The current administration is undertaking a full court press for retribution against perceived enemies, and to disrupt critical government functions. DNC is sitting on its hands as far as I can see. Why are they not organizing federal employees who are being targeted? Why are they not setting up a structure to facilitate court challenges? Why are they not systematically bringing pressure against senators who support incompetent nominees ? Everywhere we see a highly effective systematic effort by the administration to effect a blitzkrieg approach to disruption. Nothing effective atall is coming from Dems.
The DNC is responsible for articulating and promoting the Democratic platform and coordinating party organizational activity. In particular, it organizes and calls for the Democratic National Convention held every four years to nominate candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, and is subsequently responsible for the Presidential campaign. The DNC is more focused on campaign and organizational strategy than public policy. According to Boris Heersink, “political scientists have traditionally described the parties’ national committees as inconsequential but impartial service providers.”
With people like Elon Musk and Nicole Shanahan vowing to personally fund primary challengers to take out … pretty much anybody they don’t like (ie, who aren’t unalloyed MAGA loyalists), it’s something of a Profiles in Cowardice moment in history right now.
We need principled people with no long-term political ambitions.
But this is precisely the problem. Democrats do not seem to have anything organized to handle this. Legislators are apparently too busy fundraising to be bothered with taking effective action. Who is able to organize lawyers, raise funds, coordinate public effective public demonstrations? The democrat’s national organization is not suited to the task? Then who is? ACLU? NAACP? Who is our answer to the Donald? Who in the democratic universe can speak effectively and lay out unorthodox approaches? What is our answer to X and Facebook and Truth Social? Damn it, we are being caught flat footed on every front.
Who is brave enough to face the extremely severe consequences organizing a resistance will earn? We’re talking prison time or worse here. They will almost certainly be declared an enemy of the state or terrorist.
Yep. Somehow in the 2016 elections the idea got out that the DNC (or the RNC) is very powerful, that they decide who is gonna be the new candidate for president, etc. They dont.
Has anybody done anything about the clearly illegal dismissal of IGs? If someone has, I’d like to hear about it. A judge blocked the birthright citizenship thing, and the funding thing, so why not this?
Timothy Snyder published a biting article today in his Substack. (As with all Substacks, paid subscriptions are sought, but you can still read it even without paying. I entered an email and it was well worth that ‘price’.)
Here’s part of the article in which he talks about what people—starting with organized Democrats—can and should be doing:
The entire article is just stunning in its refusal to be mealy-mouthed. For example, he describes Musk and Thiel and fellow tech-bros this way:
For the Democrats, the idea he mentions of a shadow-Cabinet has been embraced by several well-known anti-fascism figures. I can’t think of a single reason why Schumer and Jeffries (if not the DNC) shouldn’t do this.
(All bolding within the quotes is mine.)
The move has also met with denunciation from members of Congress and others as an attempt by Trump to avoid scrutiny and accountability as he seeks to remake the federal government in support of a corporate, anti-regulatory agenda while cutting support for the poor and vulnerable…Eisen said he expected Trump’s move to be challenged in the courts in line with lawsuits against “other initial, unlawful actions since he assumed the presidency” such as his order attempting to overturn the constitutional protection of birthright citizenship.
The watchdog group Public Citizen said that the removal of the independent inspectors was part of the Project 2025 plan for a rightwing authoritarian takeover of all aspects of government.
So people are convinced nobody on the Democratic side is doing anything, but someone brought those lawsuits and someone else stood up to be named plaintiff(s) in those suits.
That is hardly enough. Remember the pink p$$$y hats and the protests around the abortion decision? Remember the demonstration on the Mall when tRump got his first term? Those were attention-getters. Personally I think we need to have that sort of thing across the country every weekend. Not disparaging the attempt for this Wednesday, but we need more protests, louder protests, and constant protests. It won’t change the administration’s mind, but will scare the pants off the congresscowards who have to run in the mid-term. Logic and ethics won’t motivate legislators, but fear of losing their seats will.
Here’s a list of the lawsuits against Trump’s executive orders.
24 lawsuits, not just a couple. Two brought by the Attorneys General of 22 states and the District of Columbia, which sounds like coordinated political action to me.
Dems in Congress are near a majority, and can definitely block things that require a supermajority (constitutional amendments, filibuster in Senate). But otherwise they haven’t got leverage to shape legislation until there’s a bill (1) the majority of GOP members want AND (2) some GOP members aren’t playing ball with GOP leadership.
The Democratic party doesn’t have a single leader, after the last election where our presidential candidate lost. How would we pick a leader before the 2028 primaries?
Plus, do we really want one leader who’ll just end up the Emmanuel Goldstein-esque focus of Trumpian anger and MAGA stochastic violence? Or should each issue be fought by those who know it best – immigration advocates, civil service unions, physicians, climate scientists, etc. – with some coordination at the level of legal representation? Bottom-up, with financial and legal assistance, rather than top-down.
…
In a new “Dear Colleague” letter revealed on Monday, Jeffries outlined the House Democratic strategy, which also targets tech billionaire Elon Musk’s reported seizure of the Treasury Department’s payment system, and with it the spending mechanism of the entire federal government.
“I have made clear to House Republican leadership that any effort to steal taxpayer money from the American people, end Medicaid as we know it or defund programs important to everyday Americans, as contemplated by the illegal White House Office of Management and Budget order, must be choked off in the upcoming government spending bill, if not sooner,” said Jeffries.
…
I really think he does not understand a few key things.
And? If you could prove that once the coup is legalized, the justices will be not only no longer needed, but quickly and activeky discarded- then he would have a point. All he is saying ‘They will do the thing they want to do. They will then be unemployed and without any special political power’. Trump clearly cares only about himself. Is there evidence that the justices care more about their own personal power than in doing what ever Trump wants?
I think they already know that. They are betting not on having roles that are necessary, or even have actual power and responsibility, they are betting that once the Oligarchy comes to pass they will be rewarded with money and prestige. If you can prove that will not happen, then they might listen to you. Maybe.
They have known for a long time now. They support Trump and the coming oligarchy.
Again, they know this. Musk and others count on being among the few companies. Without all the laws about minimum wage, monopoly, etc will be gone. They can grow ever richer doing worse and worse things, This is what they want. If you could convince Musk and the rest that they will not be among the lucky few, then they might listen. Maybe.
That’s debatable.
What effect did they have? The decision was not reversed. Trump ran again, was the Republican party nominee again, and won the popular vote.
Why? They know how the last few elections turned out. My family is in Florida. They have attended protests of DeSantis since he was first elected. If Desantis ever changed any of his positions even slightly as a result, I missed it. Instead he did wonderful things like the ‘don’t say gay’ law. He spewed hatred and bigotry. Florida voters made it clear that is what they wanted. So, either Republicans officials run on ‘I support Trump and his hatred!’ and can count on being re elected or they can change their positions, lose their base, and lose the primary to a candidate who will support Trump and is funded by Musk.
Yep. What happened to the Republican officials who dared speak against Trump? That is a sure way to losing your seat.
The Republicans have a trifecta. They own this. The Dems lack power. Calls for the Dems to do something are exercises in bloviation.
Should the Democrats cooperate with the Republicans in say, lifting the debt ceiling? Sure. Provided the Dems get a seat at the table. The minimum ask is that the law breaking stops. Otherwise raising the debt ceiling is a Republican problem. They own it. This is not a big ask (though enforcing the agreement will involve some detail).
Mitch McConnell was the architect of obstruction. He’s done all the research. Those tools and precedents can now be used to force the Executive branch to obey the goddamn law.
As I tried to explain a couple days ago, fundamentally Democrats are now heading into a titanic battle over public opinion that will take months if not years. That’s what this will finally come down to. But this is, I’m pretty certain, where to start. No help until the law breaking stops and Musk’s toadies get their hands off everyone’s money. And if Republicans ignore the demand? Fine. No help. Good luck with your budget and the debt ceiling.
As for framing:
This isn’t a hard message. Get your hands off my parents’ Social Security checks and stop looking at their financial data. No help on anything until the law breaking stops. Period. No debt ceiling help. No budget help. And remember — Democrats can grind the Senate to a halt at any time by refusing unanimous consent to new business. No help on anything until the law breaking stops, and hands off the parents’ Social Security checks. Or yours. That’s a strong message.
Oh yeah. The Trump admin is going to war against the civil service. You know, the gang with experience and competence. That won’t end well. Democratic reps should get on TV and predict the disaster that is unfolding. It’s only week 2: there’s a lot of ruin ahead of us.
The Civil Service is pissed. Ezra Klein quotes a reddit thread:
There is a subreddit for federal employees where one of the top posts reads: “This non ‘buyout’ really seems to have backfired. I’ll be honest, before that email went out, I was looking for any way to get out of this fresh hell. But now I am fired up to make these goons as frustrated as possible.” As I write this, it’s been upvoted more than 39,000 times and civil servant after civil servant is echoing the initial sentiment.
At least one Democrat seems to be taking a stand, and ASAID is important enough to warrant blocking the appointments. I don’t know much about Brian Schwartz, but this is an excellent idea and I hope it’s effective.