Many Dems are still wringing their hands about “what’s wrong with us???” and walking around in their hairshirts like a bunch of sad sacks and it’s driving me crazy. They lost by 1.4% last November and the GOP has one of the smallest congressional margins in history. Yes, they lost and that’s hard but at a time when Trump’s approval is sinking into the 30s and the economy is about to go belly-up under his watch, internecine slap fights are truly beside the point. Yes, move forward, empower the new generation, put together a compelling agenda — of course. That’s basic party politics. But this endless self-flagellation when you have the other side on the run is just inexplicable to me.
We are facing a fascist takeover! Snap out of it and build the resistance!
Anyway, that’s just me. Over at the Bulwark, there has been some interesting discussion by the Never Trumpers about what the Dems should do and they have differing views on this as well. Some think it’s healthy and good to have the liberals and moderates out there sparring to show the people that within the Democratic Big Tent there are people like themselves. I can see that.
And they also think that the Democrats have to sort of rise above the atrocities of today to offer a compelling vision of the future which sounds to me like some kind of fever dream considering where we are today.
I come down on the side of JV Last on this one. He thinks unified resistance is the way:
Look, a party brand built around a coherent and compelling vision for the future is absolutely one way to win power. But it’s not the only way.
So let me lay out an alternative theory: Democrats don’t need to rebrand the party; they need to totally disqualify the Republican party while being ambiguous about what they stand for so that a broad array of voters can project their preferences on to them.
And any national Democrat trying to do intraparty wrangling right now is committing political malpractice. Because the only story that matters is how Trump Republicans are destroying the economy and the rule of law.
Indeed. He further writes:
Late last week Sen. Slotkin did a big public rollout of her campaign to purge the Democratic party of being “weak and woke.” This involved her cursing (to show how strong she is) and criticizing Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for their “oligarchy” organizing tour.
Also late last week: The director of the Port of Los Angeles warned that in two weeks the number of inbound containers being processed at the busiest facility in America will drop by 35 percent. “Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,” he reported. “And cargo coming out of Southeast Asia locations is much softer than normal.”
You can see this wave of declines coming by watching container ship departures from Asia, which are moving toward pandemic levels.
Last suggests that instead of railing against fellow Democrats, Slotkin should have gone to the port of Long Beach and stood in front of the empty containers to give her speech which illustrates for everyone, “Trump did this.” That is more powerful than any words she could say in this particular moment. (I’ve written about the consequences we can expect from these tariffs and it’s very bad. As Josh Marshall said, “it’s going to be a long hot tariff summer.” The Democrats need to be foreshadowing this right now.)
Last details the various approaches of the last 24 years of presidential campaigns and concludes:
Those are the last seven insurgent presidential campaigns and you can sort them, broadly, into two buckets: Coherent visions and oppositionism. The coherent vision campaigns went 2–1. The the oppositionist campaigns went 3–1.
Point is: You can do it both ways.
I would just add that one of the reasons for oppositionism in the current moment (as if the horrific Trump polls after only 100 days don’t make it clear) is that it’s vitally important that the American people fully and forcefully reject Trumpism and the authoritarian project of the Republican Party as soon as possible. This has been 10 years of hellish chaos fed by disinformation and propaganda and this may very well be the last chance we have to beat this back.
I’m heartened that so many independent voters are saying no to Trump and his agenda. There are even cracks in the GOP coalition starting to show in these polls. But it’s depressing that it takes an unabashed, open, flagrant move toward crude fascism to make it happen. It’s only because Trump is himself a demented old man suffering from grandiose delusions that we might have a chance to come back to something that resembles democracy.
If the Democrats are at all competent, they will have an agenda to do that ready to go and they will have prepared the American people for what it will take to do it. But we do not have the luxury of a circular firing squad right now. Slotkin can make all of her points without aiming at members of the party who are necessary to motivate to win and neither do we need prominent progressive Democrats to be giving interviews saying that the party “lacks vision for the future.” All that may be true but this moment is about survival. It’s like talking about what color you want to paint the wall when you rebuild while you’re still rescuing your dogs and putting out the fire. Yes, they need to have their agenda at the ready (maybe it’s “Abundance”) but everyone needs to pull together in this moment to douse the fire of fascism.
After seeing the polls this week, I think this may be what will inspire and motivate the entire coalition, woke, non-woke,economic determinist and Trump antagonist alike:
Pritzker: It’s time for us to be done with optimism about their motives. Time to stop wondering if you can trust the nuclear codes to people who don’t know how to organize a group chat. It’s time to stop ignoring the hypocrisy in wearing a big gold cross while announcing the… pic.twitter.com/Szt6GcaqZ1
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 28, 2025
It’s time for us to be done with optimism about their motives. Time to stop wondering if you can trust the nuclear codes to people who don’t know how to organize a group chat. It’s time to stop ignoring the hypocrisy in wearing a big gold cross while announcing the defunding of children’s cancer research… Autistic kids and adults who are loving contributors to our society don’t deserve to be stigmatized by a weird nepo baby who once stashed a dead bear in his car. Our military service members don’t deserve to be told by a washed-up Fox TV commentator, who drank too much before being appointed Secretary of Defense, that they can’t serve their country simply because they are Black, gay, or a woman.
Your mileage may vary on this but wherever we end up I hope the Democrats don’t do what the German center and left did in 1932 and focus so much on fighting among themselves that they didn’t fight the real fight. Trump is weak and stupid and MAGA is a cult of personality that is morphing into a fascist movement — but it can be stopped.