Would the following be part of a viable platform for the next candidate? Or would it be better to just do it, if elected, without explicitly campaigning on the points? In other words, stick to the economy and (maybe) foreign affairs. A revenge campaign, alone, won’t work. I understand that. Issues that voters care about need to be the main part of any platform. That said, the USSC is giving the president enormous power and, IMHO, and it needs to be used to undo the damage. What Trump is doing cannot be allowed to stand.
Fire every member of the vaccine commission and every agency head appointed under Trump.
Remove Trumps name from from buildings, visas, “accounts” and anything else he’s attached it to.
Dismantle whatever his grand ballroom ends up being. Give the contract to a big donor. Better yet, allow members of the public to come in with sledge hammers.
Fire every ICE agent hired under Trump
Fire anyone related to DOGE and restore USAID
Prosecute, if sufficient evidence exists, anyone not pardoned by Trump when he finally goes. (This will likely be a very low number).
Essentially, undo almost everything he’s done. A lesson needs to be learned.
That would be a terrible platform and would show Democrats have learned nothing previous failures. Voters want to hear how you will help them afford food and a housing. They don’t want to hear about your vendetta against the last guy. You probably should do those things, but it isn’t what you run on.
Mostly the latter. Mostly. Things like ‘fire everyone’ and ‘remove Trump’s name’ sounds too petty and vindictive and opens a Democratic candidate (not necessarily a Republican one, different bases respond differently to different tactics) to attacks that do them no good. It would be trivially easy for example to find a recent ICE hire that has spent all of Trump’s term pushing innocuous paperwork at a desk while donating half their salary to orphanages and animal shelters.
What you can campaign on is more positive sounding things like pledging to restore USAID at some level. Pure Trump hatred, no matter how understandable or relatable, will not win elections. Have to campaign for something rather than just against something, particularly as it is highly likely Trump himself will not be campaigning. At least we all hope…
If and when a Democrat is again president, there will need to be deMAGAfication. It’s will be both essential and very hard to get right. Swing voters will not want it done in a vengeful way.
Maybe I am missing it, but I do not see how someone could get the Democratic nomination without addressing deMAGAfication.
I think there should be sone sort of deMAGAfication commission or court to review generals, admirals, and members of the Senior Executive Service for loyalty to democracy. It will be extremely difficult.
As for just firing all the admirals and generals appointed under Hegseth, that would be a practical and political mistake.
People like Dan Bongino and Kash Patel will have to go. That’s on the easy side.
Almost surely, whomever Trump appoints to be the Federal Reserve chair has to go. That will be hard.
It’s not just a matter of who you fire, but also who you replace them with. You need people who have integrity, but also have a chance of not all being fired the moment the Republicans get back in. This means a bunch have to be anti-Trump Republicans.
P.S. Avoid the word denazification. That’s the model (except no Nuremberg hangman), but swing voters will not like that word. It has no practical benefit.
Again, petty and vindictive got Trump elected. But what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gander. What Trump can get away with isn’t necessarily what everyone can get away with. It’s hypocritical and unfair, but then so is the world and every single human being in it.
Normally, all appointed politicos turn in their resignation.
DOGE is gone, but once the agents have been on the job for a year- passing probation, they are protected, Doing this will be a trump-like move. Of course, re-training, and transfers (to Boarder Patrol?) will occur.
Yep.
We can dig up Senator McCarthy, old tail-gunner Joe. No. They will be sideways demoted and transferred, pushed to retire, all quietly.
Once, but it was mostly lying, as all Right Wing Populists do. Is that where we want to go?
That could work with some of the generals and admirals. I dislike punishment and am fine with letting them keep their pensions.
But suppose Lee Zeldin, Trump’s Environmental Protection Administrator, hires compliance managers who disbelieve in making businesses follow environmental standards on clean air and water. I do not know for a fact that Zeldin has done this yet, but it seems plausible that, over the next three years (and he could have seven years), he will do a thorough job of hiring fundamentally anti-EPA managers. I see no way to push the Trumpy managers to retire – if they do have enough years in to retire – where they will be quiet about it.
Maybe, if Trump 47 is the last MAGA term, EPA will still mostly be staffed by old-time pro-environmental employees, so that holdover Trumpy GS-15’s and senior executives will not be as big of a problem as I fear. Being optimistic, the biggest problem, with Trumpy managers, will be that they take paychecks while doing little work. But why be optimistic?
Well, Zeldin will go, and in Civil service most managers are either hired from within, or are appointed, and the appointed ones can also go. trump wants to toss the Civil Service system, thereby, ipso facto- sane people should want to save it.
I mostly agree with the OP. Firing the vaccine people is absolutely necessary. I would replace Trump’s portrait by a $Trump coin. But I think it is worth making the point that if you start naming commissions and buildings after yourself, this will last only until the next change of president and not worth the effort. Also get rid of all the gold trim. And charge Hegseth with murder.