to their country and are desperate to stop it. People who show up to congressional town hall events may not be exceptionally well schooled in the fine points of parliamentary procedure, but they know anger and bravery and commitment to principle when they see it, and they want Democrats to demonstrate those emotions and character traits now, even if they aren’t hardwired to any process that might directly undermine Trump’s efforts.
STATE THE DISUNION
There’s a strain of thought in liberal and Democratic circles that is contemptuous or suspicious of expressive politics. The underlying idea is that people who protest tend not to be mindful of the delicate work of building political power, and thus frequently engage in conduct that alienates the center. Likewise, activists who set litmus tests for their elected officials will rarely think through whether the dance they want their representatives to do will materially advance any cause. “Performative” is a malapropism that gets thrown around a lot.
There are surely times when an undiluted ethic of conviction, fully abstracted from any ethic of responsibility, is counterproductive—rioting, say, or vandalizing paintings to raise the salience of climate change. But under the malign influence of consultants, Democratic leaders have reduced politics so completely to the kitchen table, to low-wattage appeals and interactions, that they view impassioned forms of dissent as distractions, and sources of potential blowback.
Faced with calls from these same angry constituents to boycott Trump’s joint address to Congress this week, Democratic leaders have instead encouraged members to ignore the activists and show up to be berated and lied to by an aspiring dictator.
“We ask that House Democrats attending the Joint Address bring a guest who has been harmed by the Trump administration’s early actions or will be hurt by the House Republican budget,” the House Democratic leadership advised members. Just like it were any other State of the Union-style address.
The members they have in mind, the ones they think they’re protecting, represent swing districts. They imagine that attendance will be taken, absences will be noticed, and backlash directed at frontline members who don’t treat Trump with the same respect they’d show a normal statesman.
I would like them all—the leaders and their most chickenshit members alike—to think through the scenario they believe they’re trying to avoid: