Democrats Need Real Leaders
Congressional leadership is missing, and it's wasting valuable time.
In Donald Trump’s realm, his penchant for assuming de facto powers of the presidency weeks before inauguration isn’t even a third-tier sin. I find myself struggling to care. Yes, it’s rotten in a “but our norms and institutions!” sort of way, but if Democrats were interested in mounting vigorous opposition to him, it’d be more like a gift. A tip of the hand.
Trump has handed Democrats a blueprint of the repressive state he’d like to build, many weeks before he’ll inherit the power require to build it, and Democrats could in theory warn the public and erect roadblocks before it becomes fait accompli.
On Saturday, Trump announced he’d nominate Kash Patel—one of his most degenerate flunkies—to helm the FBI. The implication is that he intends to fire director Christopher Wray without cause, in violation of the law, and replace him with Patel, or someone else who openly yearns to corrupt federal law enforcement on behalf of MAGA.
Trump has also nominated at least three sex predators to cabinet positions.
He’s promised jobs to family—specifically to both of his daughters’ fathers-in-law, one of whom, Charles Kushner, is a convicted felon whom Trump pardoned in his first term.
Trump has begun shaking down foreign governments and accepting bribes from private interests—textbook corruption, or, in the parlance of a failed mainstream media, an “Unorthodox Campaign to Gain Trump’s Attention.”
These transgressions each present opportunities for Democrats to shape opinion of the Trump administration before it takes power.
Instead, the spectrum of congressional opposition to Trump ranges from total silence to voluntary obeisance. The best we can hope for is pseudo-savvy bluff-calling by progressive leaders who have offered themselves up as constructive legislative partners, anticipating Trump will abandon his dashed-off campaign promises.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in an interview that she would likely work with Trump if he pursues antitrust promises he made on the campaign trail. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he sees himself partnering with Trump to tackle “large corporate consolidations,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on X that he “looked forward” to Trump “fulfilling his promise” to cap credit card interest rates.
Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the resistance icon who popularized the motto “nevertheless, she persisted” while skewering a Trump cabinet pick in 2017, is finding common cause with the president-elect.
“President Trump announced during his campaign that he intended to put a 10 percent interest rate cap on consumer credit,” Warren told POLITICO. “Bring it on.”
But, she added, “if he refuses to follow through on the campaign promises that would help working people, then he should be held accountable.”
It’s all maddeningly naive, just as it was maddening in 2019 and 2020 and then through the Biden presidency, when Democrats convinced themselves that defeating Trump was a simple matter of fulminating about kitchen-table issues.
But supine congressional Democrats create an opening for others: